USB cable recommendation

I would think my budget would be under 6 new or used. I already have the Transparent and a JPS labs which I think is actually a bit better. I was just looking to try something different. 

@dpm2340 That's a good price target. I've tried a few models costing double that or more, and I did not think they were worth the price at all. For what it's worth my Veritas Audax was $450 new and I love it. 

Of all the cables that don't make any objective difference in sound, USB are the one's that don't make any difference the most. 

+1 for @roadcykler 

If your DAC is well designed and implemented given basic competence of the USB cable spending more is a waste.

Just like a USB connection from computer to a printer all it has to do is deliver the bits.  The USB connection is driven by the DAC, it requests the data from the source, buffers them and the DAC's clock is responsible for timing.

A possible source of an issues is electrical noise but competent DACs implement isolation in the USB receiver.

To quote:

Key details regarding the input handling of the Divinity DAC:

• FIFO Buffering & Reclocking: The DAC utilizes a FPGA-based digital FIFO input buffer to store incoming data. This signal is then re-clocked to significantly reduce jitter using high-precision, low-phase-noise active crystal oscillators (45.1584 MHz and 49.152 MHz).
• USB Input Technology: The USB input is a proprietary solution based on the STM32F446 ARM architecture.
• Performance Specifications: The USB input supports high-resolution audio, including PCM up to 24-bit/1536 kHz and DSD up to DSD1024. 

   

This buffering technology is designed to decouple the DAC from the jitter of the source device, resulting in cleaner, more accurate sound reproduction. (Emphasis added, retiredaudioguy)

End quote.

If you were using I2S it is a different story, those cable do matter.  As an aside I do wonder why I2S is used, it was intended for use internally to devices, not for interconnecting devices over longer distances.  The cynic in me thinks it is a ploy to get people to spend more on cables, and it might appear to be a more impressive technology than the one used to connect printers and disk drives to your computer.

We’re not printing here. Those who don’t have experience with streaming shouldn’t be posting.

@retiredaudioguy your understanding is flawed. I2S connection is an internal connection type and was never meant to connect 2 devices via hdmi cable. It was marketed by ps audio so they can sell their streamers and transports together with their DACs. Later on others caught on. Primarily chi-fi. 
There is not even a standard pin layout for i2s. That’s why compatibility is all over the place.

As to USB, the quality of cable makes a tremendous impact in streaming music. Isolation is implemented in both streamer and dac. You can’t dump noise into DAC and assume it will handle it. There’s no DAC that is immune to jitter.
There are only manufacturers that claim their DACs are immune to jitter.