Fifteen days have passed since I installed the Starlight 7 USB 3 cable into my system and during that time in excess of 100 hours of burn-in have occurred. This was accomplished while leaving the Oppo 105D running overnight on multiple occasions reading files from the Western Digital EHD and also actual listening during the day. I haven’t noticed any changes in sound for the last week, so now would be an appropriate time to report my findings.

The music files I’ve listened to include PCM (FLAC and WAV) and DSD64 (DSF and DFF). Sampling rates were a broad spectrum such as 44/16, 88/24, 192/24, and 2.82MHz. During my listening sessions the Starlight 7 connected the EHD directly into the 105D and also, through an adapter, the WireWorld USB cable fed a PranaWire Photon USB cable as well. The latter was done to hear what effects might occur when introducing the Photon into the equation. Not surprisingly, chaining the two USB cables did alter the sound.

Late in the listening sessions a Bybee Golden Goddess prototype power cord with Acrolink CF plugs was introduced into the mix replacing the excellent Acrolink 7N-P4030II with Oyaide P-/C-004 plugs I’d previously been using on my conrad-johnson CA200 integrated amp. The changes for the positive that occurred with the Bybee carried through regardless of the source.

The section immediately below is a comparison of the Starlight 7 versus the stock USB 3 cable that came with the Western Digital external hard drive.

Listening Impressions
• Immediately noticeable was a drop in volume which lessened over time as burn-in occurred. At present, there is still a need to raise the volume level on my CA200 one or two clicks to get comparable loudness. I don’t have an SPL meter so this is totally subjective on my part but has been consistent.
• This cable, in my opinion, needs at least 25 hours of burn-in and no decisions should be made as to its sound right out of the box. Initial impressions listening to The Avison Ensemble performing Handel’s Concerti Grossi Opus 6 were of a grainy, muddy, closed-in, less detailed sound. Even cold, however, sound stage depth was excellent.
• After only 10 hours or so of burn-in, the grainy quality had almost entirely disappeared as was evidenced listening to Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories. Eventually, it would entirely go away.
• Listening to a playlist of tracks from the Narada and Hearts of Space labels, it was easy to hear improvements in detail with a more open treble and longer decay times.
• Massed vocals are clearer and individual voices are easier to distinguish than with the stock cable.
• Low level detail is superior to the stock cable.
• The skin sound of percussion instruments is especially realistic as are chimes with noticeable air surrounding the images.

Apples and Oranges
I then did a comparison of the EHD + Starlight 7 versus the EHD + stock cable feeding the Photon USB cable. This is totally unfair in that 0.6M length of the Photon costs $995 while a 1M Stralight 7 has an MSRP of $120.

What I found was quite surprising. With the stock cable at one end of the continuum and the Photon at the other, the Starlight 7 fell considerably closer to the Photon than I’d ever expected. The Photon had better low level detail, more clearly defined/denser images, a bit more extension at the frequency extremes and refinement.

Conclusion
The WireWorld Starlight 7 USB 3 cable is a head and shoulders improvement over the stock cable that came with my EHD. In my opinion, it’s well worth its relatively modest cost.
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