Over 20y of USB and we IT guys put our data integrity at risk not taking audiophile quality cables ? For me this doesn't fit together. Transfers over USB means reliable transfers otherwise all of your personal data would be crap if cheap cables would be that lousy...
Some other examples:
1. of course HiFi shops tell you .. you need a very good CD player that fits to your "high end" HiFi in the range of i.e. up to €4000+. Yes, you need a better one if you want/need good D/A converters in the unit. The Oppo is i.e. a well known good choice, not so extremely expensive but still in the range €1800. But do you really need it or is a Panasonic BluRay player in the range of €300 still sufficient ?
What, if you connect your CD/BluRay Player digitally to your High End Class A Amplifier ?
The high quality D/A conversion is being done i.e. in high quality in the Accuphase DA-40 module.
And then you can connect a cheap CD/BluRay Player to it digitally and get an excellent sound.
2. Pimp up for more digital ports. I am using now an Oehlbach Optosel 4:1 so that I can connect up to 4 sources to the DA-40 (UFX+, BluRay, TV). This has been confirmed by another HiFi seller who is more relaxed on this topic because he simply resells high end to other shops. He also said .. BluRay Player or CD Player of under €100, simply digitally connected to High End HiFi Amplifier, works. D/A conversion being done by D/A modules inside High End Amplifier. Fully sufficient.
3. Or .. the cable vodoo for connecting speakers. For the frequencies that we use 4mm copper cables is fully sufficient. Even 2mm should do with the small cable lenghths. But people go for silver cable and other esoteric solutions...
Better spend €1000 or even more for your Speakers, there the money is better invested. The rest is IMHO illusion and based on psychoacoustic effects which fits fully into the expectations of the HiFi Scene.
4. I think all of those people want to sell and tell you stories and all of those HiFi testers usually do not make blind or double blind tests and the base their business on psychoacoustic effects, because everybody wants to believe that its worth it.
5. Back to USB and alike .. IMHO more important is simply a solid connection between 2 devices, that you stay in the specs and simply to get a shielded quality cable with quality plugs.
6. BTW .. I never heard the HiFi Gurus telling that you require special cable inside of a computer .. if quality, then please "end to end". Or a warning, do not use the USB ports from the mainboard that lead to external brackets like this here: https://www.boston.co.uk/products/cbl-0083l.aspx. Maybe this is another nice idea to sell special cables now for computers. High end digital USB data transfer cable ...
7. Another thing thats also funny. Some people looked inside of expensive High End Speakers. Inside there is also quite normal cable, nothing compareble to the Voodoo people do between Speakers and Amplifier. Isnt it strange ? Cable vodoo outside of the speakers but not inside ? Ok, now you can argue, electrical interference is maybe more likely outside of the speaker .. but well .. I didnt hear a significant difference. Really a wow effect was, to connect my not so expensive BluRay digitally and then it sounded much better compared to a more expensive Denon, which was connected via XLR.
8. I got from my shop €1000 vodoo cables for XLR and the speakers. But tbh .. the only thing which was attractive to me was the optic of the cable ...
If you have the money to spend it because you feel better afterwards ... do it. I personally hear / see no merit in it.
But thats only my personal experience.
BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub13