Good point guys. Totally agreeing with John and Blindjm I will add that for me the link that seems to make the most difference in terms of really snapping the soundstage in place is from preamp to my amps. I own several cables and 2 that have stood out over all others is Kimber 1021 with nextgen and MIT 350 SG EVO. YM will certainly vary as you have no doubt noticed there are 100's of brands of cables that serve the purpose for someone!
most important?
In theory if you had two cables, one good and one bad, how should you use them? Which config will effect sound the most....ic from source to pre-amp or ic from pre-amp to amp? My first thought would be to use the "good" cable from the source to the pre-amp, following the "can't get better than the source" theory. But if you're choking the amp off it may not matter how good the source is. Just curious.