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

@wynpalmer4

Bravo!

I come from the IT engineering profession as well. I have that Amazon USB cable on my high-end system and it sounds stellar. I’ve tried several different cables, just to prove the theory, and there is no difference. If the DAC is good quality it is what makes the sound with it’s clock. The computer/server doesn’t know the difference. This is science we have known in IT since USB came of age.
Thanks for the straight talk from an expert!

Rollin.

Hey, look here, another 1s and 0s argument! 🤗 We got our own 1s and 0s argument going over on the CD thread right now. “Theoretical question about how CDs work.” Experts urgently needed to straighten us out! The 1s and 0s argument is used to prove that CD really do produce perfect sound forever. We had a similar thread regarding digital cables recently. Yup, same 1s and 0s argument.

The arguments are dissimilar.
This is not about whether a digital format produces a perfect reproduction of an analog source or otherwise.
This is about whether the USB data transfer protocol is bit perfect as long as the interface is spec compliant- including the transmitter and receiver.
The answer to the latter question is yes, it is.
The answer to the former question is far more complex.
There is some possibility that the USB can introduce noise through the ground connection. The USB receiver can be designed to eliminate the possibility of ground loops. However, sometimes the problem does occur.

By the way, to put this in context, my system is tri-amped with a sub woofer and a pair of slightly modified ML Montis, The electrostatic panels are driven by one of the following- Rogue M180s, Hypex Ncore 400s or a Benchmark AHB2, depending on my whim. The non electrostatic units are all driven by DSP equalised class D amps.
The preamp is a modified Hovland HP100 or a home made phono amp driving a digital ADC/DAC- the RME ADI-2 PRO FS. My cables are all home made (except for the USB ;-))
My cartridge is a Miyajima Madake. I also have many 15IPS 1/4" 2 track tapes- safety masters or similar- that I play on a Otari MX50.
I have digitized many LPs/tapes and I play them back with the RME device using a USB connection.

Actually it’s the same argument. The CD argument is that digital data encoded on the CD cannot be changed and that laser servo mechanism + error correction together ensure that the 1s and 0s maintain their integrity all the way to the DAC. It’s called the 1s and 0s argument. It’s the same argument used to “prove” that there’s no difference among digital cables, that 1s and 0s are being transmitted by the cable so aren’t affected by rf or vibration like analog signals are.

Perhaps you view it that way. I do not. CD readback is imperfect because there are mechanical and optical imperfections in the recording and playback processes that result in timing issues and there also is stochastic jitter. These processes are intrinsically more complex than the rather simple USB interface impairments.
The attached CD data recovery circuitry is tasked with the restoration of the near ideal bit sequence that then is applied to the DAC. 
There's plenty of room for the introduction of timing errors/jitter in that process even if the result is ultimately bit perfect.
Ideally the DAC will retime the input data to restore a pristine, low jitter, bit perfect,  data sequence for conversion to analog.