Whats a good all around digital cable for under $250. I only need half a meter.

Definitely agree to stick with a digital cable at least 1m long. Plenty of articles out there on why you should use 1m or longer especially on coax and glass. Stick with coax over glass or aes/ebu if those are your options. I personally never cared for AQ digital cables; maybe their newer cables have improved from years back. 

The Cardas Lightening 15 is a great digital cable and has the attributes you are looking for.  Agree with the 1M or longer.

Get >1.5m or <1ft  (I can explain why).   It applies only to coax.  It is a system thing - a cable that sounds great in one system might sound bad in another (characteristic impedance mismatch and/or electrical noise induced jitter).  

Cable adds time jitter, that converts to noise on analog side.  This noise is proportional to loudness and undetectable without signal.  It affects clarity, timbre, imaging etc.  It can also produce unpleasant sibilants (or shrill).

Toslink connection (any distance) does not need matching  and is not sensitive to ambient electrical noise, but is sensitive to system noise since transitions are slow (slow transitions thru noisy threshold = jitter).  Toslink does not create ground loops.  You have to try different coaxes and Toslinks it in your system in your room.  Recommendation means nothing.

Cerious Graphene

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