$500 USB cable

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.

mgreen27 we all know what it does as I mentioned in my first post "transferring digital data" then again in my second post. That was not an answer to my own question. Why would some people spend that much money on a USB cable when they already know what it does? Are there really some serious science associated or could there be some other practical or psychological reasons that I didn't know? I hoped someone could explain to me in a manner that doesn't require a professional degree in electromagnetism. sbank " 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... " I agree with you 100%... I would spend my $500 to upgrade my DAC.