Like most people, I've always had a healthy cynicism for cables, particularly of the 'high end' variety. Six months ago I 'downgraded' from chord chameleon ICs and chord epic twin speaker cables to some ridiculously cheap silver/PTFE jobs from a bloke who makes them on ebay. These were a third the price of the chord cables, but it was shocking how much better they sounded with the vinyl front end and I promptly flogged the chords off.
I didn't really listen to the CD that much until recently but didn't think it sounded good at all however. It was murky sounding and distorted with poor high and low frequency extension. I hadn't considered that it might be the cables initially, and had assumed the TT was just showing it up and that I might have to upgrade the Apollo R. I don't know why, but I thought I'd try the IC the otherway round, having read a bit of unconvincing stuff somewhere about cable directionality. To my amazement and delight I was astounded how everything was suddenly right again. There was clarity, sophistication, emotion, separation, musicality, and extension in spades. I then realised the arrows marked on had been pointing in the wrong direction all along - it had been back to front.
It's possible this effect may be more important with some cables rather than others. Maybe solid silver is more prone to it. Even if your cynical about this, it's worth checking cable direction and experimenting if things don't sound as they should. This was not a subtle effect in my own system. I am certain I have not imagined it and didn't believe in the phenomenon until experiencing it. Why it might happen, I don't know - there's stuff postulated about the asymmetrical crystal structure of pulled / rolled metal, but then again the signal is AC in nature, so it doesn't make that much sense.