Yes, cables do make a difference -- regardless of price...

I commonly hear people say that they want their system to sound like the "real thing".  But of course that is never going to happen since you do not know what the "real thing" originally sounded like.  What you mean, I suspect, is that you want it to sound like your interpretation of what you think the "real thing" should sound like.

@crozbo It helps a lot to use recordings you made yourself, because you were there when it was recorded, huh! 😀

If you even get a chance to try equipment that supports AES48 (which is likely a bit more expensive) I'd be interested to hear if you still hear the same differences.

When the standard isn't supported, the shield of the cable becomes the signal return path, just as it is in an RCA cable. So its more susceptible to noise and the construction of the cable itself. Not only that but you lose immunity to ground loops. Cable immunity and immunity to ground loops are two things that the balanced line system is supposed to eliminate, along with reduced noise (Common Mode rejection of noise; CMRR).

So if the standard isn't supported, you're likely to hear cable differences. I think this is why the single-ended vs balanced thing is an on-going thing in high end audio since so little of high end audio equipment supports the standard.

The hardware part of the system is simple:  Audio Technica Cardioid Condenser Microphone AT2035 connected with a XLR cable to the Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 preamp.

@crozbo I've said this many times on line; if your equipment supports AES48 then the interconnect cables will hardly make any difference. I don't think that mic supports it, so you'll have to audition the cables to find the one that works best for you.

Its pretty amazing to me to see how mics have changed over the decades; that you can buy a large element condenser mic now for only $150.00! I'm sure that's given a lot of people access to making music that were shut out before.

But to make a mic at that price you have to cut some corners somewhere, and I suspect that it does so with the tiny preamp that's built into the mic. If it references ground, then cable immunity is out the window. IOW it might be a balanced output, but it doesn't support AES48, the balanced standard. The Audio Technica site doesn't say, so this is theory on my part. 

We use Neumann U67s in my studio, running into custom vacuum tube mic preamps, which drive the recorder directly, bypassing our mixer. You can put whatever cable you want in that setup and you don't hear a difference. But the Neumanns have a proper floating output which is the only way AES48 can be supported. They also have no problem driving 150 Ohms, which is a typical microphone level input impedance (quite different from the 3KOhm input of the Focusrite).

These sort of things have to be taken into account when making statements about cables. When you have the lower impedances of the pro equipment, cable differences vanish.