There's a big problem with the marketing around cables.
Actually a lot of big problems. Confusing branding, egregious pricing,
direct to landfill build quality, not to mention outright lying
about performance and capabilities. But most people don't have a $10,000 cable tester,
so they don't know. They just get frustrated when their devices seem flaky.
But do you have any idea how often it's actually the cable?
So we took matters into our own hands. Introducing LTT true spec cables.
They're durable, they feel great, and most importantly, they are true to the spec.
If it says 20 gigabit per second, it can do 20 gigabit per second.
If it says 240 watts, it can do that too.
And with clearest day labeling on the connector, you never have to wonder if the cable you're holding
is the right one for the job. Now, a lot of people don't really care about their cables.
And I didn't used to either, I get it. But when a whole production can be brought down
by one bad connection, it is amazing how quickly your perspective changes.
This is the story of how LTT true spec cables came to life.
And look at that, it only took, oh, good Lord.
Oh, good Lord.
Hey, Kyle, could we make an LTT cable
in the next couple of years? Oh, that's great.
Can't wait to have my own cables by 2023.
Yeah, it didn't work out that way.
I need a cable.
I'm holding up for a cable till the end of the night.
It's gotta be long and it's gotta be fast
and it's gotta be at the right price.
Admittedly, part of the reason these took so long was that the first year was pretty much
spent on procrastination. Hey, in fairness, we were kind of busy developing
our two biggest products ever. But with those out of the way, for the next year,
we focused on finding the right partner to manufacture our custom cables.
And this process took months. We reached out to over 30 different factories,
evaluated hundreds of samples, and even after all of that,
we couldn't find one that would consistently pass
the most fundamental of tests, signal integrity.
I think that's like one of the two things a cable does
and it really opened our eyes to the pervasiveness of the problems that plagued the cable industry.
Here's an example. Not gonna name any names here, but this cable came from a prominent seller on Amazon.
We go ahead and plug it into our cable tester and watch what happens.
Yep, that's a fail. And this happens a lot.
But here's the really tricky part. If you take it out of the tester
and throw it onto a computer, voila, it totally works.
What's the deal with that? Well, you see, USB has built-in error handling
that monitors for any missed bits and will request that your device resend that information,
all without any user intervention, which is super cool.
But it also means that if you have a flaky cable, it could be slowing you down without you realizing it
or it might only behave badly sometimes
or on some devices. The bottom line is that a cable like this
is kind of like a dollar store toilet plunger. It usually gets the job done,
but it might let you down at a very critical moment.
Let's compare to our cable. What we're looking for here is a distinct eye shape,
a hole in the middle that indicates that our signal is clean.
Finding a partner that could deliver results like this across our various speeds and lengths
was critical to moving forward and it wasn't easy.
A typical sample order for us would contain about a hundred cables
and in those early months, not a single manufacturer was able to send us
an entire batch of cables that didn't have a failure.
Now no one's perfect and a single bad cable
out of a sample batch, that wouldn't be the end of the partnership,
except that we often found that when one cable would fail,
like say the six foot, 20 gigabit per second type C
to type C, all of the cables of that type
in the entire batch would fail. We started to become concerned
that there was simply no manufacturer that could meet our performance standards.
But then at the very end of the year, December,
ladies and gentlemen, we got them. Every cable that these guys sent
passed our signal integrity tests and on top of that,
they were highly responsive for communication and even seemed excited rather than intimidated
by our desire to create something that was better than what already exists,
which you'd be surprised how few manufacturing partners
are interested in that sort of thing. So we quickly aligned on our goal,
the best spec we could reach at any given length and the next three years,
we're spent bringing these to life. My perfect USB cable.
The connector housing features clear labeling, so there is no ambiguity around data speeds or charging.
And we used a firm but fair strain relief
along with a soft silicone sheathing for a whole bunch of reasons
that I'll get into a little bit later. Because first, I kind of got to address
the girthy elephant in the room.
She's a pretty chungus boy, but that's because a high quality cable
has a lot more to it than just some conductors
wrapped in some sheathing. This right here is the USB-C connector spec document.
This is the USB-4 spec and this
is the USB power delivery spec. This is actually just all the paper we have in the building
and consists of only around 60% of the rules you need to follow to make your own cable.
Together, they dictate what you can and can't put inside of your cable.
But with over 2,000 pages of rules, how do so many bad cables exist?
Well, as it turns out, many of these rules are more like pirate code guidelines.
For example, we have a normal USB-C cable and one of our cables.
Let's take a look inside. Taking a look at these,
the first thing you notice, our cable is a lot larger diameter.
And that's for a bunch of reasons. Starting off, we have our main power conductor right here
compared to their other cables here.
We have the shielding around the outside for ground and return.
We have our low speed conductors, which are for the most part similar to theirs,
but it's the super speed lines where you see a big difference.
Let's take a closer look at those.
Getting a closer look at these, you can see the twisted pair combos here.
You have four of them in the normal cable. And here we have our coax conductors,
where two of these are one signal path
and we have eight on this cable. If your cable has a twisted pair, it can be fine.
But if you have a twisted pair, go to the hospital.
The second reason is that unlike cheaper PVC sheathing found in most cables,
including underneath the braids of your braided cables, silicone is highly UV resistant,
which means it won't turn brittle after sun exposure. The third reason is that it's highly kink resistant
and doesn't have annoying cable memory, making it a breeze to coil up and store.
But coaxial isn't all upside. They are generally quite a bit more expensive
because you have to shield each individual conductor. As well, they can be quite a bit larger
and they can be less flexible, which is part of the reason we went with the silicone sheath.
It helps you get closer to the flexibility you'd expect from a premium cable.
If you look really closely, you might notice that these cables aren't perfectly round.
While we were trying to balance thickness and flexibility, we kind of ended up with a bit of a ribbed
for your pleasure texture. And besides, where durability really counts
is at the ends of a cable. How many of you have one of those white cables
from a brand that shall remain nameless that looks like this?
That's because they have objectively terrible string relief.
We felt we could do better, but like everything else,
doing better wasn't as simple as we hoped. If your string relief is too flexible, it's ineffective.
If it's too stiff, you're simply creating a new lever point
where the cable is ultimately going to break. So we twit around with ideas like springs
or using alternate materials to create a smooth, gradual bend away from the connector
until finally we settled on this design. It has some give, but not too much.
And unlike multi-piece designs, it's not going to come apart
because it's molded together with the outside of the connector housing.
Of course, you can have the best string relief in the world and that's not going to help you
if that force is transmitted to a fragile connector.
Now, for the very end itself, there's only so much we can do within the spec,
but we did everything we could to make our connector as durable as possible.
We use a seamless metal housing, copper tape, and a soldered connector,
meaning it's unlikely to break unless you really reef on it. It is worth noting that that's why our connector housing
is a little bit on the larger side. So you may encounter recessed female connectors
where it just plain doesn't fit. Take it as a compliment.
Now you might have noticed the complete lack of USB logos
on our cables and on our packaging. That is because they're, I know, I know, not certified.
But does that matter? Not to us.
You don't need USB IF certification in order to sell USB compatible devices.
In fact, as far as we can tell, the main benefit of it
is to use their confusing branding, which frankly, we feel we're better off without.
Especially when you factor in the cost. Certification is both expensive and time consuming,
which is why even some very large brands completely skip it.
Apple, for instance, hasn't produced a USB IF certified cable in this millennium
if this list from the USB IF is to be believed. It's not that we didn't test our cables.
Here's a list of the tests that every one of our SKUs went through.
And then to be 100% certain, we also sent our samples to a third party tester
who helped us out with USB 4 validation since our cable tester is not up to snuff for that.
And then for good measure, we blow torched them. We don't actually recommend that.
But the point is they're really durable, they are tested, and if you get a bad cable,
you know we've got your back. LTTstore.com slash support,
which finally brings us to price.
Now I'm just gonna throw a QR code here for you guys to scan because pricing is subject to change over time.
But the bottom line is no. For such a well-built cable, they aren't ridiculous,
but also no, they are not cheap.
And that might seem at odds with my long-time campaign against overpriced cables,
but here's the thing, guys. I am not and never have been against
well-built, fairly priced, premium products.
I'm just against snake oil marketing. So you will never hear me claim
that an LTT cable will make your display look crispier
or give your audio DAC more pronounced
and resolved demonstration. These are digital cables.
They either work or they don't. And these ones, these ones work.
Where have all the good boys gone and where are all the gods?
Where's the tech-wise Hercules
rising to make you do vows?
Clearly label perfect length USB-C to C.
Late at night, I toss and I turn and I dream of what I need.
I need a cable. I'm holding up for a cable till the end of the night.
It's gotta be long and it's gotta be fast
and it's gotta be at the right price.
I need a cable. I'm holding up for a cable that will always connect.
It's gotta look clean with a silicon sheet
and a cable is called TrueSpec.
TrueSpec.
If you guys enjoyed this video, why not check out the one where we talked through the three-year process
that it was to bring to life our legendary LTT screwdriver.