CES 2015

USB to Lightning

Jason Victor Serinus  |  Jan 11, 2015

No, we're not talking alchemy, but rather AudioQuest's new line of USB to Lightning cables. Designed to facilitate transfer of music from iOS devices to computers or whatever, AQ's Cinnamon, Carbon, and Diamond models made their first appearance at CEDIA. Steve Niemi of AudioQuest (above), who introduced me to the cables, forecasts the lowest-priced Forest model by summer.

COMMENTS
Stephen Mejias's picture
Submitted by Stephen Mejias on January 11, 2015 - 5:48pm

That's correct. A 3m length of USB Diamond costs $999. (0.75m costs $549 and 1.5m costs $699.) As Jason mentioned, the line starts with Forest, which costs $45/0.75m (or $55/1.5m). Please let us know if you have any questions. I hope that anyone who's interested or at all curious will take the time to listen. We'll be very happy to help arrange an evaluation.

Stephen Mejias
VP Communications, AudioQuest

beauranheim's picture
Submitted by beauranheim on January 12, 2015 - 4:11am

Stephen,

Is my assumption that these cables will be capable of charging said iDevices, and carry the authentication chip correct? Also can't really tell from the photo what the size of the lightning connector will be. Given cases on the devices I hope it's a slim design.

Stephen Mejias's picture
Submitted by Stephen Mejias on January 13, 2015 - 1:14pm

Hi Beau.
That's right. Our Lightning-USB cables can be used for both charging and syncing, and, yes, they carry the Apple authentication chip and are MFi certified. We put a lot of care into the connectors; their slim size should work well with the cases of most iDevices. Thanks so much.

Stephen Mejias
AudioQuest, VP Communications

CraigS's picture
Submitted by CraigS on January 12, 2015 - 12:34pm

Will these new AudioQuest cables eliminate the current need to use an apple lightning to USB camera adapter (formerly known as the camera connector kit, or "CCK") to get 24/96 files out of an iOS device and out to a DAC or a USB to SPDif converter?

Stephen Mejias's picture
Submitted by Stephen Mejias on January 13, 2015 - 1:19pm

Hi CraigS.
You’ll need to use the camera adapter kit with our cable if the DAC itself doesn’t include the necessary chip. There are several DACs that do include the chip, such as the Pioneer/Denon/Integra/Marantz DACs and receivers that have a USB-A female port on the front and claim iOS compatibility; these units will not need an adaptor. More conventional DACs typically do require the adaptor, however. The simplest way to know for sure is to consult the manual for iOS compatibility. I hope this helps. Thanks very much.

Stephen Mejias
AudioQuest, VP Communications

beauranheim's picture
Submitted by beauranheim on January 14, 2015 - 6:48am

Stephen,

Thanks for the information. One request would be for a shorter cable. When you have your player/phone and an outboard DAC/headphone amp configured back to back it's nice to have a really short cable to make the connection. That way there is no loop to catch on anything and pull the connectors out. I would even suggest a cable that is made to stay in a U shape but I am not sure whether there is a normal distance between player and DAC.

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