News $500 Audiophile SATA SSD Cable With Superstar Crystals Listed

[Admin]

This $500 Superstar Crystal SATA cable features a 25mm woven metal sleeve, a secret filler formula, and claims to offer the “best computer Hi-Fi” quality.

$500 Audiophile SATA SSD Cable With Superstar Crystals Listed : Read more

 

[bit_user]

Part of me feels like anyone who buys this deserves to get ripped off. However, I still can't feel comfortable with such rip-off products being marketed and sold. Not that I'm calling for regulation or anything, it just kinda makes me sad.

If you want to spend money on cosmetics, I can understand that. But I can objectively say this is ugly as... well.

 

[AgentBirdnest]

I seriously want this thing... just as a decorative piece. I like the creativity of it. : D
I worked in a bakery, and the "wood stoppers" with crystal sprinkles rival the beauty of what our professional cake decorators could make on a full-size 12" Oreo cake.
This thing looks like something I would have built the first time I took Klonopin.

 

[kaalus]

Homeopathy for the computer nerd.

 

[bit_user]

I seriously want this thing... just as a decorative piece. I like the creativity of it. : D

I'm sure you can make your own for a lot less money. Seriously, you could just thread a regular SATA cable through a larger jacket, put two blobs of epoxy or silicone on the ends, and then coat them in whatever you want.

 

[RichardtST]

Wait. What? Is it April 1st already? How did I miss March? I'm so confused....

 

[InvalidError]

I'm sure you can make your own for a lot less money.

I'd be content with a standard off-the-shelf ~$8 twinaxial SATA3 cable.

Shielded differential cables are practically the norm these days with all modern high-speed interfaces. There is nothing to be gained from adding extra crap on top... especially if you leave half the cable unshielded by your extra quartz, braided steel hose and whatever else.

 

[doughillman]

Homeopathy for the computer nerd.

No, homeopathy for the "audiophile."

Just like basically every other product aimed at the "audiophile."

A computer nerd knows that this is <Mod Edit>. An "audiophile" buys into every snake oil device they can so they can seem more hard-core and be more pretentious.

 

[bit_user]

I'd be content with a standard off-the-shelf ~$8 twinaxial SATA3 cable.

Shielded differential cables are practically the norm these days with all modern high-speed interfaces. There is nothing to be gained from adding extra crap on top... especially if you leave half the cable unshielded by your extra quartz, braided steel hose and whatever else.

I was talking purely about aesthetics, as that's what seemed to interest @AgentBirdnest .

SATA has a CRC mechanism for detecting bad SATA connections. If your PC isn't logging SATA errors, then you don't need to worry about the cables. If it is, then try reconnecting, rerouting, and then replacing the cables (i.e. with mass market ones) until the errors no longer occur. Check that the connectors aren't dirty, as well. I always clean with compressed air, before connecting to any connector that might have a significant amount of dust on/in it. Worst case, the errors could be coming from the drive's electronics or on the motherboard.

There's never a reason to buy "audiophile" computer cables. Computers are designed to work without errors. As long as that's true, more expensive digital cables aren't adding any value. The only place component quality can normally affect your audio is in the analog domain.

The most important component is going to be where the DACs and amps are (i.e. sound cards or USB sound devices) and the transducers you're using (i.e. headphones or speakers). Bluetooth or USB headphones and speakers have the DAC, amp, and transducers integrated into one unit, which there are both benefits and drawbacks to doing.

For audio components, the best value is typically in the "Pro" market. More expensive than cheap consumer stuff, but typically well-built and lasts forever. Don't go down the rabbit hole of trying to find components that "color" the sound in one way or another. Well-engineered audio equipment is neutral, and then you can use EQ or other processors if you want. Where I could give a little ground, on this last point, is speakers. Building perfectly neutral speakers isn't easy, but it's gotten a lot easier than it used to be, especially if they're powered speakers and ideally have a digital input, as that lets you do digital-domain crossovers and EQ.

 

[Friesiansam]

Owing to an interest in HiFi, I frequent another Future Publishing site, WhatHiFi. The amount of ridiculous "audiophile" products, that do nothing other than fleece the wealthy and gullible out of their money, beggars belief.

 

[Megangel1]

I was talking purely about aesthetics, as that's what seemed to interest @AgentBirdnest .

BTW, SATA has a CRC mechanism for detecting bad SATA connections. If your PC isn't logging SATA errors, then you don't need to worry about the cables. If it is, then try reconnecting, rerouting, and then replacing the cables (i.e. with mass market ones) until the errors no longer occur. Check that the connectors aren't dirty, as well. I always clean with compressed air, before connecting to any connector that might have a significant amount of dust on/in it. Worst case, the errors could be coming from the drive's electronics or on the motherboard.

There's never a reason to buy "audiophile" computer cables. Computers are designed to work without errors. As long as that's true, more expensive digital cables aren't adding any value. The only place component quality can normally affect your audio is in the analog domain.

The most important component is going to be where the DACs and amps are (i.e. sound cards or USB sound devices) and the transducers you're using (i.e. headphones or speakers). Bluetooth or USB headphones and speakers have the DAC, amp, and transducers integrated into one unit, which there are both benefits and drawbacks to doing.

For audio components, the best value is typically in the "Pro" market. More expensive than cheap consumer stuff, but typically well-built and lasts forever. Don't go down the rabbit hole of trying to find components that "color" the sound in one way or another. Well-engineered audio equipment is neutral, and then you can use EQ or other processors if you want.

Yeah but you want to remove all the outside EMI.
With this in mind I have a limited stock of audiophile high tech space grade aluminium foil shielding sheets for just $999.99.
Installation is easy, just wrap anything electrical or animal (including yourself, pc and monitor) in them completely and make sure there are no gaps or leads going in or out.

Sad thing is, I'm sure someone would buy one. Heck, I'll even sell Tom's Hardware one at half price for them to review, shipping included.
What do I call them you ask?
'Audiophile Space Blankets'

 

[bit_user]

Owing to an interest in HiFi, I frequent another Future Publishing site, WhatHiFi. The amount of ridiculous "audiophile" products, that do nothing other than fleece the wealthy and gullible out of their money, beggars belief.

In the past, I would sometimes flip through hi fi magazines just to look at the aesthetics and ogle at how bizarre and ostentatious some of the components look.

The last Hi Fi component I bought was a CD transport, more than 20 years ago. At the time, I had no way to get a bit-perfect signal off a CD to feed into my DAC, and instead of buying a player with a S/P-Dif out, I bought the transport because it had nice touches like lowering the volume during fast forward and rewind so the harsh crackling from skipping tracks wasn't so bad. It also advertised a 3-beam pickup to minimize errors when playing scratched or dirty disks. It was belt-driven, which seemed like a good idea, but I dusted it off and tried to use it 10 years ago and found the belt had dried out and it could no longer play discs. Well, at least I got it on sale.

 

[bit_user]

Yeah but you want to remove all the outside EMI.

That's only an issue for analog domain. The best solution to this is simply to have an outboard DAC, which could be USB-connected, Toslink or S/P-Dif.

However, sound cards can also do a reasonably good job at EMI shielding and isolation. Basically, if you can't hear crosstalk from your computer, then don't worry about it. If you want to know what computer crosstalk sounds like, I'm sure you can find samples on Youtube.

When I was learning to code on my old 386, I had a Sound Blaster Pro with pretty bad crosstalk. It was kinda fun to crank up the volume while my programs were executing and be able to hear the noises change depending on what the program was doing.

 

[bit_user]

While we're discussing this rubbish, AMD made some presentation on The Next Decade of Compute Efficiency at ISSCC. Actually, it was yesterday - but I didn't see it reported on this site (maybe they're too busy tormenting ChatGPT or MS Sydney?).

​

The AMD session goes from about 46:00 to 1:20:00.​

 

[kerberos_20]

meh its just copper, no optic fibers :/

 

[drivinfast247]

This makes the "0" rounder and the "1" straighter. Trust me, bro!

 

[domih]

The rich bits travelling through this cable are better handled. They arrive rested to their destination, being fresher, younger with higher potential than the poor bits on plebe cables. People always wrongly ignore the freshness of their bits. It is that simple and based on facts.

 

[Megangel1]

That's only an issue for analog domain. The best solution to this is simply to have an outboard DAC, which could be USB-connected, Toslink or S/P-Dif.

However, sound cards can also do a reasonably good job at EMI shielding and isolation. Basically, if you can't hear crosstalk from your computer, then don't worry about it. If you want to know what computer crosstalk sounds like, I'm sure you can find samples on Youtube.

When I was learning to code on my old 386, I had a Sound Blaster Pro with pretty bad crosstalk. It was kinda fun to crank up the volume while my programs were executing and be able to hear the noises change depending on what the program was doing.

I hope my heavy sarcasm didn't miss the mark ... if so I have a few for sale ;-)
and yes, I remember those, a blast from the past I had a SB in the mid 90's where even my mouse and graphics card caused interference!
Then there was the old mobile phones, I could tell mine was about to ring by the interference on my monitor. .. again early 1990s

Price reduction. ... $799.95

 

[helper800]

I got a small crate filled with approximately 800 sata cables. Wonder if I should just clean them up a bit, put a small pool noodle on them, call them HiFi and sell them for 50 dollars each on ebay?

 

[InvalidError]

SATA has a CRC mechanism for detecting bad SATA connections.

At high speeds (5+Gbps) and low signal swing (100-200mV), you still need some pretty good signal integrity to avoid CRC errors. My point was simply that most modern interfaces already call for shielded pairs of some description. Your included-with-budget-motherboard SATA cables may very well already be of some shielded variety.

 

[bit_user]

At high speeds (5+Gbps) and low signal swing (100-200mV), you still need some pretty good signal integrity to avoid CRC errors. My point was simply that most modern interfaces already call for shielded pairs of some description. Your included-with-budget-motherboard SATA cables may very well already be of some shielded variety.

My point was just that if you use decent quality SATA 3 cables, then the chance of errors is very minimal. For the paranoid, they can search out which logs these SATA errors show up in, and search those to be sure.

BTW, SAS doubled speeds yet again, and goes up to 12 Gbps. So, it's not as if SATA stopped at 6 Gbps because it ran out of gas. It stopped there because NVMe was a better technology.

 

[Fates_Demise]

Yea, the only benefit a nicer cable can bring is shielding and better transmission distance for long cable runs.
But in no way will they make the quality better for a digital signal. So a short .5m cable like this isn't likely to do anything.

 

[Ar558]

😆
This is the biggest pile on nonsense in history, $500 for a $5 cable. When will the audiophile wannabe's understand that digital signals are either there or not, this couldn't help even theoretically.
I love the claim that you don't even have to plug in both ends for it to work!
I'm sure they'll find a few idiots who will buy it and claim they can here the difference as is always the cause for audiophile stuff, it's always a game of one-upmanship and always uses technologically and scientifically impossible claims!

 

[InvalidError]

BTW, SAS doubled speeds yet again, and goes up to 12 Gbps. So, it's not as if SATA stopped at 6 Gbps because it ran out of gas. It stopped there because NVMe was a better technology.

Since NVMe makes little to no difference for everyday uses and consumes 4X as many chipset/CPU lanes per device while doing so, I don't consider NVMe superior. Just a different interface for similar though also quite different purposes - NVMe for things where speed is prioritized over all else, SATA for expandability and affordable large-ish arrays. If SATA got a 12-16Gbps 4th-gen, even fewer people would have cared about NVMe. I wouldn't sacrifice 4xSATA ports for 1xNVMe slot.

To really call SATA's goose cooked, there needs to be a cabled NVMe 4.0/5.0x1 spec for budget-oriented storage arrays.

 

[ekio]

If it targets the same dumb "audiophiles" who claim that the best audio quality comes from vinyl, no * scammers are onto them...