$500 USB cable

Its role is to transfer "digital data", i.e., 0(zero)s and 1s, not "audio signal". As long as your $10 USB cable is structurally solid, it should work as good as the $500 one.

But it doesn't. 
Making things more confusing is that fact that the source outputting the USB signal and the USB output implementation in that source have an effect. So does the amount of voltage required and the quality of the power supply to that source. 
It sure would be simple to bury our heads in the sand and get comfort by muttering "bits is bits" use the $10 USB. In my tests some high price cables like Lightspeed 10G and the AQ Diamond were obviously better, but not by a ton, over Black Cat, AQ Carbon and other "giant killer" medium priced USB cables.

Ironically, by improving the digital source(to a microRendu fed by Synology NAS using CAT6A ethernet cable) and a good quality linear power supply, I can now use an inexpensive(i.e. basically free!) USB connector to the dac and not hear tremendous levels of improvement with expensive USB cables like I always did when connecting Mac Mini output to the same DAC. Cheers,
Spencer

There's no loss of 0s and 1s in a usb cable, it is proven. How can it make a difference?
The debate over cables has not changed a bit (no pun intended); just getting more and more bizarre.

been usin' walmart $9 and was happy with that. $479 is too much.