Usb a to usb a cable for audio (low budget cable)

[antcollinet]

Just to re-enforce your statements:

"Data smearing" is a new term for me (but I have only been in the business for 40 years, so...)

Not only a new term, a term for a non existent phenomena. You can of course (and always do) get distortion of the bit shape from a perfect square wave - however the result of this is either data loss when it results in a flipped bit (see below), or jitter. And jitter on USB has no influence on the music, since the timing is defined by the DAC internal clocks - and on other interfaces is trivially rejected by the re-clocking processes in the DAC.

But usually in a very audible way, not by causing subtle differences in sound quality.

Always in a very audible way. In other words either the cable delivers perfect unadulterated music, or you get pops, clicks, dropouts etc.

 

[Julf]

Always in a very audible way. In other words either the cable delivers perfect unadulterated music, or you get pops, clicks, dropouts etc.

This.