by Kevin OBrien and Brad Easton on 03/28/2012
SILNOTE AUDIO POSEIDON USB VS. YFS USB-V2
We were interested in seeing how our YFS USB-V2 stacked up to the MUCH more expensive Silnote Audio Poseidon Silver USB cable. We went ahead and compared the two with our Minimax DAC Plus using the USB input. We could not conduct an A-B comparison due to the equipment involved. One must take the care to turn off the DAC BEFORE unplugging his or her USB cable to avoid damaging both the DAC and the computer. This did not allow us to hot swap or A-B the cables unfortunately.
We started with the Silnote Audio Poseidon USB which is no longer available. Silnote Audio has recently come out with a newer version but you'll get the idea by checking that out here. The Poseidon Silver USB retailed for $400 for a 1 meter length. The 2 meter length was almost double that cost ($650-ish). Whoa! That's a little steep for our liking but plenty of folks are willing to shell that out apparently. The Poseidon uses silver conductors with isolated signal and power lines with a proprietary shielding technique. Pretty cool!
Don't get us wrong here. This Silnote Audio USB digital cable is the real deal. We've tested it against some other expensive cables such as the Revelation Audio Labs Silver Reference USB and it won every time.
Let's see how our YFS USB-V2 stacks up against the Silnote Audio USB.
We played some classical, pop, rock, and jazz with the Poseidon USB to get ourselves familiar with its signature sound. We then played the same selections using our USB-V2 cable. To be honest, we could not tell a difference (especially during our blind test) between the two. We did notice a very slight advantage in the P.R.a.T. department as well as the mid-range response over our YFS USB-V2 cable but again, it was a slight difference. It just had a different feeling to the music. All the information was still present in the mix with both cables. They both sounded EXCELLENT!
We are not entirely sure how the economy is faring country-wide yet but we think it's safe to say that most folks are still looking for great deals on audio gear at this point. We're not sure about our readers but we know we'd rather shell out $99 for a 2 meter USB cable instead of ~ $600 for practically the same performance. The final call is yours but we think you'll be overjoyed with the performance of our YFS USB-V2 compared to the other guys especially for the price.
Until next time...
-KOB. BJE
Associated Equipment for this Review:
- YFS Computer Music Server - HD-Ref-1
- Eastern Electric Minimax DAC Plus
- Quicksilver Audio 12AX7 Preamp
- Quicksilver Audio Silver 60 Monoblocks
- Von Schweikert VR-5 HSE Speakers
- YFS Custom Room Treatment
- YFS Custom Interconnects and Cables
- Herbie's Audio Lab Dampening Products