The verdict is in. It made a surprisingly nice improvement in sound. I wanted to give it a decent amount of listening time before coming to any conclusions.
@blueskywalker I don't think it sounds at all different after a couple weeks of listening than it did right out of the box. The necessity to burn in a BNC cable is baloney in my opinion, at least to my ears, or at least with this particular cable. Doesn't sound any better now that it's got a good 200+ hours on it. I left signal running through it 24/7 for the first week and noticed no change. Still don't.
After swapping in this new cable I immediately noticed a change in sound. It wasn't like when I upgraded to nice RCA interconnects either where I was straining to hear a difference. The change was subtle but not subtle at the same time. As in, there wasn't a drastic change in the overall sound, but the little changes it made really added up to a better listening experience.
I noticed the most change in the details of the mids and especially the highs in terms of speed. Now I get the "very fast cable" comment that one reviewer said. The pluck of a guitar sounds so much more crisp, but not in the way that it's just brighter. It sounds sharper and, well, "faster". I especially notice with electronic music. For example, at 2:48 on the song Luminous Beings by Jon Hopkins, there are these little click sounds in the song that I can only describe as razor sharp now. Swapping in my old cable makes them sound less snappy, resulting in them sounding somewhat dull. And the veil on the mids that was lifted from upgrading to nice speakers cables seems to have been further lifted after installing the new cable. I didn't notice a big change in the low end, however the new detail I'm getting from the mids and highs seems to be giving the low end more room to do it's thing. I know that's not technical terminology but it's the best way I can describe it with my limited knowledge of audio terminology.
Lastly, the soundstage is more holographic on my loudspeakers but also fixed a problem I was having with my HD800 headphones. I upgraded the stock tubes on my headphone amp a while back to NOS 1959 Grey-Shield 6922's which made my HD820's sing with the most amazing soundstage. However, it made my HD800's which already have a huge soundstage sound thin and lifeless. Somehow the switch to the new cable got rid of the problem of making my 800's sound thin and lifeless and now I can enjoy both sets of heaphones on that headphone amp. Don't ask me how. I was certain that after hearing the better soundstage on my loudspeakers that it was going to make the HD800's sound even more thin and lifeless but the opposite happened.
I was not a believer that a digital cable could make a difference. I was almost certain I'd be returning the cable but my opinion has changed. I've finally gotten to the point where I can happily say I'm done upgrading that system indefinitely. The system is dialed in so nice with such good synergy now that I don't want to change a thing. Phew! Never thought that day would come.
