Kubala-Sosna Temptation Digital USB Cables

A digital cable is a transmission line. Done poorly, it forces the DAC to spend its energy correcting for jitter and timing errors that should never have arrived. Done well, it lets the DAC do what it was designed to do — recover the music. Kubala-Sosna offers digital cables in five formats across the line: AES/EBU (DAE) for studio-style balanced digital, S/PDIF coaxial (DCX) for the most common single-ended digital link, USB for direct computer-to-DAC and streamer-to-DAC connections, Ethernet (LAN) for networked playback chains, and a dedicated 50Ω coaxial cable available only at the Realization tier for the most demanding clock and digital links. Each is offered at the tiers where K-S has engineered the cable to a level the digital chain at that price point can actually use.

Temptation is the first OptimiZ2 cable in the catalog and the line's deliberate “peek into the expansion of the performance envelope” — K-S's own language. It is a complete tier (analog interconnects, speaker cable, power cord, USB), priced where a serious listener can step into OptimiZ2 without committing to the full Emotion-and-up ladder. The right customer is the listener at Fascination who has heard the difference an OptimiZ2 cable makes in a friend's or dealer's system and wants the first taste in their own room. The step-up to Expression is incremental.

Temptation as the USB cable is the K-S line's entry into the OptimiZ2 architecture in the most-used digital link in modern systems — streamer or computer to USB DAC. USB is the format where a great cable does the most work because the link is carrying both signal and 5V power across the same connector; the OptimiZ2 build separates and engineers both. This is the USB cable for a listener whose streamer (an Innuos, an XACT, an HiFi Rose) is feeding a serious USB DAC and who has decided the cable matters as much as the chassis on either end. Temptation is the first OptimiZ2 cable many K-S customers buy — and USB is one of the configurations where that step is most often immediately audible.

Series: OptimiZ2™

Architecture: RevolutionZ™

Configuration options: USB 2.0 audio

Termination options: USB-A to USB-B (standard audio USB termination)

Length range: 1.0m to 3.0m in 0.5m increments

Pricing formula: First-meter price plus per-additional-meter rate

Made in USA — Kubala-Sosna Research, East Hanover, NJ

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