My own journey proved to me that I upgraded cables too early. There's a good discussion here with a top guy at Benchmark about the order in which to upgrade components and the degree to which upgrades are likely to help. Cables are dead last and almost not worth thinking about given that most people have not optimized much more impactful parts of their system. FWIW. Here's the discussion.
USB Cables: beginning the rabbit hole
Time to audition USB cables. I have always used the same cable a 2004 beauty that came with my Mac G4 in 2004, so this should be fun.
A few questions from the team here:
1. Best way to audition so that I can return what I don't like? I'm in the U.S.
2. What brands would you suggest. Budget is <$500 for 1m. I will audition 2-3 to start with. Curious Cables is one.
3. Is there break-in required? If so, what method and for how long?
I promise to report back my impressions here.