Curious usb cables - Testimonials from around the world.

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Let  me share with you my thoughts on your cable so far.  This is compared  to the Audioquest Coffee, Audioquest Diamond, Furutech GT2, Wywires, and  Dynamic Designs in my personal system:

The  very first impression, fresh out of the box (by the way, excellent  presentation with the box...very nice opening experience!), was that  this cable has a fuller, darker and richer musical perspective than any  of the USB cables I have on hand.  The weight of the music was the first  and foremost quality that I noticed.  In fact, with no hours on the  cable, I did feel the sound was closed in, but that changed quite a bit  with some decent hours on the cable.

With  more hours, the cable opened up to a beautiful bouquet of balance  between detail, resolution, tonality, texture, musical weight and  openness.  If a system is extremely resolving with reference quality  detail, I feel that your cable brings qualities to USB based audio that I  have simply not heard before from any USB cable.  The notion of weight,  texture and tone through your USB cable is more closer to the turntable  setup I have rather than any other digital cable I might have.  You  see, I did not ever think that a USB cable can bring these qualities to  the table as I thought the USB method of connection itself was flawed.   Your cable has proven otherwise.  It does not have the artificial  brightness masquerading as resolution.  It has very natural colors and  shadings of instruments with wonderful authority.  A sound has an  excellent transient development from beginning of the note, the middle  and then through to the decay.  Total naturalness.

In  my experience, the only other line of cables that have reminded me of  this full bodied texture and tone are cables from Harmonix Japan.  No  other cables, including my  reference Jorma cables (USD $15k for 2  meters!) have this level of weight inherent in the design.  But my  reference cables are so neutral that the let these qualities through.

Next,  typically, if a cable has qualities of warmth, weight and texture, they  tend to lose out on transient response.  NOT SO with your cable.  How  you are doing this, I do not know, but I can hear it and am quite taken  aback by this quality.  I look forward to hearing more of your work  Rob!  You have a winner here as far as USB cables go.  Bravo!

I've  put nearly 100 hours on two lengths of the Curious USB, 28 cm into the  Regen and 20 cm out of it, but it literally only took ten seconds to  know that this was a keeper. My former references, Lightspeed and  Revelation Audio, both in dual conduit versions, will now reside in my  secondary home office system.

"Revelation" is a word better  applied to the openness, expansiveness, clarity and purity of the  Curious USB and these characteristics just keep getting better. It's  tough to describe, but they simply deliver a more solid, stable,  three-dimensional image that I instantly fell for.

I know I'm on  to a good thing, when I find myself constantly revisiting old musical  favorites curious to hear how they will sound with Curious cables. And  that's exactly what I've been doing the past few days and what I will be  doing for the foreseeable future. 

To  say I was impressed with the Curious would be an understatement. Better  inner retrieval of detail, a more open spacious sound, smoother, but at  the same time I had more clarity in the sound. The individual  instruments are now easier to define & sound a lot more natural.   

This cable just makes my system sound right 

Finding  a quality USB cable to match the Chord HUGO had been a challenge as the  Hugo has a Micro-USB termination at the device end. The Vertere DFi is  good, but any other cable such as Lightspeed requires a USB-B:micro  adaptor; ugly and most of poor quality ($1.99 on eBay hardly marches a  $999.00 cable, creating a weakest link).

Enter Mr Woodland and the CURIOUS, with a custom short 0.3m MicroUSB tipped made just right for a Mac-HUGO connection.

The  fit is perfect, and the sound is magnificently transparent, life-like  and real. I also did the A-B between CURIOUS and the Vertere & the  Lightspeed, and IMHO the Curious is the better cable, with the most  “musical” sound overall. Full marks!

This is the best cable for a  Chord HUGO, which is a DAC that has sold an incredible number of units,  but needs a USB cable to match. The “Curious” it is! 

I  don’t need to listen critically to recognise a distinct improvement  over my existing Mapleshade USB cable. The USB runs between an Aurender  X100 server and a Luxman DAC-06. I like the complexity of percussive  rhythm in some African musics, and this makes the interweaving of  polyrhythms significantly easier to follow. After I’d paid I kicked  myself for letting myself be seduced into what was unlikely to make any  audible difference, so far as I could understand. Well, I un-kick  myself!  

What  The France?! I have no idea what kinda shit you smoked when you came up  with the idea of this cable, and I don't want to know, but please keep  smoking it. So I plugged in the cable and I feel like I have been  smokin' the same shit you have. 

From the first note of a virgin Curious  USB Cable I felt like I lost my audio virginity. The brick fireplace and  entire front wall my system sits proud of literally disappeared. Even  with my eyes wide open! I hope you smoke more of whatever it is you do  and come out with some azz kicken XLR interconnects. 

So besides my  health and the people I love and care for I am grateful today for Rob's  Curious USB Cable. And I have no doubt my beautiful wife will be  grateful when I am finally able to turn my system off for the night and  join her in marital bliss. Thank you Sir for a job well done. FYI: the  cables your cables are replacing are the top-o-the line Audioquest USB  cables.  

Thanks  again for sending the extra cable, it opened up the sound quite nicely  compared to the standard cable I had connected to the external  hard-disc.

I have been able to listen longer to both cables now and I  find the overall sound to be natural, open and well defined without  ever becoming edgy. There seems to be a nice balance between letting you  hear all the information and at the same time they never fatigue. 

I can  listen continuosly for lengthly periods of time due to a certain  smoothness they have but don't have the feeling they are "warm". Well  balanced is a good way to describe them I guess, you hear all the  information that comes across in a very natural and logical manner. 

Compared to the Audioquest Carbon I notice after several days (over 100 hours) of listening:

• A fuller bass
  
• Greater differentiation in the bass (I hear more clearly the difference between i.e. a contra bassoon and bass clarinet)
  
• Voices and instruments are more separated, but still ‘together’
  
• Singers are a step forward and therefore I can hear them more easily
  
• Better reproduction of the acoustics of the recording
  
• The soundstage is both broader and slightly deeper
  
• Less glare
  
• Less distortion
  
• Better flow of notes
  

The  above mentioned differences with the Audioquest Carbon are not night  and day but taken together significant and they enhance the enjoyment of  listening to my digital collection of over 6000 albums. I hear simply  more of what is recorded. 

Your  cable will definitely not be coming back to you. All other USB cables I  have tried (stock, gold plated, Purist, Furutech) there were tradeoffs  and subtle differences (my preference being the Purist - made nice with  vocals, but stifled highs) and to be honest the differences heard were  splitting hairs and had me doubting. 

 Not so with the Curious. The  improvement was jump out and grab you by the shirt noticeable. As  advertised the cable did bring the sound closer to analog sound. However  the most surprising impact is the depth of sound being layered front to  back. How this cable in the chain makes the front to back imaging  almost as clear as the left to right imaging I can't comprehend. I did  not even know digital could do this.

Excellent product, a true game changer. 

I  was particularly interested in the cable for the Chord Hugo due to the  cable using the micro usb end. This eliminated using an adapter, so I  placed an order for the cable. Upon hearing this cable in my system,  results? END GAME! 

Holy mother of pearl! The Soundstage depth, width,  left to right creates a Holy S*** moment, and I am truly done with my  system, it is now materializing a 3D soundstage of my dreams with all  the details floating before you. 

I Love the Chord Hugo and had it  modified by my friend putting in larger caps and proprietary application  of ERS which helped it further, but the one thing that still bothered  me with the Hugo was the body of vocals and instruments. They just did  not have the weight. This cable fixed that and was the finishing touch  for me and I am thankful for Rob’s creation 

I  just received your cables and paired with the Regen, it is excellent  even before any real burn-in.  More air and space.  Better fine detail.   It is better than my TotalDac USB cable.  I will be keeping it.

What  can I say?  The word "stunning" comes to mind, and I do not offer it  lightly.  The only cable that has ever made a similarly stark difference  in sound for me is the PS Audio AC-12 power cable which - running at  over €1,000 offers nothing like the same bang for my buck as your USB  cable.  For the last several months I had been agonising over whether I  should finally ditch the mac mini and go with a dedicated front end from  Aurender or Antipodes.  That may yet happen in the future, but the  addition of the Curious USB has certainly taken the urgency out of that  decision :-) 

Regarding  your cable, I must say that I am mightily impressed. It replaced my  Mapleshade USB cable that I hold in high regard. I consider my system to  be top shelf given the modest investment. It is dynamic, exciting,  quiet backgrounds, transparent, expressive, and subtle. I honestly did  not think improvement was possible. But your cable took a relatively  flat and lively image and added depth, clarity, micro-dynamics, a  broader tonal pallet, and fully fleshed out base. The change is far from  subtle. Well done!  

I  had never really considered that I needed anything better the a good  quality USB cable because from a technical point of view it’s all just  ones and zeroes right ? Then a friend of mine loaned me a Nordost Blue  Haven cable and this made a difference and was definitely better, I  spoke to Hugh Danvers Thomas about this and he said that I should try  “Curious USB” as he knew Rob and was sure that it would be much better  again. 

What a revelation ! Computer audio  went from something that I  would just play in the background to something totally engaging and  comparable with my CD Player. The Curious USB cable opened the sound  stage right up and breathed smoothness and detail into the music and  removed the digital glare at the same time, Rob has certainly got it  right with this cable. I would consider this cable a sound investment ,  and for the price I would challenge anyone to find a product that makes  such a dramatic improvement. 

 Well….my  Curious Regen USB cable arrived yesterday. I was hoping for, and  prepared for, a modest improvement over my Lightspeed USB cable which  had bested all other USB cables I’d tried. At a mere fraction of the  price, it would then represent a tremendous bargain and maximum bang for  the buck. 

WOW!!! The Curious cable, right out of the box, was  so obviously better, IN EVERY RESPECT, that any comparison is moot and  nearly useless.

Timbre, transparency, resolution, 3-D  holography, tonal accuracy, bass extension, weight, impact, and  you-are-there palpability etc. etc. are in a completely different league  from any other USB cable in my experience. To borrow from Sam Tellig:  “There is simply more “there” there”.  

Well,  I got the curious regen link USB cable. Nothing remarkable through the  first night of listening.  But I ran music through it for 24 hours and  then sat down and listened again last night.  

Pretty much  everything that Rob the designer says, it will do.  Most notable is the  dimensionality of the soundstage.  I thought I had a big soundstage  going.  This increases it to a notable degree.  I did some A/B with the  hard connector from the regen to the DAC and without rushing to complete  the A/B; you could easily hear how the soundstage shrunk with the hard  connector. 

Smoother delivery, spot on tone, pretty much everything else he says.  Foot taping, front to back separation, all that. 

Thanks  for the quick service, the cables arrived on Monday. Everything that  has been written about your cable is true: huge sound stage, very good  detail and a non-digital feel. What I like most is the long decay of  notes and sounds, especially on solo-piano. Swapping the hard-link for  the Regen-link is a no-brainer, it is just very, very good. My previous  cable was an AudioQuest Cinnamon, not a bad cable at all. This is just a  whole lot better.

Thanks for more music! 

Put  another 24 hours on the Hugo link coming out of the Regen and its  amazing. I was never a true cable believer, but my system sounds  fantastic. Just listened to a DSF file of Muddy Waters, Folk Singer and  it was the most live performance in my living room I've ever  experienced. 

Please use my testimonial as a reference. I had an  Audioquest Diamond and sold it at a discount and still had money left  over after buying the Regen and Hugo link and the quality is no looking  back. The difference is really noticeable. Instruments sound like real  instruments and the dimensionality is every much what people describe.  

If anyone has a Hugo/Regen/Jitterbug chain in their computer audio  system, they will be more than pleased with your combination of cables.  Well done.  

I have acquired both the standard Curious usb for my Berkeley Alpha system running mac pro with audirvana version 2.2.5 and the micro version for Chord Mojo heaphone dac.

First  initial impressions in comparison to the list of well heeled usb cables  as listed above were of great inter note silence.  There was a certain  sure footedness that the Curious possessed way above the others, an  endearing virtue and much sought after.

Secondly a most profound lack of any sibilance and blurring of interleading notes in the music led to a far greater command of  my listening attention, thus we now step into the much sought after  analogue type of replay, which we have chased after in digital  reproduction for many years.

Thirdly the “prat” of the cable is exceptional and thus user enjoyment and involvement is heightened.

I  could go on and wax lyrical about this cable, it is way and far ahead  of everything else i have tried, a credit to Mr Woodland’s efforts

Last  week i received the Curious usb Regen Link and installed it between the  Uptone Regen and my iFi iLink (usb to SPDIF converter) as a replacement  for the Uptone supplied hard connector.

I  was planning to write a list of all the improvements from the Curious  usb Regen Link. But that list would become too long, because so many  Audiophile parameters are improved. So I only mention the things that  stand out the most to me :

• Free of noise and distortion, natural / real and peaceful with beautiful tone (colour).
  
• Great resolution, detail and openness; especially the lows and highs are wonderfully articulated.
  
• Music is fast, fluent and unfatiguing, it's undigital digital (the goods without the nasties).
  
• Clarity and timing are also great.
  
• All recordings sound good, there is very much diversity but everything is listenable and musical.
  
• Spaciousness and dimensionality are clearly better than before.
  

Before the Curious music from my Mac-mini already sounded better than music from the internal DP-400 CD player.

With  the Curious usb Regen Link music from my Mac-mini sounds way  better than music from the internal DP-400 CD player.

So, recommissioned the Bryston BDP-1, (purchased 2010) updated the firmware, sourced the NAS music files and……….wow! 

The  music has rhythm and pace, foot tapping and even got me a little  emotional. Cable has to be run in, of course, but compared to what I had  before, totally musical. I’ve been in this game since 1972 and I’ve  heard all and sundry but to get the timing right is crucial and your  cable finally seems to have achieved this.

Thanks so much for the painstaking research to produce a truly musical but transparent cable.

(Equipment is BDP-1, jitterbug, curious cable, Accuphase DC-37, C2420, DG-58, A-36, Larsen 8 speakers).

I  have had a good while to live with the cables and it just confirms what  I initially heard and the other reviews.  The clarity of tone, or  correctness of tone is a stand out, as well as the greater 3-dimensional  aspect of the sound.  This adds to the realistic felling of the music  and for sure the enjoyment.  This is the most analog sound I have been  able to achieve after going through several really good cables - and at a  great value.

Thanks again for the great product and service.

 About  3 weeks ago I got the Regen Link and I really liked it so I decided to  try the .8m usb which I received 2days ago, I've been playing since  then. Let me just say that it was the best audio upgrade I ever made for  my system. My kef ls 50 sounded never better until now. Your cables are  simply amazing in every aspect in audio quality. 

 I  am a true analogue man and put a lot of time, money and effort into the  turntable and record listening side of my musical enjoyment. So, I  ventured into digital (I call it computer music cause that's what it  essentially is) and bought a Burmester 113 DAC and an apple air laptop  and a cheap USB cable and gave it a whirl. Well, I was intrigued by how  good the sound of hi-res files was and thought that maybe a better XLR  interconnect between the DAC and preamp and a better USB cable would be  worthwhile. So I added a Nordost Valhalla balanced cable to the preamp  (and really noticed that difference) and then went for Audioquest's  highest level Diamond USB (some nearly 800 bucks of USB cable) I did  notice a real difference with the Diamond in the mix, but something was  still missing - that analogue depth, space and musicality!

So a  chance conversation with an old friend, Rob Woodland, brought me to his  Curious USB cable. I've known and trusted Rob for many years and when he  offered to send me his Curious USB cable for a no obligation trial I  said yes for course!  Well, when I inserted it between the apple USB  output to the input of the Burmester and played the hi-res file I was  just listening to through the Audioquest Diamond. I was taken aback -  all of a sudden the soundstage widened and opened up, the midrange was  smoother and more defined and the low end was more well-articulated and  overall the sound was just "nicer" and more musically involving.  

I  listened with this wonderful USB cable for about a week before  re-inserting the Audioquest Diamond USB and the soundstage went flat in  comparison, the quality of human vocals, both male and female was harder  and lacked the space around the vocals that the Curious had  demonstrated.

So I have since sold off the Audioquest and bought  Rob's wonderful Curious USB cable. I would highly recommend them to  anyone wanting to achieve more music and realism from their digital  system! 

I received your Curious Cable replacement for the solid link supplied by Uptone Audio for their REGEN device.

Literally  cold out of the box (long truck ride in wintery cold Montana) there was  no comparison -- the Curious Cable sounded much better than the REGEN's  solid link. Richer, more holographic, and most importantly, more  natural. 

A slight edge or hardness I had been hearing on some  recordings (and which was probably there even with recordings I thought  were excellent) is completely gone and I can honestly say this is the  best I've ever heard digital music sound in my home.

Thank you very much for such a great product at an affordable price. Very well done! 

 Rob, your cable is bloody awesome!! 
1. Holographic sound stage with genuine depth and layering: Freaky good! 
2. Clean, smooth(SO SMOOTH) and detailed sound: Hearing things I haven't heard before
3. Fleshed out, rounded vocals: Spooky good
4. Deep, extended low frequencies with excellent definition: Complete eye opener! Wow
5. Foot tapping involvement: That's the best part! 
6. A step up in realism: Sounds like the music is being played in my room!!  

Many thanks for your cable. It unveils the potential of my Chord Mojo. The Mojo sounds stunning with your cable.

Hey  Rob, just want to let u know I received the regen link, and  holly......how did u manage to come up with such a great USB cable!   It  is just so clearly superior to any other USB cables I tried, cheap or  expensive.......
The centre stage is more real , before it was vague.   Notes are palpable, and music all of sudden becomes music that I want  to keep listening instead of a sequence and mixture of frequencies!
And this is only 4 hours on it!
Man, this is really good deed you have done to the bunch of us who have suffered ever since the invention of USB DAC ! 

I  think that your Curious cables are the greatest value in audiophile USB  cables on the market. In comparison to one of my previous cables -- the  Light Harmonic Lightspeed USB -- your Curious is significantly better  at a third the price of the Lightspeed, and the Curious also bests the  Audience AU24 SE USB cable which received a glowing review from Robert  Hartley of The Absolute Sound and was until now my reference cable.   Remarkable performance. 

Thank  you for this fantastic product. I'm using in total three of your cables  in my system, two 200 mm for my hard drives and Regent link between   Regent,Audiophillio and Chord. I find this combination most analog  sounding, it is perfect. People should remember that for hirez comp  music best is to use softer sounding tube amp with vintage army tube  selection. 

Cables are as all reviews described, more dynamics, detail,  dimension soundstage, closeness to music and performer. It is funny but  adding this cables I compare to value of $ 10,000 or maybe $20,000  upgrade on speackers or amp. 

I think that your cables are the best usb  cables available on the market today in any price range. 

I  received my cable today. I have about six hours of burn in so far and I  had to write you. I have NEVER written any manufacturer to rave about  an audio product before. This little usb has changed my digital rig  significantly. I recently bought a Schiit Yggy and added a Wyred  Recovery. Sound was very good. But your Curious has added a new  dimension of focus, clarity and soundstage. 

Best money I have spent on  audio gear in a long time. Congratulations.  

The sound is amazing , so natural and real.  With detail and microdynamics very easy to hear.
Dynamic interplay shines, as opposed to most digital playback which has "Fast and Furious" monodynamics.

Emotion  coming through, with me getting shivers down my spine (it's been a long  time) when listening to "Oh Daddy"by Fleetwood Mac. 

Here's  to let you know the Regen Links finally arrived today! Thank you! 

First  impression: wow! Bigger, deeper soundstage,  instruments and vocals  have more weight and body, dynamics are improved and details are now  somehow more organically integrated in the whole musical picture (more  alive). And that is just after a couple of hours' listening. 

The most  important thing of all (and always the best sign for me): I just  couldn't tear myself away from my listening seat! All of the above in  comparison to an audioquest carbon usb cable.  

Having  connected my Regen link to my system I was shocked to hear such a  marked improvement in the sound heaven knows what it will sound like  when it is fully run in! I won't spend time in describing the difference  is sound as other posters have all ready done this. 

If you are market  for a USB cable then look no further. The cable arrived very quickly and  I was pleased to receive a personal email from Rob rather a generic  one. Saving now for a longer length cable to replace my Chord!

The  cable arrived and I listened to it well into the night last night…….all  I can say is THANK YOU for making such an incredible product!  Forget  break-in, this cable is a game-changer right out of the box!  

In a  sea of mis-information and false promises in the audio industry, it is  truly wonderful to see and hear a product do EXACTLY as advertised. 

The  soundstage, the realism, the immersion is truly remarkable.  I wasn’t  listening to a track, I was spending intimate time with the artist!

This  cable will no doubt be the topic of conversation at our next audio  society meeting.  We don’t discuss products as much as we discuss ways  to become more involved with music, and your cable does an incredible  job at accomplishing that.

Cables  have been in place now for well over 50hrs and are continuing to amaze  me with their relaxed presentation. The Wyred4Sound MS-2 > Curious  0.8m USB > W4S Recovery > Curious Regen Link USB > Devialet  D400 is a winning combination in my books. It replaces a 1.0m  Transparent Audio Premium USB link from my Music Server > D400 and  there is a marked improvement in the SQ. I am not the best at describing  differences in sound quality, but suffice to say that the Curious combo  makes for a more perceived (I don’t think its my ears) relaxed  listening experience.
 

I have tried the Curious 0.8m USB in  direct comparison with the Transparent USB and again there is a distinct  improvement with the Curious – less digital “grain”, smoother and more  relaxed.
 

Many thanks Rob for a very good product. 

I  inserted the Curious and I have been enjoying musik for several hours  now but it took only a few seconds to hear the difference.
Amazing...!

I'm not a native english speaker but I try to describe my impressions.
It  sounds very clear and natural easing the perception of dimension (width  and depth of soundstage as well as location of instruments and  musicians). It feels like removing a frame allowing the soundstage to  open up.

I can hear more details and improvement in fundamental tone  as well as overtone. So voices and instruments (and their individual  character) sound very "real". Better timing, improved transients and decay as well as impulsive energy (fast and textured bass) make the  sound more lifelike.

At the same time I noticed reduced harshness and reduced artificial glare leading to better perception of micro dynamics.

Altogether musical emotion is transported in a much better way.

I'm  writing to you today to report on my findings for the Curious USB 0.8m,  which replaces a Tellurium Q Black USB Cable. Comparisons are done by  auditory memory as I have since sold the TQ Black USB. The initial  listening was done right out of the box, and the subsequent listening  session was done after 40 hours of burn in using the burn in CD from  Tellurium Q.

I was expecting a great leap in SQ right out of the box,  as the USB3.0 Link and Recovery Link so awesomely demonstrated.  However, the Curious 0.8m failed to do so out of the box. Granted, bass  was slightly deeper, but the vocals and instrument positioning seemed  messy and unfocused. Layering was flatter and detail retrieval was, at  best, on par with the TQ Black. To be honest, I was slightly  disappointed and switched over to watching movies instead. 

After  40 hours of burn in, I was pleasantly surprised with the improvement the  Curious 0.8m made. Imaging was sharper and placement of instruments  seem to be on point. Detail retrieval seems to have stepped up a notch  and background seems to be darker. Sounded more 3D than right out of  box. I was happy to have given it a chance and not return it. A friend  of mine came over with his music server (Lumin D1) and did some  comparisons with my computer setup. While is was apparent that my  computer source still lost in terms of liquidity, layering (especially  on DSD playback) and depth, the gap between a high end music server and  consumer PC source closed considerably to the extend that I actually  preferred certain songs on my PC setup. 

The Curious USB did well in  besting the TQ Black USB, which IIRC, had won Product of the Year a  couple of years ago and was highly reviewed in some British Hi-Fi  publications. Of course, TQ has their Diamond range which is supposingly  on a different level altogether, but that range would cost well over a  thousand bucks, whereas the Curious 0.8m only costs $340, which, IMO,  presents a very value for money buy. Outstanding! 

I need to share with you my successful experience with this incredible and astonishing USB cable.

I  was not searching to replace my Totaldac USB cable, but reading on  internet, I come across some positive reports concerning this little  "piece of intellectual beauty".

A  little package arrived few days after the order (with a 30 day back  granted and return shipment fees included.)  I settled the cable and  started a 50 hours burn-in procedure during last week.

The  cable is ready now and What I'm currently listening to is something  totally new!! A large amount of details which apparently was missing or  not correctly emphasized, leading to a still more correct placement of  the instruments.

Tons  of harmonics around the instruments that make it even more real and  vivid.  Great detail and fluidity that allow a relaxed listening even at  high sound pressure levels.

BTW,  I think the USB cable, for a computer based system, has to be  considered as a "Cartridges" for analog, and as the latter, each USB  cable has its own specific "sound".  I still own other cables ( and  still I have ), just to name a few: Totaldac, Ridge Street design  Alethia, MIT....

But, in my system, Curious USB cable it is quite another league. 

Tuesday  November 8 - the cables in question were delivered, I made them burn  for about 70 hours and after I started my listening sessions. I state  that I own an audio system composed of Auralic Aries as digital server,  Schiit Audio Yggdrasil (in my opinion the best DAC on the market and  working at a very high level of resolution) as a DAC, Pass Labs X1 as a  preamplifier, Jungson JA-100 Luxury Edition as monophonic amplifiers and  Usher AC-10 as speakers. The signal and power cables are Air Cable top  of the range. So it is a very high resolution system. 

Before  you buy your cable I used a Audioquest Carbon from 0.75 meters to  connect the HD to Auralic and Black Cat Silverstar between Auralic and  Yggdrasil. 

Well,  all your cables have operated a Copernican revolution, I was virtually  deaf and blind and it's hard to put into words how it sounds now my  system, everything looks sharp and well defined before it was one in  grayscale display now is a big screen in technicolor, the sound that  first appeared dry now is liquid; tonal separation between the various  instruments is impressive, the bass have an indescribable definition and  depth and there is a live effect and a presence breathtaking, as far as  i can tell treble I've never heard anything so refined, the vocals are a  unique smoothness and beauty. The dynamics and especially the micro  dynamics is monstrous. 

And finally holography of the sound stage is  spectacular, before I had a flat and boring scene, now the musicians  have materialized in my listening room, you would not believe! Rob  you're too modest, in my opinion you are a true genius, all your cables  are beyond imagination. I'm not a fanatic, but only an audiophile  enthusiast who expected so much and got so much more.

The Planets have a great soundstage, but this was an obvious improvement, both clarifying and solidifying with the Curious.

I have an improved appreciation of these little speakers now!

These  have a great sense of space and separation from all sorts of listening  positions, Curious has anchored the presentation, I think by tightening the lower register and allowing the top to breathe.

It sounded like I had dropped in a better amp the improvement was to that degree.

The sound has more punch and is more forward together with the nice soundstage the enjoyment factor was there from the start.

The optical output was obviously not up to par compared to the Curious usb.

The discovery and discerning of different notes in perhaps a guitar solo or bass is a pleasant surprise.

Always pleasant when you hear new things in your favourites.

Previous  cables:AQ Cinnamon, Wireworld Starlight 7(AQ adapter, Nordost Purple  Flare). 

I bought this Mojo cable for a friend, but trying it in my  system I realised I had to order one for myself as well. 

It  took some 2-3 hours to start opening up but then I found myself being  touched by the music in a way I have never heard in my system. Cesaria  Evora´s Sodade nearly made my tears come. My previous Nordost Purple  Flare was without formal faults but I could never have expected what was  to open up with the Curious. 

It´s  like a new system, even my somewhat dull and clinically sounding Martin  Logans are playing music now. Rhythm, openness and a very touching  feeling.

Received  the cables here in the UK a couple of weeks after ordering. Plugged the  0.2m cord between the Mytek Brooklyn and the Wyred4Sound Recovery first  replacing the factory supplied cord. Instantly separation improved  especially percussion. On swapping my Chord cable between my modified  Mac mini and the the Brooklyn the separation took another jump upwards.  

The whole sound seemed to gel better - starting and stopping quicker and  became more involving to the point where I forgot I had swapped the  cables and just listened to the music. Can't recommend them enough. It  will be interesting to see if the sound changes as they bed in? 

Just a mere 200mm length of a connecting cable, how much of a difference was I suppose to expect? 
Anyhow,  after a week of listening and comparisons, I can no long sequester my  observations!  This kind of revelation doesn't come around that often  and, doesn't manifest itself so perfectly. Ever!

The difference  was noticeable immediately but, I needed time to run through my  collection playing all the different types of music before summarising  mine comments.  Obviously, with the well-recorded acoustical music there  is more to be revealed, but even with the bad ones (old or new), there  is always something new to surprise me too!  Also, the bass just keeps  getting deeper and better all the time too!   

This short piece of cable is probably the best price-performance item in my whole system!

The  first thing I noticed was an overall sense of space on the soundstage  and, the "un-digitizing" of the music.  Even before the music starts, or  during the silent moments of an acoustical recording, you can feel the  space of the stage that just wasn't there nor as palpable before.
 

There  is no rounding off or limiting of anything at all, not altering  anything in the tonality but really giving each note, each tone more  vibrancy, more timbral textures, more spatial richness, and much better  delineations of attack and decay.  

To  sum it all up, the end result is a very balanced sounding cable with a  very rich and lively sound that digs out every little  nuance in the  recording.

Sit  back a little bit, widen your perspective, the whole soundstage is now  deeper, wider, much much taller with vivid and solid imaging.   Especially, the way-outside and behind out of the speakers imaging and,  over the top and room-filling 3D cues are nothing short of spectacular  too.  Onto headphone listening, it's like you are not listening to  headphones but still listening to speakers. A more plausible analogy to  me is that it reminded me of the kind of soundstage and imaging like  listening to the Focal Utopia or the Stax electrostatic earspeakers (but  with my Audeze LCD-3).  With some recordings, the imaging was nearly  binaural and, don't forget that bass, it is extended, musical and, well  defined.  

A "curiously" magical cable!

Just  received and connected from Apple to Ideon 3R to Calyx Dac etc but  won't go into detail about the what its done for my system.

Suffice  to say its outperforms all my current USB cables (i have many expensive  ones). Wish I had purchased “Curious" long ago. Could have saved lots  of money.

Looks like another order will be coming your way for my DJ set up.

I  will spend the next few days running them in. But I intend to spend  many listening hours during that time. They really are that good  "straight out of the box" 

One last comment:
"Why would anybody buy any other cable when this one provides sound quality so far above its price point". 

My notes on comparing the standard cable that came with the USB Regen and the Curious cable.

Track 1 – Could you Believe (Antonio Farcione & Sabina Sciubba)

The standard cable actually sounds pretty good – no glaring faults that I could discern other than a slightly lean bottom end.

However when compared with the Curious the following improvements are noted.

The  bass definition improved and the bloom of each note sounds very  natural. Acoustic guitar notes sound with a clarity and warmth like the  real thing in the room. The body of the guitar is clearly presented as  is the space it was recorded in. This was not a feature of the other  cable. The vocal has a naturalness and presence that is a bit spooky.  Some of the vocal notes are delivered with some power but the Curious  cable retained absolute clarity without any sense of glare or overreach.  The soundstage is also far more vibrant and instruments remain cleanly  separated even through crescendos. 

Track 2 – Make Me Smile (Steve Harley)

This  track was chosen because it can sound overly bright and brittle. Well  that was what it sounded like with the standard cable. Another artefact  is a sense of congestion when the chorus gets going – it’s a tough test  for any cable (or system for that matter).

On this track the  Curious cable really showed it’s form. Whilst the track is certainly  produced with a pronounced treble the Curious cable brought it to heel  which was quite a surprise. 

Despite it being a favourite track from my  youth I don’t listen to it much because of the exaggerated treble  balance in the digital format. Well it’s back on the play list because  with the Curious cable in place it is eminently listenable. Whilst still  a bright production the sense of splashiness  disappeared. The bass  suddenly had body and weight that was missing previously. Better still  the vocal lead and backing were so well separated that each vocal  harmony line stands out like never before. The sense of air and  dimension now presented removed any sense of congestion I thought was  inherent in the production. Best of all it sounded relaxed and natural  and very easy to crank the volume up without hardening the sound. I  couldn’t do that before without cringing! 

Track 3 – Walk on the Wild Side (Lou Reed)

On  this track the difference was not as stark but obvious.  The  naturalness of the vocal coupled with a presence that puts Lou Reed in  your room is quite spooky. From a black background the female chorus  comes into the room with such reality that you get the feeling they are  going to keep on coming and pass by your couch. The soundstage has a  real sense of space and air with micro detailed reverb queues easy to  detect. At the end of the track the sax part sounded a bit harsh with  the standard cable but lost that etched tone with the Curious cable in  play.

Overview 

In  general the thing you walk away with is the space and air around  clearly defined and separated instruments that sound totally natural and  tonally real. The micro detail adds to the soundstage and depth making  the recorded room sound bigger than before. The naturalness and presence  of most vocals is downright spooky. There is of course no going back to  the standard cable!

I have been using your USB cable now for about the last two months and I must say that I thought I had a very revealing system until I swapped out the USB cable with the Curious Cable USB. 

My system consists of Simaudio amp and dac and Mac mini as a music server and Magnepan speakers all of which were taken to a new level with the simple addition of just adding your USB cable. 

I had tried many other cables and I was watching a video on AskPaul (PS Audio ) and he made mention of your cable and based on his recommendation I ordered one and it was the best purchase I have ever made for the money it hands down beats Audioquest, Nordost and the others that I have tried. Thanks for such a great product! 

The Curious Cable is fantastic! Lots of information, definition, clarity, instruments are very well defined and clearly in their places, lots of space, great depth, and very musical, which is the most important for me.   Sounds better than the I2S output/input. 

This is an excellent product worth every penny.  And you can quote me. 

I have tracked from AudioQuest to Oyaide to Curious USB and now to a new release – Curious Evolved. The Evolved absolutely raises the bar to new heights for my system – Meitner DA2 Reference, Karan KA M2000 monoblocks to Wilson XLF speakers through Odin and Analysis Plus cables.

Much broader and more detailed soundstage with incredible inner resolution.  Added front-to-rear depth giving a lifelike reproduction for large scale orchestral, small chamber groups and instrumentalists.  Piano files at last have extended decay along with deeply felt power in the lower register.  High sopranos retain body and richness.

I was much impressed by the original Curious, but the Evolved adds a new level of transparency, weight and emotional involvement in my system.  Most realistic musical timbre I have heard.  

Great job Curious!! 

I have been a long term Curious Cable user, satisfied that it is the best USB cable available.  My Magnepan 20.7’s are renowned for their ability to present a dynamic and lifelike soundstage and will quickly expose any component or cable that compresses or congests the dynamics and dimension in a recording.  I was therefore very excited to get the opportunity to try the new Curious “Evolved” USB cable.

Building on the strengths of the original cable the “Evolved” version enhances the dimension and naturalness of the soundstage giving vocals and instruments an extremely lifelike presentation with the finest details resolved and unmasked in all their glory.  Even during complex multi-instrumental passages the perception of detail and dimension remained firmly in place allowing better imaging and insight into individual musicians and therefore the group as a whole.  

A worthwhile step up from the original, the Curious Evolved USB cable is my new reference cable.

The original Curious usb cable beat all comers in my system and still is a great cable. However, when I inserted the Curious Evolved, it revealed more body in instruments, improved nuance and detail plus improved the soundstage and imagining. 

It was like I had turned the volume up and it became calm.  I am really hearing what the Nagra HD DAC can do!

I have been using the the original yellow usb cable and was very happy with the sound quality to the point where I never considered any replacement.  But since I have installed the new blue cable and Regen Link my system has Evolved!  Much more detail and clarity. So smooth So impressed. 

Well done on another great cable....highly recommended and thanks again.

I have been using Curious usb cables for some time now, linking my Hard Drive to Sotm SMS200 Ultra server, and from the Sotm to my Mola Mola DAC. 

The results have been excellent. However, I recently upgraded to the new Curious Evolved. My thoughts below:

First words that sprang to mind – engaging overtones and ambience. There is an increase in clarity in the lower mid range that leads to better delineation, fuller sound stage heft and increased dynamic range micro nuances.  More PRAT. Just super!

Ordered a Curious Cable Evolved from you guys to connect my Sonore Ultrarendu to a Chord Quetest. My amp is an upgraded Audio Note Kit 1 300B Set (if anyone is interested), fed to a pair of 15in fullrange Audio Nirvana drivers in very large cabinets. Was previously using a Black Dragon usb cable from Moon Audio and liked it quite a lot. 

However, not even 20 hours into burn in, this cable completely outshines the Black Dragon in every way.  I've never heard anything like it.  Wider soundstage, darker background, more detail across all frequency spectrums, and fuller texture and body to all the "Waves". Made for a much more analog sound.  So pleasant to listen to.  It is a keeper. Will look no further than this. 

Thanks for the cable and the dedication to your craft. It connects me more to the music, and helps to change people’s lives. At least mine.

 My very first impression is that in comparison, the original Curious Cable sounds a bit less open and don't quite reach that "N"th degree of clarity you have achieved in the EVOLVED.  That having been said I would never have been aware of this if I hadn't done a direct A/B comparison.  Without the A/B I would have been totally content with the originals forever.  Please don't take this as a criticism as I have quite happily used the originals for two or three years.  They are of course very musical and involving. 

It is just that the EVOLVED is better at it.  The difference - the new cables are extraordinarily open and clear without any harshness whatsoever.  There does not appear to be anything that distracts from the musicality, or lack thereof, in the recording.  I found myself listening to song after song after song totally enthralled.  

I am using three of your new EVOLVED cables.  Server to the latest Intona USB 3.0 Isolator, then to the Uptone Audio USB Regen upgraded with a better crystal oscillator and then on to the DAC.  This is a very good/demanding system that is not only extraordinarily revealing and nuanced but exceptionally musical as well.  A great deal is expected of every link in the signal chain.  

Your new EVOLVED live up to this demand with grace while seeming to accomplish this effortlessly.  Quite an accomplishment.  

The Evolved is so good I've simply can't stop playing everything all over again!  Finally, I can take a break from listening and tell you all the things I've learned. 

If the original was smooth sounding and has a deep and wide soundstage the Evolved is even deeper and wider that's filled with details that are more vivid and layered. The sound is smooth and balanced, by that I mean it somehow "Magically" irons out all the oddities in the recordings and my system! The tonality and textures are greatly improved, rendering the voices and instruments holographically presented exceeding the space of my listening room. 

The original has good musicality, the Evolved somehow improved upon that too. I think I can attribute this to the tighter, deeper bass and the cleaner and faster transient response of the new cable. I honestly did not expect all this when I ordered the Evolved, but I am glad to hear all the differences. 

Great sound, very realistic, holographic, great PRAT, velvety smooth with tons of textures and tonality and that "Curious" magic sauce! Thank you!

I Love it!

So my new Kyron Gaia II system was sounding very good with the Uptone JS2 feeding power to a nuc server.  Maybe a case for some diffusion treatment of the sand-blasted concrete rear wall and job done.

Then I replaced the dc cable with a newly designed Curious cable.  Wow!!  The whole sound-stage became deeper, richer and far more textured/organic.  Instruments tightened up across the spectrum from the deep rumble of the double basses and tympani in Beethoven symphonies to the sweet delicacy of Dorothy Oberlinger’s recorder in Vivaldi.  This was not just polite.  This was the instruments floating in space between the speakers.  Close my eyes and there were the players spread before me.  My private world of musical heaven.

Who would have thought that changing a single dc cable could provide such a lift in SQ and provide absolute pleasure to  my listening.

For a modest outlay and easy install I have never experienced such great rewards.

Winmore, Brisbane

March, 2023

How did the Curious cable do, compared to the PH cables, driving the Taiko switch? 

1. There was a clear improvement over the DC6. It wasn't night and day, but a noticeable uptick in clarity and bass articulation.    There was an increase in density (weight, heft) and saturation (realism). 
2. The DC10 was much closer, but even here, I would pick the Curious for the same qualities of clarity and density. 

Texas, USA

September, 2023