how about we try to take stands that aren't always mutually exclusive and categorical? or even better, stop turning anecdotes into laws? I know I'm asking a lot and it will involve rational thinking which is an often strange concept in amateur audio.
looking at digital signal through cables as if it's analog isn't necessarily stupid. for one, when the high frequency roll off occurs will be a relevant factor for maximum speed. of course at the same time thinking that making some idealistic square wave signal go rounder in any way will also change the sound is false. like for everything there is a threshold beyond which we take fetal position and wait for things to explode(too dramatic?).but the USB standards(or any electrical standard) was picked because it works fairly well even within pretty big fluctuations and is easy to achieve even with cheap components.
we can also rebound on this, as there are now many USB standards. a proper USB1 cable isn't the same as a proper USB3 or USBc cable. some usb cables are specifically made for charging devices and nobody cared much about the wires not carrying the 5V DC. as long as the hand shake is done, that's enough for such cables. so not needing a special USB cable might not mean the same as saying we can literally take any USB cable lying around and expect the same specs and behavior.
obviously there is the way we treat the usb cable. those moving around to charge our phones can be painful to look at and some people really like to bend solid materials at unreasonable angles for some reason. so let's assume were not talking about those cables suffering from literal PTSD . ^_^
a cable doesn't really do much on it's own, we have to stop silly compartmentalized thinking "look mum, that cable has great soundstage!". instead look at the electrical circuit. but to think that way people need to know a thing or two about electrical components and electricity or it might be an abstract concept. not much can be done about that, we don't know what we don't know. if the cable has electrical properties significantly off from the expected standard, you never know if the devices on each ends have been designed to handle such an abnormal situation. in some extreme cases, it could lead to instability or at least changes in the global electrical behavior. I for one have a fairly clear stand for such a situation. I'll check the cable and do some basic measurements to see if it's broken or within USB specs. if it isn't, bu-bye!!! if it is close enough, I'll blame the gears plugged in it. not try to excuse it with fancy special cables just in case that helps hide a flaw in the gear. same for jitter, noise etc. a DAC is expected to be linked to all sorts of devices in this modern world. the guy who made the design without coming out of his lab with super clean power, perfect voltage to the second decimal, ideal cable and everything into 3 layers of Faraday cages, is an idiot who doesn't deserve our money. that's my view on this. do you guys call a good DAC, one that works great under ideal conditions, or one that can handle most typical issues like a boss? I vote for the later, same as how I pick my camera, computer... I live in real life with real issues and to withstand those issues is why I pay good money. it's obviously not the only way to think, but the more we'll look at pro gear, the more it will be aimed at people who think like me. consistency, stability, they are as, or more important than getting the best result when Jupiter is aligned with Venus and the outside temperature is 17.3°C. if a DAC is garbage under all but the most specific conditions, then it's a garbage DAC. that's my simple view on this.
having clearly different sounds from different USB cables will make me consider the possibility that I should get another DAC. when for some of you guys it's the enlightened day that "proved" you weren't an idiot to purchase a 1000$ wire for no clear reason. a different mindset clearly plays a part in the resulting conclusions.
with the same idea, most DACs nowadays have their own fancy special stuff, a specific oversampling value, some proprietary async, reclock, anti jitter, blablah thing. a lot of digital processing for fancy reasons that usually happen to work well. so when a signal is clean, they all do the very best of what they're here to do and we get the ideal results suggested on the specs.
when it's not clean, they'll maybe have fancy tricks to reduce some issues that other DAC might not have, so right there we might end up with more variations between DACs with a crappy signal than with a clean one. I'm not justifying any idea that cables sound different, this is just food for thought about how variations in the signal could in some cases have consequences that go beyond what a simple wire can do to the signal by itself. and also that maybe if you had a different DAC, your amazeballz cable wouldn't sound so different from that other one. just exploring possibilities. same result different conclusions.
a personal observation about cables over the years, USB or not, the plugs often make more difference and create more troubles than most fancy crap in the cable. I haven't sampled millions of cables so I won't claim it's always like that, but within what I've tested with my cheap gears, it was so. if I was a real maniac nut-job dead on getting the best audio I can't hear, I'd use rather short cables, cut all the plugs and go solder everything. but I still wouldn't pay 500$ for a USB cable. I hope I can be seen as fairly open minded on this matter, but IMO a USB cable above 100$ is one of those choices:
- a fashion statement. which is very fine and not dumber than a 5000$ hand bag or a 2 million car. some rich people need stuff to show they're rich to other people. if I was rich I'd get some of those.
- a trap for fools.
- a specific cable for one of those stuff you need once in a lifetime, like for something on a spaceship that can handle cosmic rays, or a usb cable to be plugged near the cyclotron while it's ON. you know weird cable for weird needs.
I can't think of anything requiring more than a few bucks of material and manufacturing. the idea that a lot will be hand made can justify higher price but is IMO a weakness for the cable as it implies much lower consistency than an automated process. so unless I get a unique set of extensive measurements coming with my cable and showing how much better it is, why would I pay extra anything? it's not being blind to the possible improvements of cables. it's trying not to be blind to the realities of commerce. if a guy can trick me into believing some not special cable is special, he'll do just that and increase his price and margin. ask for evidence, if the guy claims technical superiority, where is the objective evidence shown measuring the very cable he's trying to sell to me? the "just listen" mantra is nice to decide that I can't stand Despacito, it's not an argument for technical expertise. in fact I tend to be biased and take all the guys selling gears and saying "just listen" to be crooked. objective claims of fidelity require objective evidence, not subjective excuses.
and if they wish to make claims of subjectively nicer sound, I'm fine with that, after all if I like something I don't care about anything else. but then don't lie about increased fidelity without any evidence of it.
to end this rant on wider issue, we all need to stop taking whatever anecdotal event fell on our lap as if it redefines the laws of physics. it's a fracking wire! once I wore a green shirt and got bitten by a parrot. less than a year later I got bitten by a monkey on the same finger while wearing that same green shirt. I leave you to draw the right conclusions about green shirts, exotic animals, and your favorite usb cable anecdotes. we usually see and hear what we want to see and hear.
