how important of a role do cables play?

i bought some new cables yesterday. i wanted some good stuff this time. i got some Hot Lines. ive never used them before, but they at least seem to be built alot better than my old fender ones. they are shielded also and have gold plated leads.
but i never really though about how important cables can affect tone. do they really make a huge difference? as an electrician, i know the importance of impedance in low voltage circuits, and how good continuity can make a difference in output. but as far as tone goes, does it make it any better?
i tried my new ones and i like them. i seem to notice a slight difference in sound, not that huge....but maybe its just me.

any feedback on this?

[Stiglar]

Eric johnson would tell you it makes a different but to my ears and i'm sure many others the difference is pretty minimal tone wise . basically all you pay more for is lastability and length etc ..

if someone knows more about this i'd love to hear what people think

[El_jalepeno]

Oh yea... There is a difference. Take a cheap, thin cable. Play with it for about half an hour. Then take a really good cable and play for half an hour. You should notice a huge difference especially in noise reduction

[Stiglar]

well there you have it !

hehe thanks for settin things straight ej guess i've never really listened out enough !

[Rid]

Well and bad cables also works like a capacitator, which can cause all kinds of weird things.
Good cable opens up your sound, bad cables are usually very muffled and sounds dull in general, it because our guitars have highimpedant pickups, which after after a few meters cable will degrade alot(which is why I am not a big fan of "true bypass stuff"....
if you run more than 5m cable then your signal will degrade a great deal, a good buffer will wake your sound up again, most modern pedals has lowimpedant outputs.
Run cables as short as you can if you only use truebypass stuff, with buffered stuff you can run cables a great deal longer.
Some cables has more midrange or a more airy topend, can have a softer sound, try a few and get a feel for them