Yes that's the the beauty and the curse of good audio equipment. It makes you appreciate a good recorded album even more and gives you a glance of the recording process. I personally enjoy to analyse these little details that you mentioned, like a wine connoisseur does. Sometimes I use less...

Vinyl time.. Al Kooper - I stand alone Al Kooper - Kooper Session Boz Scaggs - Boz Scaggs & Band ..life is so good

A beautiful mid priced upgrade cable for only $6'000.. :D Cross Lambda Apollo GB https://www.ear-fidelity.com/cross-lambda-apollo-gb/

Final Audio Pandora Hope IV

Ok, that's interesting. Why China can't produce their own brass core plugs? Maybe you could share some Taobao links. That would be great!

Yes that's right. Probably they use generic plugs to keep the expenses lower. But the connectors are all from Liquid Links. Both brands are from China as far as I know. Even if Liquid Links claim their plugs are "made in Japan", what I personally doubt. The Snow pro is their most expensive...

The AK100ii has the optical output in the 3.5mm input. You can use a spdif/Toslink to mini Toslink cable.

I stumbled over a cable brand called "MELODY cable studio". They are using Liquid Links plugs and connectors. As far I could find out, it seems to be a sub brand of Liquid Links. The prices are more affordable compared to Liquid cables. They look interesting. Someone tried one of these cables...