Like it or not cables do make a difference...changing my stock cables to some l4e6s has always given me slightly more punch to my bass and slightly more extension to my treble. It's not a huge improvement but its still there behind the curtains, very minor.
This is my logic, this is in no way stating its true in any way but its my logic, so take it with a grain of salt. I'm no cable engineer, nor an audio engineer in any way I just DIY stuff.
First thing that hit me was that power cables require cables that is able to hold currents, like how there are industrial grade cables used for making power cables for high current tools. You don't see hospitals using stuff you can buy from Walmart and such they have their own grade of equipment to go with their equally sensitive equipment.
From here onwards I will be using slang or certain words because I don't have the right words for them xD
Ok imagine you have a thin wire, it's like a pipe? Limited amounts of water can go through it in such the larger the AWG of the wire/pipe the more "power"/water can go through. So your getting a signal from a DAP(low end ones i guess) or maybe your phone? The signal is weak doesnt have much power so maybe even if you have power going through that cable it's little so it can flow through nicely and there won't be a difference because the cable isnt being "overloaded". But imagine "power" coming from a dedicated amp? It's a lot stronger and bigger volume, so naturally a smaller pipe/wire would hold back that huge volumes of water/power. So imagine a small amount of power flowing to your headphone drivers. If only a little of that power can reach into your driver before being released as sound waves you'd get a weak signal/sound waves.
But, if you have more amounts of power going through a larger "pipe" the amount of power being released into the driver and converted into sound waves would be larger, which would in turn give a boost to the dynamics of the sound. Deeper and higher extension of bass and treble are an example. Thats my explanation when I switched my alessandro cable which was like thin and flimsy lol into a L4E6S by canare which was thicker. Than in my opinion it's useless to get a bigger cable like those power cables for headphones because headphone drivers have limitations so even if you put a nitro into a weaker car it aint going to be as fast as a better car with the same nitro. So one of the limitations of cables is the drivers ability to receive that "power" which is why speakers require large wires haha to receive more "power".
Than next is silver vs copper. Would paint look smoother on a sanded piece of wood or a wood fresh from being chopped down? It's like grime in your pipe slowing down your water flow. Silver better conductivity therefore less grime in your pipe and smoother flow of "power"
Next is my opinion on cablemakers and such. Of course if everything was as simple as I stated above than anyone can just get some silver cable and throw it together to make and sell for a lot of money. Which most people believe thats what 3rd party cable makers are doing. But this is my though on it, So we know larger wire = more flow and silver = smoother flow. WHAT IF we use that knowledge to control the flow? A mix of silver and copper cables??? A mixture of larger and smaller wires??? More "power" there to make lows less rolled off, a little less "power" here to reduce the too sparkly treble. This would take a crud load of experimentation.
Yeah so this is my view on how cables work hahaha, this is just my honest opinion with no scientific support at all just some random theory I cooked up.