Two cables can look identical and behave completely differently. Some of that matters a lot, like thin wire on a power lead, and some of it is mostly marketing.
Topics in this note
- Wire gauge and why it matters for power and long runs
- Shielding, and where noise actually comes from
- Connector quality and strain relief
- Charge-only USB cables vs. data cables
- Balanced vs. unbalanced audio connections
- When an expensive cable is worth it, and when it isn’t
A cheap cable isn’t automatically bad, but a cable that’s failing usually fails at the connector.