Double Links, One Music – Acoustic Revive USB-2.0PL TripleC USB Cable
Acoustic Revive USB-2.0PL TripleC USB Cable is a $840 USD per meter USB Cable for audio systems, with the central conductor made of a Triple-C Copper at the core. Today we will review the new Acoustic Revive USB-2.0PL Triple-C USB Cable and see how it works for our test systems.
Introduction
Acoustic Revive is a Japanese company founded in 1997, which specializes in interconnect cables, vibration isolation, and offers products based on research at the University of Tokyo.
MuSon Project and Acoustic Revive have provided the sample for this review, in exchange for my honest opinion.
Product Link
Official Link – https://acousticrevive.jp/
Build Quality/Aesthetics/Fit/Comfort
Whether you believe that an upgrade in the USB cable can result in a solid upgrade for the actual sound of your system depends on both your own personal bias, and also on the design and components of your system. This is so because some components are far more sensitive to the quality of the USB cable than others, including how good the isolation of the USB port is, and how much interference you have in your room.
By design, most USB cables run both the data line and the power line inside of the same cable, along each other. This can cause pretty heavy interference, and signal and power separation is not a new principle for audiophiles, and has been noted to improve the sound for music systems by most listeners. This being said, most systems that do this separation require you to use two separate cables that occupy two separate ports. As all USB cables need both the power line and the signal line, and as it has been proven that running the two in close proximity to each other can introduce distortion into each other, using an actual separation of the two cables results in a much improved sound.
To further improve the sound of USB cables, Acoustic Revive relies on using a new type of copper, named the TripleC copper. The full official name of tripleC is Pure Copper Continuous Crystal Construction, and this material is obtained through a process of forging, where the conductor is struck, allowing for an improved angle and direction, and as the process has some resemblance of how Japanese Katanas are forged, older Acoustic Revive ads would use a katana blade in them.
We get a cable that has a solid-core wire with a Teflon dielectric, and a full copper foil shielding, offering 100% coverage. The outermost part of the cable uses a carbon SF tube, designed to dampen the noise generated by the cable and to prevent external noise entering the cable having an anti-static effect on the cable. We also see gold plating on the plugs of the cable, and we also see USB case plugs made of Aluminum Alloy 2017S, with the connector being soldered and not molded, to offer the best vibration isolation and ensure the highest sonic quality.
Sound Quality
Pairings – To test the Acoustic Revive USB2.0PL TripleC cable, I have used it in between my PC computer and a couple of USB DACs, including Rose Technics RT-5000, SMSL DO400, HIFIMAN EF600, Musician Pegasus R2R DAC, and HIFIMAN Sereande. Most of those DACs do not have any kind of galvanic isolation and are quite sensitive to the quality of the USB signal they receive, although I also tested the USB 2.0-PL Triple-C cable with some DACs that have a good galvanic isolation and which are not sensitive to the quality of the cable, including Aune S9c PRO, and JDS Labs EL DAC II Balanced.
Overall Signature – In general, the DACs that are more sensitive to the quality of the USB input, like HIFIMAN Serenade, HIFIMAN EF400 and HIFIMAN EF600 will show a sudden and quite noticeable improvement in the background noise level, including for example, when they are used as DACs for a stereo system, in how quiet the background hissing gets when using the USB-2.0PL . This results in an audible boost in the sonic quality for music, including better layering and better separation between instruments, but this effect is not consistent across all DACs, and each shows a different degree of improvement.
You will notice that the technical performance will improve, but the tuning and signature will not change one bit, so you can get exactly the same signature and sound but with a better resolution, you hear more information as less of it is hidden by the background noise and distortion, you can generally bring your system to a louder volume, and I noticed this effect both for using those DACs as the main DAC piece for a stereo system, but also when using them to drive headphones. In fact, the effect is a bit larger with headphones and especially IEMS, and while using a better USB cable will not eliminate the hiss produced by a high output impedance with low-impedance IEMs, it can considerably reduce the noise level that is caused by a noisy computer.
Unfortunately there are so many things that produce noise, interference, and which affect the listening experience, that for example, you can use the Acoustic Revive USB-2.0PL TripleC USB cable, then add the Acoustic Revive RUT-1K USB Filter, and even add the JDS Labs Synapse in the same setup, and each one of them will still slightly increase the sonic quality, and basically every single component can improve the sound.
Technically, a cable with better isolation will also shows a higher level of improvement when you’re using it in an environment with a lot of interference, so you can expect the Acoustic Revive USB-2.0PL Triple C so do far more wonders in my home, where I have the entire room full of devices that produce electromagnetic fields, including a computer, multiple speakers, multiple headphones, multiple DACs, AMPs, Streamers, cameras, batteries, a ton of wireless devices, DAPs, phones, and my environment is basically the noisiest it can get.
The uplift in resolution and noise removal I am noticing is quite large, and that’s also because the cable travels behind my large monitor and on top of my computer, and even on top of my router, where there are multiple fans and other electronic devices tha create this interference. The more interference your system has, the more effective using a high-end USB cable with separate data and power lines will be.
Value and Conclusion
As with most cables, the value is debatable and depends heavily on the system you’re testing the product on, how sensitive that system is to changes in the cables, and generally high-end cables are not the first components of your system that you should upgrade, but can bring a nice refinement of your listening setup for a small price.
At the end of the day, although there’s more talk of the technical way that a product like Acoustic Revive USB-2.0PL Triple-C cable works, and although the results are mixed, I noticed only positive results, and if you’re running a high-end audio system in an environment with strong interference and if you want to squeeze all the performance you could out of that system, I fully recommend this cable.
PROs
- Solid produced backed by the research done at University of Tokyo
- Flexible and practical
- Looks very nice
- Audible improvements with most of the DACs I tested the USB-2.0PL TripleC Cable
Cons
- One of the most expensive USB cables available on the market that we’ve tested
- Some DACs are far less sensitive to this upgrade than others
Product Link
Official Link – https://acousticrevive.jp/
--- Please remember to stay safe, and always have fun while listening to music!---
- If you have a dime to spare, please donate, and help us! It would make the day brighter for me and my wife-
Full Playlist used for this review
We listened to more songs than those named in this playlist, but those are excellent for identifying a sonic signature. I recommend trying most of the songs from this playlist, especially if you’re searching for new music! The playlists are different for Spotify, Tidal and Youtube, and based on the songs I enjoy and are available on each!
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_cjBXGmwSHSdGcwuc_bKbBDGHL4QvYBu
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5J3oloz8Riy9LxEGenOjQ0?si=979ba4f082414be7
https://tidal.com/browse/playlist/330fd544-8e5b-4839-bd35-676b2edbb3d5
--- Contact Us ---
