Is it all in my head??

One thing I believe I do know by now, is that the insulation known as PVC is just plain terrible...I mean it’s hot stinking garbage...just no good way to apply it for sound quality’s sake. It’s that smooth, usually black or dark grey, rubbery material that you often see on lower-priced IC’s, sometimes on speaker cables or even pc’s. Almost all the IC’s that come inside the box with new gear have it. It’s smooth in texture, has a matte finish, and gives a little bit to the touch like neoprene, except PVC has much finer air cells within it.

PVC destroys air, openness and the sense of atmospheric space, not just through the mids and highs, but down into the lower mids and can even obscure some bass detail. It has that characteristic "dead", "lifeless" or "rubbery" sound to it that you usually associate with cheaper wires. The good news is that whenever you simply strip off this material down to whatever material is underneath, you breathe massive amounts of life back into the sound and the music. With XLR cables the underlying material will likely braid shielding, in which case you need to cut carefully without nicking up the braid too much. But, it’s amazing how much even cheapie wires will benefit from this! Which makes it easy to try out if you have a pair. But, I’ve tried it enough times now to know that whenever I buy any wires with this jacketing on it, I know definitely that it’s coming off as soon as I buy them.

Infinitely better than trying to cook them into compliance!

That is to say that, IME, most wires that have Very little or no insulation, do not seem to require any break in at all...with the possible exception of silver conductors, which I don't work with much anymore, since I've come to realize I generally prefer copper.

This is, so far, the most reasonable and polite OP that I have seen on topic of cords/cables. Now, if the thread could remain that way...

Personally, I would really appreciate someone pointing me to some sources of sound, scientific information about what factors make up a true, audiophile grade interconnect and which characteristics tend to enhance clarity, treble, bass speed, etc.  I cannot afford trying 20 different types. But, I can distinguish sound quality differences among the various types I already have.  I just don’t fully understand why those differences exist beyond guage and shielding quality.