Cable Matters Active USB Extension Cable 16 4 ft 5m USB 3 0 Extension Cable Male to Female

***UPDATED REVIEW: I was contacted by the Cable Matters after my 2-star review was published; I had not discovered until 45 days after receiving the cable that it had problems supporting a powered USB 3.0 hub. They were concerned I had received a defective unit. Even though the return period had expired, they graciously offered to supply a new cable to see if the performance issues were resolved. The replacement has shown itself to be rock-solid for the last 48 hours of non-stop use. The original cable made removable media randomly disconnect from the hub. The replacement cable has no such problems - I have four storage devices connected from the hub to my computer via the replacement cable - there have been no ejections, and the data transfer speeds are consistently near the UBS 3.0 maximum. Thanks to cable matters for reaching out to me and replacing the cable. Not only were they concerned, but they took my case to heart from not just a customer relations standpoint, but also in terms of the engineering. Their concern over a relatively inexpensive cable is a clear demonstration that this company is dedicated to insuring their customers receive an excellent product with top-flight customer care. The next time I need to run an extension for a remote USB hub, Cable Matters will be my go-to source. I have re-rated this product from two to five stars - not only does it work to spec, but their commitment to their customers has won me over. I have included the original review below just to highlight how responsive Cable Matters was to my issue. *****ORIGINAL REVIEW: This was purchased so I could operate a hub on an edit system desk, which is 6 feet from the computer. It checked out fine when I hooked it up to a USB 3 device and ran at near the maximum speed. As an active extension, I figured it would work for the purpose I needed, so I put it away until I assembled the edit system in whole. After throwing the whole shebang together, my USB devices would randomly start ejecting themselves. After tracking it down, it seemed it was all coming from this one extended hub - until I plugged the hub directly into the Mac Pro and it held stable for several hours without any issue, which meant it was a faulty cable. Checking the extension cable on a single device (a USB drive that was on the hub and ejected regularly) showed it was stable in that configuration. I give it two stars because it certainly does give you a reliable extension for a single unpowered device that draws minimum wattage (say, thumb drive). But according to the specs that were provided, it should be able to handle a hub as well. But that's apparently not the case. So its fine if you need a single port for a thumb drive or portable HDD or SDD, it should work fine. .******* Read more

The instructions on the box says, "USB Specifications limit the length of passive USB cables to a maximum of 5 meters. This active cable features a built in chipset which boosts the USB signal... up to 10 meters. By connecting an additional 10 meter active extension cable, you can extend your USB device up to 20 meters." This built in passive cable chipset does not seem to need any active external power source to successfully boost the signal the small amount needed for my application to work perfectly at a 10 meter distance without any external power source requirement. The chipset is physically located in a plastic "torpedo" located on the cable at the 5 meter mark and this plastic torpedo on the cable can be seen by looking very carefully at the product's photo. As you can probably imagine, I am very happy that the chipset provides enough passive boost for my application to work perfectly at 10 meters without my needing any external power. For users that need to connect a "high consumption" device, there is an optional external power input included near the female end of the cable but I haven't needed to use this feature yet. The cable seems quite heavy duty and durable and it definitely does not have a "flimsy feel" to it. The whole setup works fantastic for me so far without any significant signal loss and I am very happy and pleased with it. If I ever experience any future problems with my particular use of the cable, I intend to return here and update this review. Thanks. Read more

Great cable. My laptop only has 1 USB 3.0 port, so I use these cables to lessen, or eliminate, signal degradation to my USB instruments from my powered USB 3.0 hub. Things are working well and all of my connected devices are immediately recognized. CAVEAT: I originally wanted to use one of these active Cable Matters SuperSpeed USB 3.0 cables to extend the reach of my laptop USB 3.0 port. BAD IDEA. When I tried it, my laptop could not get a solid fix on the powered hub. It repeatedly kept dropping and finding the powered hub. That was really annoying, so I just used a longer, plain USB 3.0 cable to connect from my laptop to my hub, then I used the Cable Matters SuperSpeed USB 3.0 active cables to connect from the hub to my external devices. Works great. Problem solved. Hope this helps. Read more

Before I get into the review, I must state that this is the 5m active cable that I'm talking about This was a hard review to write because I really wanted this to work. But after ordering it two separate times and having the same identical issue, I can confirm that it does not work as a usb extension cable for vr. It transfers all the positional data just fine. But as soon as you plug in your headphones, you're in for a very big surprise. When I put on my headphones with my mic attached, I didn't hear anything at first. So I went over to my computer and upped the volume a notch to hear that signature windows sound for volume change. It was at this moment that my headphones created such a large static hiss my ears were ringing and my headphones appeared to be nonfunctional. Turns out they still worked, just my ears were all messed up now. I ordered a second cable, thinking that the audio was just a problem with my wire, but I had the exact same issue with the second one. really wanted to enjoy this cable, but with no audio, there's not a whole lot you can do. Read more