Cable Upgrade: Too much transparency

Not too transparent but maybe too revealing. Good cables can highlight problems else where in your system.

I used to have some diamondbacks and I actually had pretty much the same experience. Now a few cables down the line I have some Auditorium A23 ICs and without changing a single other component all is well.

It's usually too expensive to start replacing components due to some wire
that appears to cause problems, aside from defining "transparency" in this situation. there's nothing wrong with going back to a good basic pair of interconnects as long as the connectors are well made and the insulation does its job. OTOH better components can reveal distortions/grain that you didn't have to deal with before, so starting with your source component and going
downstream to the amplifier will aide you in discovering what needs improving.
depending on how critical the quality of the recordings you listen to the most are, will determine the lengths you need to go. some people may never find the grainless totally-realistic sound they were originally seeking...

It's possible that what you're hearing is distortion caused by stacking of low quality materials in the product, e.g., PSC wire, polyethylene primary dielectric, etc. I wouldn't have these in my system.

If you can't live with the sound, recommend you switch to a cable made of OCC copper wire (not OFC), FEP Teflon dielectric and copper (not brass) plugs. There also is OCC silver wire, but it's brighter, and probably not for you.

Acoustic Zen Matrix Reference II is a good cable, IMHO. Beware of AZ fakes being sold as 'demo' on some audio websites. Also, if located in Europe or Canada, look for Atlas Cables, e.g., Titan which is similar to the Acoustic Zen Matrix Reference II.

the issue seems to be one of spectral balance. either there is a thinness, or perhaps an emphasis upon the treble frequencies.

it is possible that some other component(s) in the system is causing this.

you should listen to other cables, or try to recall the sound of your stereo system when you were using the cables which were replaced by the audioquest.

if you are confident that it is the cables, you have the answer.

it has been suggested that distortion may be reponsible for what you are hearing. perhaps, wire impurity, and or dielectric problems. could also be the connectors.