I got tired of using my long RCA cables to interconnect small DACs and Amps so decided to get a short one. Saw one on Amazon (by "World's Best Cables') that used Canare Star-Quad cable and Amphenol connectors for just $22 shipped. My time was worth much more than that to make one so I ordered it. It came promptly. When I opened though, I was shocked to see this massive sign in there:
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Are you kidding me? Even a low-cost cable using proper material spreads such a myth?
It is one thing to see this on multi-thousand dollar cables but on a $22 one?
Inside there is an instruction sheet and it says that again. To their credit they acknowledge that such burn-in will take out of Amazon's 30 day return window so they provide instructions on how to still get a return.
The danger here is that such practices will spread to the general public, not just high-end audiophiles.
Yes, it is also "directional" although here, it is due to the way they utilize the shield at one end so that bit is fine.