FACT: Also been in audio since the 60's. That was a time of acceptance to trial and experimentation. ( Remember the "POOGE" principles? Progressive Optimization Of Generic Equipment. The Pooge concept was coined by Walt Jung, Chris Hollander and Richard Marsh in Audio Amateur. The idea was to improve stock good sounding audio amps, preamps etc. by upgrading to higher quality components such as the component's hookup wire ( silver coated? teflon insulation?), caps (polypropylene?) , resisters ( metal film , switches ( silver contact?) , volume pots ( ALPS, stepped attenuators?)....by-passing caps with .01 mF caps, shortening the signal paths, improving the grounding layout, new circuit boards, better tranformers, etc.
I "POOGED" my Dyna PAS tube preamp over several years with super satisfying results, taking out a lot of grain and bringing up the "you are there" feeling. My best tube preamp ever - still have it and hook it up sometimes.
ANYWAY... I definitely hear differences between various speaker, interconnect, hookup wire in DIY components - sometimes subtle, sometimes none and sometimes glaring....sometimes positive and sometimes negative. To me, making occasional trials with other wires is part of the fun of audio....and these trials with various ethernet cables is right up my alley. As I listen to a lot of streamed music ( and films) I look forward to POOGEing my ethernet connection!!!
Let yuz know what I hear soon.