Yes, cables do make a difference -- regardless of price...

Thank you for going through the process and reporting the results, which did not surprise me. The rule of thumb is to judge by their capacitance specs between conductors (see below). Mogami 2549 (standard dual conductors) has substantially lower capacitance than the rest. I can attest to the experience of using Mogami 2549 as an interconnect cable in the past years, and it has been quite satisfactory. The reason behind this is that the combination of the cable’s capacitance and the output impedance of the source could form a low-pass filter that affects higher-end signal frequencies. 

Mogami 2549 also has much lower capacitance than its quad-conductor peer, 2534 (97 pF/m), and the somehow popular Canare L-4E65 (also quad) cable (150 pF/m). The user feedback among these three was similar: Mogami 2549 is the outperformer.

(Cable brand/model - capacitance, pF/m)

Mogami 2549 - 11

Grimm TPR - 33

Gotham Gac-3 - 150

Vovox Excelsus - 100

@crozbo she recorded the same section using each of the our XLR cables I have on hand: Vovox Excelsus, Mogami 2549, Gotham GAC-3, and Grimm TPR. Each of the cables have the same Neutrik connector ... The differences were not small and very apparent. In the end, the Mogami cable was the winner — it seemed more open and warmer than the other cables and suited the tone of her voice the best.

The biggest audible improvements I have experienced are with cables that actually address audio transmission issues, such as Transparent Audio and MIT.  All the other variations on a wire theme are fairly close together, as long as they are well constructed.

Years ago in the WBF forum, engineers and scientists were debating the claims on the Masterbuilt Cables website.  The Masterbuilt were designed by the same government scientists working on superconductors (no, Masterbuilt is not a superconductor, merely that the government scientists are at the cutting edge of this field). After back and forth debate, a Masterbuilt scientist finally entered the fray with an answer that went way over my head.  This silence the debate.  I come to realize that even great scientists or engineers knowledge/reasoning pales in comparison to experts in the field.  

@kennyc @dave_b Other than the qualitative description of removing undesirable capacitance, resistance, etc., Masterbuilt and/or Transparent cable manufactures seem not being transparent about the technical specifications. While it is not uncommon for high-end or boutique cable manufacturers to emphasize qualitative descriptions and subjective evaluations in their marketing, rather than providing detailed technical specifications, the omission of such transparency impedes customers from making informed decisions when acquiring expensive products like these. It is advisable to reach out directly to the manufacturers to obtain these details before making a substantial investment, however.

Combined with proprietary counter-helix winding geometry to avoid inductance and capacitance interactions, the Signature Line also offers the world’s finest quality connectors to transmit the musical signal with accuracy.

By the elimination of parasitic effects of excess resistance, capacitance, and inductance, the Signature Interconnects can transmit the musical signal so faithfully that their introduction to your system will be as dramatic as any major component upgrade.

@lanx0003 

In an ideal world I agree that customers would be better served knowing exactly what they are buying including the manufacturers costs including R&D and markup.  However, we live in a competitive market with many copycats.  If these manufacturers revealed their “secret sauce” derived from their efforts and expense, other would quickly copy at the manufacturer’s expense.  Subsequently trying to sue copycats would be financially prohibitive and nearly impossible such as Chinese copycats and recouping their expenses from their efforts would be impossible (I hate to use this word but none other fits as well).  
 

In a way, I sort of got around some uncertainty but purchasing Siltech Classic Legend which is silver impregnated with gold.  The price is somewhat higher than other silver cable offerings but at least I have a clue of the value of what I purchased - better metallurgy vs no clue.