Assuming you spend 12 hours a day testing, and each test takes an hour, you’ll be done in just under 30 years. I think that’s the sort of commitment you need if you want to be considered a serious audiophile 
Or just buy the M12 then you wouldn’t have to worry about it!
Oh, I’ve got plenty of those - most of the SSDs I bought in the early years failed to read only once they were borked.
Some digital connections can benefit from more reliable wiring, those that support multiple stream types that include non-guaranteed reliable connection modes. Similar to the basics in IP networking you mainly have TCP and UDP as transport protocols. TCP inherently includes reliability (error checks and retransmission) but suffers latency as a cost, UDP does not inherently include reliability (error checks but no native retransmission) but provides potentially better latency with the expectation that app layer protocols compensate if required, basically choice of implementation as there should be.
USB is a contentious match here in that there is an analog of sorts in it’s modes, primarily Bulk (reliable) vs. Isochronus (realtime) with the most prevalent for audio being the latter with allowing for CRC/error-detection but no retransmission, hence cables that are fine for say a hard drive (whose USB protocol method will allow for retransmission) that may introduce occasional error that is corrected by retransmission is not optimal for Isochronus audio (which can detect error and allow the transport/DAC to correct if it can but not trigger retransmission).
But with that said SATA does not have an equivalent divergence. It is intended as a 100% reliable protocol that operates at multiple magnitudes of order faster than an audio stream requires (so an insane amount of headroom for retransmisson if requires). Unless there is catastrophic failure of the drive or the motherboard interface it will not affect audio streams. And if there is such a failure it won’t be subtle, it will cut out.
TL;DR - Cable quality can matter in certain builds and situations (even with digital signals), but it absolutely does NOT with SATA or any data protocol that does not allow the equivalent unreliable methods.
Cable quality matters in the digital domain in so far as either:
There’s no need for overpriced “audiophile” snake-oil products. In some cases, these stray so far from the recognised standards, that they fail to work as universally as they should:
https://community.roonlabs.com/t/rasberry-pi4-with-ropieee/175549
Just an ordinary cable which meets the relevant recognised industry standards is sufficient.
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If digital cables are made to recognised standards/specifications they’ll work. Period. There’s no advantage to fancy, “snake-oil” over-priced constructions in the digital domain.
The subject is about SATA cables, but it applies equally to all digital cables in home hi-fi. Jitter? Nope, not an issue. Electrical noise resistance?
I’m a scientist and have spent my entire working life in industrial environments. Sensitive electronics (if they’re properly designed) work just fine in industrial environments where the levels of electro-magnetic interference are orders of magnitude above what is experienced in a home-audio setting. Ethernet, Modbus, Profibus etc. all work just fine transmitting bit-perfect data from point A to point B often over hundreds of metres. Magflo meters which generate an infinitesimally small induced voltage proportional to the velocity a conductive liquid moves through a magnetic field also work just fine in these environments. pH, dissolved oxygen and ion-selective electodes operating with microvolt signal amplitudes also work just fine. Do you have any idea of the harmonics high-powered variable speed drives create on the power supply, or the noise and hash that PWM DC drives produce, or the noise and spikes produced by multi-tap soft starters or Star/Delta starters or the RFI generated by HV motors and switchgear?
Yes, I believe in, and have a good grasp of acoustics. My listening room is heavily treated. No drywall either - render-set cinderblock in my 1955 built house.
You would be great at starting up a party 
I had a serious hifi salesman telling me that putting the CD on a particular piece of marble prior playing it improved the sound.
Said he was sceptical at first too…
I never went back 
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Returning back, to the topic.
Electric interference – is a huge issue and companies such as AudioQuest and Chord, including the whole engineering of the motherboards by Robb Watts, is based by minimizing such.
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That’s why some expensive cables, mentioned in this post above, have ‘galvanic isolation’, which stops or at least try to prevent low frequencies from amending the signal and therefore the sound.
That’s why many, when it comes to the digital signal, prefer Coaxial cables over Optical a/k/a Toslinks, for the same reason – better control over the noise – if interested – google ‘toslink buzzing noise’.
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Think clearly here, please. It could simply be that those people have less to gain by lying to you about these matters than any “expert” who’s trying to sell you something. Not that they know more, necessarily, just that they know more accurately. Not saying that’s the case, but it could be.
Why do people depend on salesmen (yes, even very technically accomplished salesmen, but still folks making promotional appearances to sell their company’s products) to gain their knowledge of these matters? Baffles me.
No one’s denying the fact that electromagnetic and radio frequency interference exist.
Electronics designed for domestic use have to meet strict requirements for not interfering with other electronics.
If sensitive electronics can function in harsh industrial environments, then they sure as heck can operate in your home.
Certain audiophile types seem to think everything in the world is a source of noise and interference. My challenge is simple:
PROVE IT!
Prove that there a real differences attributable to audiophile digital cables, whether they be SATA, S/PDIF, USB, ethernet or whatever. Simply proclaiming you can hear the difference isn’t proof. Show me measurements, show me data. The burden of proof is on those making the claim to convince me that the assertions are true. It’s not up to me to prove things that don’t exist!
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Correct.
I’m a scientist therefore I know better
This category includes people who are fine within their own areas yet fail or refuse to recognize that other applications of the same technology can involve different issues. Relative to this thread, cables in general, whether they carry digital or analogue signals, are subject to EMI, shielding, and antenna effects. It’s easy to forget that a digital signal is just a coded analogue signal. Forgetting about jitter (leaving it for another time), the noise/distortions will not affect the bit values as long as they are low level and not extreme, so computers and other sensitive applications can be immune. The same noise sources can be carried to converters via source mechanisms within a transport or server, which in turn can become audible due to the sensitivity of hearing. This is as much as I’m saying about it, since I’m unaware of published results that demonstrate most of it.
Pardon me, @Graeme_Finlayson, but:
Graeme, I appreciate the challenge and the nature of it – I do – but in the end of the day such things as RF noise in such niche as being ‘audiophiles’ – is no universal truth in a sense of decision-making because it’s extremely subjective when it comes to the sound. It’s private party’s decision either to participate in purchasing of such and such equipment or not.
On many audio and sounds forums – such as audiosciencereview.com – people trash us – audiophiles – using the same argument as you use. And for the record – it’s not true!
Edit: P.S. 1 & 2 are written by Jim Brown from K9YC, who is one of the founding fathers of Audio Engineering Society and is still on the board. More here. More of his publication – here
At this point, I think someone needs to say this. When it comes to their area of expertise, scientists do know better.
I fail to see how discussions about RFI in respect of ham radio are relevant to the notion of audiophile SATA cables.
No one’s disputing the RFI and EMI are real. I’m disputing their effects in the digital realm affecting the analogue realm where it comes to digitally encoded audio signals as applied to home hi-fi.
You’re free to buy what you like based on your beliefs, however I take issue with those who state effects are real, purely based on their say-so, without any proof.
You still haven’t provided any proof that EMI/RFI in a normal home audio setting can compromise a digital data stream to the point where the effects are audible in the analogue domain.
Ah, the never never-ending cable discussion.
Around 15 years ago I had a pair of expensive interconnect cables on review. I will name no names because the vendor is still in business and It’s not my intention to harm someone’s monthly income. I was more or less forced by someone else to try them so what the heck. I won’t go into detail about how they sounded but after I took a look at what was behind the outer jacked I discovered it consisted of Belden fire-alarm cable that cost around $2500 per kilometer of wire, so that is $2,50 per meter, pretty expensive for an installation cable but they where heatproof and nicely build with twisted pairs in airtight teflon isolation. With hand soldering and nice-looking finish they could end up at a $50,- to $100,- selling price per stereo meter but his pair cost no less than $800,- !!! That’s $5,- worth of cable in a nice audiophile-looking jacket!!!
After revealing it on an audiophile forum the vendor took part in the discussion and stated it more or less to be true but their argument was that they had spent thousands of hours listening to a wide variety of cables to come to the best sounding ones. That was their justification of the $800,-. Funny thing is that 90+% of the people who actually bought the cables agreed on this. Only a couple of them felt misled. They all thought the high cost was justified. I tell it again, Audiophiles are a very very strange breed, they just like to be fooled over and over again and again. That’s all fine with me as long as they are happy with it.
I have heard too many systems with very expensive cables sounding completely like sh…t. Anytime I hear someone talking about cables and discover he/she has a system with pair of loudspeakers with 5-inch woofers in it I can only think he/she must be either joking or completely out of his/her mind. Completely ignoring a very important aspect of playback and at the same time endlessly nitpicking on futile details, that’s absurd to the tenth degree as far as I’m concerned.
I have just got one for testing but it won’t plug into my tone arm….
I’m sure somebody will be able to find an audiophile adapter for you. Shouldn’t set you back more that four or five hundred dollars.
The title of that article is wholly misleading. I fail to see any scientific blunders. Scientists and engineers overuled by politicians, deliberate malfeasance by ‘so-called’ members of the scientific community, outrageous claims that could not be reproduced in a controlled environment (ring any bells?)
Exploitation of scientific developments still in their infancy by those looking to make a quick buck (oh, the irony).
EDIT: It seems the post to which this one replies has subsequently been removed, so unless you happened to read it prior to its deletion, this post will fail to make sense…
This topic got way out of hand and breached several forum guidelines … thus the moderators have intervened.
Many posts are now hidden but the ones that also had reasonable content have been edited to remove direct references to other posters.
Please abide by the forum guidelines and discuss the topic not the authors. Failure to do so will result in the topic being closed and further measures considered.
@Carl Please accept my apologies, a few of the posts here raised my hackles (direct comparisons of myself to “der Todesengel” for instance) and I responded in ways which were less than appropriate.
I’ll keep it civil from now on.
I fear that disassembly of many boutique cables would yield striking similarities to your findings…