PS Audio AudioQuest Forest USB

USB Audio

USB cables are a critical interconnection between computers, servers and DACs. We've chosen the AQ Forest to bring the best sound and highest value to PS Audio Sprout owners.

The AudioQuest Forest USB cable is Scott McGowan's curated pick to run between Sprout and your computer when you're looking for the best price/value performance level. Solid conductors eliminate strand-interaction distortion and reduce jitter. Solid silver-plated conductors are excellent for very high-frequency applications, like USB audio. These signals, being such a high frequency, travel almost exclusively on the surface of the conductor. As the surface is made of high-purity 0.5% silver, the performance is 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. AQ's conductors are controlled for RF directionality.

Design

In the AQ Forest, 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 essential to a cable's performance. In the Forest cable, all conductors are controlled for superior noise reduction. Keeping the noise and jitter in digital audio out of the DAC and isolated from the computer is critical to audio performance.

Application

Connecting computers to DACs is one of the more tricky applications 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 like the one built right into Sprout. AQ's Forest USB is Sprout creator Scott McGowan's choice for high value and performance in connecting digital audio sources to Sprout.

Technology

Solid conductors eliminate strand-interaction distortion and reduce jitter. Solid silver-plated conductors are excellent for very high-frequency applications, like USB audio. 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 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.

Hard-Cell Foam (HCF) Insulation ensures critical signal-pair geometry. Any solid material adjacent to a conductor is actually part of an imperfect circuit. Wire insulation and circuit board materials all absorb energy. Some of this energy is stored and then released as distortion. Hard-Cell Foam Insulation is similar to the Foamed-PE used in our more affordable Bridges & Falls cables, and is nitrogen-injected to create air pockets. Because nitrogen (like air) does not absorb energy and therefore does not release any energy from or into the conductor, distortion is reduced. In addition, the stiffness of the material allows the cable's conductors to maintain a stable relationship along the cable's full length, producing a stable impedance character and further minimizing distortion.