When Paul's Reference Diamond USB Interconnects are not in the financial landscape, then AudioQuest's Coffee USB interconnect is the clear and obvious choice for connecting computers to PS Audio PerfectWave DACs.

The AudioQuest Coffee USB cable is Paul's pick to run between our server and DirectStream DAC when you can't quite step up to Diamond. With 10% silver conductors, AudioQuest's patented 72V Dielectric-Bias System (DBS), Carbon-Based Noise-Dissipation System (NDS), and more sophisticated design features, Coffee is a high-performance, high-value choice for world-class stereo systems.

Design

Solid conductors eliminate strand-interaction distortion and reduce jitter. Solid silver-plated conductors are excellent for very high-frequency applications, like USB audio, while Hard-Cell Foam (HCF) Insulation ensures critical signal-pair geometry. Noise reduction is critical to a cable's performance. In the Coffee, an RF Trap with the 72V Dielectric-Bias pack ensures that radio-frequency noise will not be induced into the signal conductors from the DBS field elements.

Application

Connecting computers to DACs is one of the more sensitive challenges in high-end audio. Here, it all matters. Great care must be taken to ensure the perfect interface between the noisy computer environment and that of a Digital to Analog Converter. The AudioQuest Coffee is Paul's choice when his reference AQ Diamond is not a financial option.

Technology

Solid conductors eliminate strand-interaction distortion and reduce jitter. Solid silver-plated conductors are excellent for very high-frequency applications. These signals, being such a high frequency, travel almost exclusively on the surface of the conductor. As the surface is made of high-purity silver, the performance is very close to that of a solid silver cable, but priced much closer to solid copper cable. This is an incredibly cost-effective way of manufacturing very high-quality USB cables.

While it's easy to accomplish 100% shield coverage, it's far more difficult to prevent captured Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) from modulating the equipment's ground reference. That requires AQ's Noise-Dissipation System (NDS). Traditional shield systems typically absorb and then drain noise/RF energy to component ground, modulating and distorting the critical "reference" ground plane, which in turn causes a distortion of the signal. NDS's alternating layers of metal and carbon-loaded synthetics "shield the shield," absorbing and reflecting most of this noise/RF energy before it reaches the layer attached to ground.

Features

HARD-CELL FOAM INSULATION

10% SILVER CONDUCTORS, SOLID

CONTROLLED FOR LOW-NOISE DIRECTIONALITY​

CARBON BASED 3-LAYER NOISE DISSIPATION (NDS)

72V DIALECTIC BIAS SYSTEM

RADIO FREQUENCY TRAP