Well, I'm answering my own question. I got a pair of XLR to demo for a couple of weeks. My comparison cables are a custom design I formulated out of Duelund 20AWG tin-plated copper with cotton in oil dielectric which is also mixed with ultrapure solid silver in cotton. This cable is a Tone cable in that it really creates a vivid in the room sound. They are also more forward of the speakers than strictly neutral. Really excellent tone on vocals and brass, cymbals etc. A good mate with my system overall.
The SQM is a very solid well made cable, not too stiff, a pleasure to connect. The SQM was a much more recessed, behind the speakers presentation. overall it is a tiny bit polite compared to mine, which are anything but. I ultimately thought this behind the speakers presentation was a bit too much for my own tastes, but I am sure there are many that prefer that. But they did a lot more things right than my cables. SQM is a very quiet cable with dark deep background and soundstage, they really do reduce noise, allowing more detail, sculpture around images etc. They had a very natural balance overall. Probably the most balanced sound I've heard from a cable (which is what their reputation is). Bass was really excellent, went a bit lower than mine with really excellent delineation.
It is clear that the SQM is excellent at time and phase accuracy, definitely the best I'd heard to date. And something that my cables fail at in comparison!
So my overall assessment of the SQM is time and phase accurate, super transparent, while being just a tiny bit on the dark side, image definitely falling deep behind the speakers, extremely quiet, extremely balanced, excellent bass. Compared to the kilobuck cables I've owned back in the day, they are an easy win. I'd guess they are competitive with cables in the $1.5K+ USD meter pair XLRs in terms of overall performance (they are less than $600 USD). I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them to someone looking for a sub $1K XLR.
What is most excellent is that I analyzed the design of these cables, and decided to do some of my own experiments with star quad design, shielding across a range of frequencies, super tight winds, new shielding materials etc. And I've come up with my own DIY that I think successfully betters it in almost every parameter
. I'm looking forward to recabling my system with this, after I am done finalizing this design. Should cost quite a lot less than the SQM (though not if I count all my experimenting)!
