Going Topless

A variation on this scheme would be to try removal of the cover & using copper screen as an alternative cover/shield to attenuate incoming RFI (& fingers etc.). This reduces the deleterious effects of signal proxomity to ferrous steel (assuming the cover is steel?) while retaining RFI shielding properties. Or how about making an aluminum cover instead? It would provide less shielding than copper or steel, but would be more easily workable and functional

Pefstratiou it seems the you may have been the victim of a stray static electric charge induced from your body into the equipment as your hand passed over the cable's insulator? It may or may not have had anything to do with that cable, so I think you were incredibly lucky to have the damaged drivers repaired at no charge. But then again MIT is like that: very customer-supportive I've found. One day when I called them (& no one else was avaliable to answer a question) they actually put Mr. Bruce Brisson on the phone for me; I was impressed. MIT probably mistakenly thought that the defective connector caused your damaged equipment & absorbed liability as a courtesy issue - so I am even more impressed with them now then ever.
Those 'famous boxes' contain passive group-delay equalizers which control time alignment of various fequency ranges, such that they all arrive at the load end of the cable in-phase. While these components are a serious issue of debate between various detractors & proponents of the technology, I must confess that although I too laughed at the idea for years, I stopped laughing when I finally decided to try their cables for myself. What happened? I bought some more!