When I dropped less than $200 on a new digital cable from Mapleshade in my system my mind was telling me no way would it sound better than the $1000 Virtual Dynamics digital cable I was already using. Luckily I have two ears and one brain so my ears won the vote that contest. My mind was already made up that my current cable was superior and I just auditioned this one since I liked the other products I had tried from this vendor like his speaker stands and CD's. It took about 10 seconds for me to know that the new cable thrashed the one I was using. My ears outvoted my "logical" human psychology as well.
The VD cable went on Ebay and I had money left over for the new one. I know the placebo effect can happen. As for technical tools this is an interesting one, it helps reduce placebo effect and its free:
http://harmanhowtolisten.blogspot.com/
Interesting. Are you saying that using the Harman methodologies you were able to distinguish between these two digital cables in your system?
Can I ask you what was the equipment being used?