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

I gave up on TAS years ago.

Stereophile is the same just better at hiding it. Corruption is unavoidable if your publication depends on ad revenue. For the record, corruption doesnt have to be anything as insidious as pay to play it can be much more subtle like not giving a superior product its proper due if such an acknowledgement would alienate a long time favorite. 

It’s by Michael Mercer! I wondered what happened to him.  Interesting fellow.  

It surely reads like an advertisement.

As one of the responders under the original "article" noted the description...."purpose built". It must be the highlight of the "equipment review".

On the other hand, maybe there is not much to say about an USB cable after all. I am not trying to start a cable thread and have no opinion about it, just wondering.

For sure 1010 binary  ,digital cables do matter and some are much better then others, digital errors = jitter or digital noise. That being said these paper and online magazines have a ton of politics , one hand washes the other .
having owned a Audio store until 08 and speaking with many companies at the shows in the past. Sadly several exceptional products went belly up because the big magazines wanted $50k + to guarantee excellent exposure and reviews.
many small companies could not afford this, This rest is history.