The Absolute Sound "review" of USB cable reads suspiciously like a press releaste

The OP link to the TAS article was not meant to be a "review". I don’t think TAS made any claim that they actually reviewed the cable so the OP opinion was not accurate.

Here is a better review of various USB cables. It was an old review so some of the USB DAC hardware architecture used was somewhat obsolete and today it is much better but it was informative. Today we use asynchronous USB DAC architecture so it may not be as sensitive to USB cables as in the past as was done around the time of this article.
http://mvicha.sweb.cz/test%20USB%20kabelu.pdf

It's not just ones and zeros. Like stated, it's a representation of ones and zeros (+200mv for one, -200mv for zero) and it must be stable and unaffected. Per USB regs, USB 2.0 cable must have an aluminum shield covering 100% of the cable and a copper shield covering at least 65% of the cable, and it must handle a 90ohm impedance while conveying 480mB of data density per second. Also, the data wires must be at least 28GA copper and the power wires 20-28GA.

How many, crummy, off the shelf or amazon bought USB cables does anyone think meet those requirements? Or just barely using crappy quality materials?

All the best,
Nonoise

Nonoise,

Today, most, if not ALL, USB DAC use asynchronous USB architecture which uses a local clock to clock in the data, so data jitter is no longer an issue.  Therefore you have to be able to explain at least in theory why data jitter would affect the clock.  In other words, the data is buffered in a memory bank so jitter coming in from the USB cable is neutralized.  

I am playing the devil advocate to force you to explain.  

Hey andy2,

Well, I summarized what another reviewer mentioned, so I'll post the link here:https://6moons.com/audioreview_articles/audiocadabra/

The beginning of the review has a primer for the hows and whys of USB cables. In it, he states that the audio signal has to arrive in an uncorrupted form as it cannot be reassembled on the receiving end, it being not just ones and zeros, but a signal current representing ones and zeros. Once the representation of the signal is damaged (by jitter), it's over. Or something like that. 

He's been around a long time and knows a thing or two about asynchronous USB architecture as well.

All the best,
Nonoise

The rags are not the hobbyist, today they are sales for audio companies, they are partners. Anyone can see that by reading and how they create trends for companies and many at times are short lived and folks are stuck with a product with little to know value. At best they only write opinion and get to have free\long term loans and the best perk if they wish buying at a industry accommodation, but why they would when they get contact gear to review is beyond me. Mags are there for them, how else can they charge so little for their year renewal. Fun to read, fun to see the ads, but this hobby is 0.5% of the consumer who buy, thus as we age and the market slowly dies you see the marketing and cost focus on the well off with lots of disposable income, where the middle class spend money on their kids, education and putting food on the table. $1,000 power cords, $5,000 amps even buys them a lot of food, education and family needs. THe mags don't write for them and manufacturers don't either.