CURIOUS CABLES

Curious USB 1.0m

$429.00

SKU: CU1.0



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Pickup from Esk QLD - $0.00 (ETA: 1 days)
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USB Type A to USB Type B Connectors.

Links to reviews: Reviews

Benjamin L. Singapore
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!

Bill H.  Queensland, Australia

Using UpTone Audio Regen: Curious Vs standard cable

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!

 

 

Ralph B. USA

Previous Cable: Mapleshade
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! 

Peter L. Hong Kong

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 !

UpTone Audio Regen

Mike Lenehan

Lenehan Audio (Manufacturer of world class loudspeakers)

 

“This current Curious cable makes my own Prototype usb cable sound false!  For instance, when listening to Ian Moss sing “Georgia On My Mind” my old cable now seems to sound like a caricature or animation of the real thing. The Curious sounds ethereal and disarmingly communicative, the audience interaction on on this track is real with the Curious Cable.

I can now hear that my old reference usb cable slightly accentuates high frequency decay and is not quite the neutral conduit I thought it was. Bass with the Curious is simply SOTA with correct harmonic, reproduction which I believe is inextricably linked to a component’s handling of the low frequency spectrum.  The Curious is so fast that it makes music sound very smooth and effortless, with detail and resolution that has lifted my factory reference system one more notch.

Our reference PS Audio Direct Stream DAC with Yale firmware upgrade and this new Curious usb is simply THERE.  At under 400 bucks for a 0.8m length even WAF integration is good. Get one!! Fellow audiophiliacs.”

Benjamin L. Singapore
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!

Bill H.  Queensland, Australia

Using UpTone Audio Regen: Curious Vs standard cable

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!

 

 

Ralph B. USA

Previous Cable: Mapleshade
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! 

Peter L. Hong Kong

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 !

UpTone Audio Regen

Mike Lenehan

Lenehan Audio (Manufacturer of world class loudspeakers)

 

“This current Curious cable makes my own Prototype usb cable sound false!  For instance, when listening to Ian Moss sing “Georgia On My Mind” my old cable now seems to sound like a caricature or animation of the real thing. The Curious sounds ethereal and disarmingly communicative, the audience interaction on on this track is real with the Curious Cable.

I can now hear that my old reference usb cable slightly accentuates high frequency decay and is not quite the neutral conduit I thought it was. Bass with the Curious is simply SOTA with correct harmonic, reproduction which I believe is inextricably linked to a component’s handling of the low frequency spectrum.  The Curious is so fast that it makes music sound very smooth and effortless, with detail and resolution that has lifted my factory reference system one more notch.

Our reference PS Audio Direct Stream DAC with Yale firmware upgrade and this new Curious usb is simply THERE.  At under 400 bucks for a 0.8m length even WAF integration is good. Get one!! Fellow audiophiliacs.”

Mike Lenehan

Lenehan Audio (Manufacturer of world class loudspeakers)

“This current Curious cable makes my own Prototype usb cable sound false!  For instance, when listening to Ian Moss sing “Georgia On My Mind” my old cable now seems to sound like a caricature or animation of the real thing. The Curious sounds ethereal and disarmingly communicative, the audience interaction on on this track is real with the Curious Cable.

I can now hear that my old reference usb cable slightly accentuates high frequency decay and is not quite the neutral conduit I thought it was. Bass with the Curious is simply SOTA with correct harmonic, reproduction which I believe is inextricably linked to a component’s handling of the low frequency spectrum.  The Curious is so fast that it makes music sound very smooth and effortless, with detail and resolution that has lifted my factory reference system one more notch.

Our reference PS Audio Direct Stream DAC with Yale firmware upgrade and this new Curious usb is simply THERE.  At under 400 bucks for a 0.8m length even WAF integration is good. Get one!! Fellow audiophiliacs.”

(CU1.0)

SKU CU1.0
Brand CURIOUS CABLES
Shipping Weight 0.1820kg
Shipping Width 0.200m
Shipping Height 0.040m
Shipping Length 0.160m
Shipping Cubic 0.001280000m3

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