The .7 meter Gemini USB cable I have has been a bit too short; so I recently purchased a 1.5 meter Gemini USB to replace it. At first I just removed the .7 meter Gemini and put the 1.5 meter in it's place, leaving the XLO UltraPlus USB between the laptop and iFi iUSB Power.
As I was sitting there listening to music I had a thought: What if I replaced the UltraPlus with the Gemini? Well, the double connector end (USB A) of the Gemini fit into two USB ports of my laptop at exactly the precise distance that allowed for no air gap in between (the iUSB Power has about a 7mm gap between the connectors). Since my laptop has USB ports on the left and right side, I could plug one of the Gemini USB A on one side of the laptop and the remaining USB A on the other side, but haven't tried it yet. The instructions state to keep the RF Silencers as close to their respective ends as possible though, and splitting the Gemini that far would put that RF Silencer about halfway down it's length.
Enough about the connections, did the sound change? Well, I wasn't prepared to hear the improvements that the pair of Gemini would bring. I was hoping there wouldn't be an improvement because I would be back to using a USB connection that was too short. I'd played music with the Ultraplus in my connection chain for at least six months; and was quite satisfied with it's performance, not really hearing any serious faults with it.
With a Gemini between the laptop to iUSB Power and between iUSB Power to DAC I immediately noticed a more immersive sound stage and a smoother quality to the sound. Music notes had more body and were decaying or reverberating within a more coherent space. The Ultraplus was just giving a slightly jagged, grainy outline of notes that seemed to decay into a rather undefined or unbounded space. I also heard a crisp splash from cymbals with the Gemini while the Ultraplus offered more of a gritty static sound for cymbals. If there was one drawback to the Gemini it was that I was occasionally hearing intermittent noises in the background, usually only between songs or when no music was playing. I don't know if the 1.5 meter Gemini isn't blocking noise as well as the Ultraplus or if the Gemini just enables a quieter background that is revealing noise. The natural and involving sound from the pair of Gemini makes me feel closer to the music, but my laptop is still too close to my Gungnir DAC.
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