@yyzsantabarbara: Yeah, my post was a sort of joke, as Ralph Karsten of Atma-Sphere has many times here asserted that hooking up two components which both adhere to AES 48 balanced pin configuration will result in the balanced cable contributing no sound of its own. As your post makes clear, not everyone agrees with Ralph's assertion.
Disservice: XLR interconnects
I ended up shelling out some serious bucks and buying Cardas XLR interconnects and connected them between the Luxman C900U, M10X and the hifi Rose RS150B. I am blown away, at the details and just how it bumped up the sensation of just the beautiful musicality..
I have to say, I am no longer in the camp of cables don't matter. In fact, I think folks who say cables do not matter are doing a great disservice to the audiophile community.