Re: You do notice the cheap cables..
The truth is, there is signal loss at each connector, and more signal loss per meter of cable. Since it is digital it either works or it doesn’t (there’s a very small area where the signal breaks up).
For two meters any old cable should do. For five meters you want good connectors. To get 100 meters working, that’s expensive because you need a good quality cable with much lower loss per meter.