How much difference does it make?

[marce]

Speakers/Room biggest effect.

Cables should have no discernible affect on an analogue signal or digital signal transmission.

I have perceived some difference in sources when I had CD players and with DAC's, but never blind tested so I can't exclude bias. With digital sources feeding the same DAC I have never noticed any difference.

[marce]

20 hours ago, jabbr said:

 

Cables shouldn’t matter but they sometimes do. I wonder if the shielding around USB cables act as waveguides for transmitted EMI. Shielding also seems to be a problem Ethernet but for >= 10g, foil around each twisted pair reduces crosstalk. Suggest that twisting isn’t perfect 😉

Only a co-ax has all the fields contained within its structure, twisted pair is surrounded by the fields these do couple to other pairs in the bundles, nothings perfect.... The extra pair shielding in CAT 7 reduces this... Great for data centres and industrial runs that are far longer than domestic runs.

Crosstalk increases with longer runs so reducing it helps the signal integrity of these long runs.