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

Agreed. My point is that the loss of a packet results in a discontinuity in the signal. In my experience such an event is audibly catastrophic and not in the least subtle and does not require audiophilese to describe.
USB interfaces will report packet loss, but I'm not sure that audio gear is able to enlighten the listener when such events occur.

I would imagine that computer based playback software would be able to report it, but I don't know that for a fact.

Yes, many CDs are just dross, while a few are quite magical.
This applies also to high res recordings, but as always caveat emptor.
I know of one download that on my system sounds noticeably superior to the live performance of the same piece with the same two musicians but performed in a different hall than the recording and with the violinist playing a different violin- a, as he put it, "fine copy of my strad" and the pianist playing a Steinway model A rather than the recorded model D.
This is not just my opinion, other attendees agree.
The playback was over USB using an RME ADI-2 PRO FS, and using a non audiophile USB cable with an active extender.

I always heard instant improvements with audio
and speaker cables.  I never believed power cords
could make a difference because the house is wired
with cheap Romex but it knocked my socks off when
I tried better power cords at home.  From that point
I learned to just listen with my ears and not ask why
or how something sounds different or better.

Another thing that baffles me is HDMI cables.  I don't
know why, but I see slight differences with HDMI cables
on both my Pioneer Kuro TV and my computer monitor.

tom32801
Another thing that baffles me is HDMI cables. I don’t
know why, but I see slight differences with HDMI cables
on both my Pioneer Kuro TV and my computer monitor.

>>>>>>There it is! I must have ESP. 😳

wynpalmer
Yes, many CDs are just dross, while a few are quite magical.

>>>>I can certainly understand why you would believe that but it’s not because the CDs per sec are dross. It’s because the playback system can not retrieve the data completely or accurately. It’s not even close. One’s hear is not particularly sensitive to various kinds of distortion present on almost all CDs when they are played back on home systems. But almost any yahoo with ears can hear the LACK of those distortions when they are removed.