$500 USB cable

" What does this ultra expensive USB cable do to your audio system "

It diminishes the sound quality ...

because it takes money out of your pocket that could have been spent on equipment that actually does make a difference, namely speakers.

Ones and zeros aren't that picky. They're either there are they aren't.

All signals are analog. The only difference is the information contained in the signal. In one case it’s an analog waveform, in the other a series of square waves representing voltage levels. So actually the so called digital signal doesn't contain ones and zeros, but representations of ones and zeros. Both types of signals are electromagnetic waves, I.e. Near Light Speed, I.e., photons.

To those saying spend more than five or ten dollars on a USB cable ... when you bought that aftermarket mains cable, did you R&R the wall socket? What about the wire in the wall? Or in the breaker box or from the house to the pole? Why not? And that $500 run of speaker cable - did you replace the cable within the speaker box? It’s standard cable off a spool, not $50 a foot. More like .50 a foot. So why didn’t you replace it? Doesn’t the relatively inexpensive wire used inside your amp/pre obviate the use of inanely expensive outboard wire? This can only mean that you are willing to believe that high dollar wire not only sounds better, but it removes any and all bad audio stuff from the ’substandard’ cables earlier in any of the chains. Like it or not, that’s magical thinking.

Edit: And in the case of speaker wire, later in the chain, as well. The waves leave the amp through standard wires and connectors, travel through $50 a foot boutique wire, then inside the box to wire you could buy at Home Depot. But the $50 a foot wire improves what comes before and after it. No wonder it's so expensive!

To me 1s and 0s are just that, but @geoffkait makes a very good point about just being representations of 1s and 0s. That tells me it's about the source,  not the cable. Personally,  I think one must consider the resolution of the system. Maybe a difference with $10k components but probably not $2k components. 

Cable sales hinge on confirmation bias and gear G.A.S. I've done blind testing with interconnects and speaker cables. I failed miserably, and I'm a musician. Then I examined the science. Cables are snake oil. There's nothing else to be said.