Your Monoprice cables were probably made with ordinary stranded copper wire, which is suitable for use in an aux cable but not a headphone cable.
Good headphone cables are instead made with tinsel wire, for far more flexing cycles than typical stranded copper. This page has close-up photos showing how it differs from ordinary stranded wire.
Based on its advertised intended usage, I would guess this $13 Syncwire cable is made with tinsel wire.
It looks decently-made. From a BIFL perspective, you may want learn to be able to replace the 3.5mm jacks. Tinsel wire isn’t easy to solder, but here are some tips on how to do it:
Your Monoprice cables were probably made with ordinary stranded copper wire, which is suitable for use in an aux cable but not a headphone cable.
Good headphone cables are instead made with tinsel wire, for far more flexing cycles than typical stranded copper. This page has close-up photos showing how it differs from ordinary stranded wire.
Based on its advertised intended usage, I would guess this $13 Syncwire cable is made with tinsel wire.
It looks decently-made. From a BIFL perspective, you may want learn to be able to replace the 3.5mm jacks. Tinsel wire isn’t easy to solder, but here are some tips on how to do it: