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REVIEW: Wire World Platinum Starlight USB Cable

98.225.22.34


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Model: Platinum Starlight USB
Category: Cable
Suggested Retail Price: $600
Description: Premium USB cable
Manufacturer URL: Wire World
Model Picture: View

Review by jonbee on August 30, 2014 at 10:09:22
IP Address: 98.225.22.34
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for the Platinum Starlight USB


Since I built my music server 2 or 3 years ago I've tried a number of USB cables and am always struck by how much they affect the sound. I have two servers now; even though both my NAD M51 and Eastern Electric Minimax Plus DACs have asynch USB inouts, I found I prefer the sound using the Musical Fidelity VLink192 spdif converters, so the USB feeds the MF devices and AES/EBU cables feed the DACs.
Cheap give away cables sound gritty and flat, definitely inferior to the Sony 9100/modwright signature player I had been using.
Moving to an Audioquest Coffee was a definite step up, and the sound now matched or exceeded the Sony player. I replaced the Coffee with a Mapleshade USB, which surprised me with a nice, smooth, non-digital sound that I liked very well. More recently, a Black Cat Silverstar USB also gave me the smooth sound I liked, but with more extension on the extremes. The result was a very high quality sound, but I noted that my system still lacked the ambience and spaciousness that I was hearing from really good vinyl setups.
I got a good deal on a Wireworld Platinum Starlight (aka Platinum Starlight 6) cable, and with that the ambience, separation and "blackness" between the instruments improved greatly. The images opened up and spread out wide and deep from my Daedalus DA-RMA V2 speakers. It was exactly what I felt I was missing. The Wireworld was just much more 3-d and the sense of space is greatly enhanced. In my system I'm feeling that I'm finally hearing what the recordings offer. It does not sound quite "like" vinyl, but I'm now feeling that I'm not missing some important musical information.
Much more $ than the others (of course!), but now that I've heard how a really good USB cable compares in my system, there's no going back for me. Are there better cables out there? I suppose so, but I'm very pleased with what I'm hearing.


Product Weakness: A bit stiff, not exactly cheap.
Product Strengths: Huge, open and airy soundstage, very detailed yet naturally smooth


Associated Equipment for this Review:

Amplifier: Hypex N-Core NC-400
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated): NAD M51 pre/DAC
Sources (CDP/Turntable): Windows 7 Server/ Jriver 19
Speakers: Daedalus DA-RMA v2
Cables/Interconnects: Wireworld/Wywires/ZenWave
Music Used (Genre/Selections): lots
Room Size (LxWxH): 17 x 20 x 8
Room Comments/Treatments: eats bass, bu otherwise good
Time Period/Length of Audition: 1 week
Other (Power Conditioner etc.): PS Audio PPP, Uberbuss
Type of Audition/Review: Product Owner




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Topic - REVIEW: Wire World Platinum Starlight USB Cable - jonbee 10:09:21 08/30/14 ( 17)