How important are speaker cables to the sound emanating from the speakers?

Very!  Try MIT

Brisson started the whole high end cable thing and is currently the only cable manufacturer who has Patents for his work in cable design with MIT.  If you want realism...MIT!!

I'll take your word for the detailed history lesson, but as I recall Brisson's work for Monster produced the Monster Interlink Reference cable which was a watershed for audiophiles at the time and used group delay/Varilay construction?  Bruce then formed MIT and has continued to advance the state of the art to this day....I'm not talking Hocus Pocus New Age crap like Cardas and the like, but demonstrable improvements in signal transmission.  Audioquest and Transparent have some good cables but MIT really blows out the walls and the dynamic constraints inherent in other cables, not to mention the tonal accuracy preserved via MIT cables.

Studioray doth protest way to much!  DS said his piece and you responded.  Get over it.  FYI, most cables merely alter frequency response depending on design and materials...the rest is marketing!  EXCEPT for MIT AND TRANSPARENT!!  They actually improve the signal transmission and reduce frequency anomalies and noise.  Everything else is just wire.

Interesting simao, been through the budget cables myself and had some great results.  I wish the MIT's weren't so transformative for my system...but I've been down the denial path as well and had to buy my way back up the cable chain!