Years ago, I bought a few hundred feet of vintage wire. There are 2 bundles inside, each being made of 7 solid core silver plated 18-gauge copper wires. I've been using it as my speaker cables and I've made almost all my power cords from this wire sans a ground wire. It has replaced many cables/cords. My speaker cables at the time were Audio Magic Sorcerers and Tara Labs Decade. I had several power cords which came and went but these DIY power cords are still in place. Power cords included Fusion Audio Enchanters, BMI Whate Supreme and Hammerhead Gold, Virtual Dynamics Nite Platinum.... many others. I reference this to indicate the quality of the wire in question. It's pretty good stuff.
I have used on this cable the following AC plugs: Furutech FI 25 gold, IeGO 8065 (silver over copper) 8075 (rhodium over copper) 8085 (gold over copper) and 8095 (rhodium over solid silver) as well as the Oyaide 046 palladium over gold over copper and 004 platinum over palladium over copper and it's pretty easy to hear a significant difference with each plug type. The differnce between either of the gold plugs, IeGO or Furutech and, especially the Oyaides and the IeGO 8095 is, in my opinion, a real deal breaker. Those gold plugs on my go-to wire obviously reduce top end extension and ad a very noticeable haze to the sound. Images become less distinct, and the bass loses texture and can bloat. And all the subtle little details which make the sound more real, more vivid are lost. And that is just by changing the AC plugs. I know this for a fact as I've done A LOT of experimentation. I'm sure you're right about the XLR chassis plugs being less than top notch and could be upgraded for better sound but that doesn't mean these xlr plugs for the interconnects aren't very important. In my experience, it ALL matters.
You mentioned using the pricey connectors on your DIY cables, what xlr plugs have you used and what wire? What were your experiences with those xlr plugs. Thanks for your input and time