USB cable hype

There's still an awful lot of hype if one cable sounds the same as another cable but at 3x the price.

I don't have tons of money to blow on expensive cables and I retain a healthy amount of skepticism when it comes to cable claims. That said, I was unprepared for the huge improvement in sonics when I went from the (4% silver) Pangea USB-PC to the (100% silver) Pangea USB-AG. I know digital is all about 1's and 0's but the improvement was immediatey noticeable. I have no other explanation other than to flatly state the 100% silver cable was so much better.

"My question wasn't about the cable's effects on SQ. It was about failure: At what distance does a vanilla USB cable start to fail?"

You have an odd way of asking questions. Reading your original post, I would have never guessed the above quote is what you are asking for.

"I'm sure the answer varies with drivers and date rate. For example, we know that PCM should travel farther than DSD."

I'm not sure how you came up with that. PCM data can be transferred in more than 1 way. 75ohm coax, Toslink, 110ohm balanced, AT&T ST fibre optic, I2S, USB.....

"I'm not sure how you came up with that. PCM data can be transferred in more than 1 way. 75ohm coax, Toslink, 110ohm balanced, AT&T ST fibre optic, I2S, USB....."

Basic physics explains why faster data rates cannot travel as far as slower data rates.

can someone recommend a good usb cable under $100.00?

1.5 meters