The sound, well they sounded great before the mod, and they sound great after the mod. Tough to tell if it made any change since I can't go back, but I doubt it. I will re-listen to some familiar music and see if anything shows up. I got focussed on the bass thing last night.
Cost of materials was $8.50, plus a couple of inches of 4% silver solder that I went through. It is difficult to use, so I tend to waste a lot of it. Oh, add another $2.50 for the connector that I swiped the strain relief spring from. It is still useable, but that would be the cost of that part. The plug and cable are both Canare, and I ordered them from Markertek.
I can post a picture if anybody needs it. I would have, but I was anxious to get them back together and plugged in. It was so nice having a real connector on the end of a real cable. Serious improvement to ergonomics, and an improvement in sound because I don't have to use the extension cable anymore.
gerG