Cables & Accessories

Scottish company Atlas Cables now employs solid core OCC copper conductors in its Hyper sc USB cable to minimise attenuation, energy dissipation and conductivity issues associated with such cables and deliver consistent performance across all lengths. The Hyper sc USB uses matched twist ratios for the data pair to minimise intra-pair skew effects, which can be detrimental to the signal. Atlas also employs matched pairs of cables whose lengths have been controlled to maintain uniformity.

The company has a triple shielding technique that isolates the differential data, power and ground conductors from each other to minimise capacitance and limit crosstalk. There is an integral shield around the entire cable to help reject jitter and external noise resulting from the effects of low-level RFI and EMI on digital audio signals, which the company considers can degrade perceived dynamic range and add a ‘digital glare’ to the sound of the system.

Sound quality
This is a very well-made cable with good quality connectors. I connect the ‘B’ USB plug to a Furutech ADL Stratos DAC and the ‘A’ plug to a PC. I first select a 16-bit/44kHz WAV file of Easy Living by Archie Shepp and Mal Waldron. Shepp’s sax sounds startlingly real in my room and Waldron’s piano has great presence when it takes over the melody. The balance of the two instruments is spot on and, in particular, the top end is clear without sounding harsh in any way, which perfectly demonstrates how well the digital audio signal is conveyed by the Hyper sc cable.

A 24-bit/192kHz recording of Mendelssohn’s Octet performed by The Locrian Ensemble sounds absolutely superb. Each of the individual instruments clearly occupies its own position within the broad soundstage, which is as wide as it is deep. There is an impressive dynamic range throughout and the complexities of the individual instruments are beautifully delivered to my audio system.

This is an excellent and well-made USB cable that is ideal for use in any high-end audio system. NR    

DETAILS
Product: Atlas Cables Hyper sc
Type: USB A-B cable