Have had the shortened Atlas Ascent 2 speaker cable back now for over a week. To my ears, well worth having them shortened & re-crimped (i could obviously shorten them myself but not terminate them without soldering).
The difference was audible going from my re-terninated Exposure cable to the Atlas set. Swapped in the Exposure again this afternoon - the sound became smeared, the bass indistinct & the treble a bit flat" My friend agreed but wasn't at all surprised
I know many of you feel strongly that cables can't possibly make a difference & the only real difference I've noticed between interconnects were between some Chord Crimson Vee MkI's & give-aways.
I'd prefer there to be some scientific explanation but there ain't any which are plausible I know of. I'm neither going to deny my own experience! I am well aware of the pitfalls of audio comparisons & audio memory being unreliable but I've swapped these cables over enough times to be convinced. I've also swapped stuff about before & heard no difference or there's been so little as to be discounted.