>> I'm using a $2 cable armen bought from ebay, and I doubt I could hear the difference in a $100 cable<<
what cable? you probably could
i started off with some no name mic cables. I eventually got a 15 foot pair of audiomagic excalibur IIs (for hundreds less than they retail for, thanks marc) and ran those for a few shows. I noticed a difference in low end detail and "oomph". sold them after a few shows because I bought the 4022s and no longer needed a set of 15 footers. excalibur IIs are a bit overkill, but i did notice a difference. i found a killer deal on a pair of sorcerer 1 meter xlrs and ran those for a while between the pre and a/d and again noticed a difference.
but my home playback system is where i noticed the biggest difference in cables. i got a 1 meter pair of excalibur IIs (i love the audio magic sound) for my dac > amp and again noticed the low end difference right away. bass was much tighter and seemed to hit harder. now that i've upgraded the home playback, i have the excalibur II rcas going from the DAC to the pre, and a pair of spellcasters going from the pre to the power amp. i have another set of excalibur II rcas I may put in between the dvd-a player and the preamp, but I'm not sure yet. I need to do some listening to determine what I like best, and also run the test to see if my dvd-a player is putting out a full 24/96 signal. of course, it has to actually arrive for me to test...hehe