Try again after soaking in a tub of ice water for a few minutes, your resistance will be lowered, sound may improve. If you are really bold, l'd go all out and immerse yourself in a bath of liquid nitrogen. Cryo yourself!
Turns out I'm a high impedance cable
Funny story- I was messing around with my new DAC and had a pre-amp input cable in my right hand and a CD output cable in my left. Brothers In Arms was playing on the CD so I could have a known live output to test with. VIOLA! I heard the music faintly through my speakers!
Now as for the sound quality- it sucked. Therefore I won't be using my newly discovered :talent" to audition components or do cable comparisons.