AudioQuest Diamond USB 3.0 Micro

In many applications, the speed of digital communication is important. This is most obvious when you want to transport large files as quickly as possible, or when you want to watch large HD video files. In USB audio (and HDMI audio), speed is not only important to transport as much data as possible as quickly as possible, but even more so because the time relationship within a digital stream is incredibly important in order to be able to reconstruct the analog waveform that must convey all the information, the music and the pleasure we experience from it to our ears.

SOLID 100% PERFECT-SURFACE SILVER (PSS) CONDUCTORS: Perfect-Surface Technology applied to extreme-purity silver provides unprecedented clarity and dynamic contrast. Solid conductors eliminate strand-interaction distortion, a major source of cable distortion. Extremely pure Perfect-Surface Silver minimizes distortion caused by the grain boundaries that exist within any metal conductor, nearly eliminating harshness and greatly increasing clarity compared to OFHC, OCC, 8N and other coppers.

DIELECTRIC-BIAS SYSTEM (DBS, US Pat #s 7,126,055 & 7,872,195 B1): All insulation slows down the signal on the conductor inside. When insulation is unbiased, it slows down parts of the signal differently, a big problem for very time-sensitive multi-octave audio. AudioQuest's DBS creates a strong, stable electrostatic field which saturates and polarizes (organizes) the molecules of the insulation. This minimizes both energy storage in the insulation and the multiple nonlinear time-delays that occur. Sound appears from a surprisingly black background with unexpected detail and dynamic contrast. The DBS battery packs will last for years. A test button and LED allow for the occasional battery check.

HARD-CELL FOAM INSULATION: Hard-Cell Foam insulation is used exclusively in most of AudioQuest’s video and digital audio cables. Similar to Foamed-PE, it is nitrogen injected to create air pockets. “Hard” foam is used because the stiffness of the material allows the conductors in the cable to maintain the same relationship with each other along the entire length of the cable, thus ensuring that the characteristic impedance of the cable is consistent.

CARBON-BASED, 3-LAYER NOISE-DISSIPATION SYSTEM (NDS): 100% shield coverage is easy. Preventing captured RF Interference from modulating the equipment’s ground reference requires AQ’s Noise-Dissipation System. Metal and Carbon-Loaded synthetics prevent most RFI from reaching the equipment’s ground plane.

ASSEMBLY: The gold plated plugs are carefully assembled with the very best solder. The AQ solder is optimized by making the right choice of flux and metallurgy to make a connection with the least possible distortion. The differences you hear between different types of solder are the result of the quality of the connection made. AQ solder does not have a high silver content because as the silver content in the solder increases, it becomes increasingly difficult to make a good connection.

SUPERSPEED USB 3.0: Utilizes data transfer speeds of up to 4.8Gbps versus a maximum data transfer of 480Mbps for Hi-Speed USB 2.0.