Excellent plan - I think that’s the best way to go.
The Magic Patch Leads from Cable Monkey are excellent and worth every penny over cheaper leads.
@Michaelb - I did outline my musical tastes in an earlier thread - please click here if interested
My view, FWIW, is unless there’s a statistically significant stratified random sample of listeners agreeing one digital cable is better than another then results of one person’s listening tests aren’t useful to another in determining which they’d prefer (if any) - different room, different systems, different ears. Posts about the resuklts may be interesting if explained well, as indeed yours are.
I’d expect an expert listener to be able to tell which cable is in use by listening in the way a wine connoisseur can tell the vintage and grape variety by tasting. I doubt there are many who could. However, the way to know if one prefers New Zealand Savinugon Blanc to the same wine from an expensive French vineyard is to taste it. And so with cables - listen rather than taste.
I have heard cables from two of the often recommended audiophile cable assemblers and neither impressed. I’ve reached the point that if there are better cables than ones I’m using I’ve ceased to care as I’m more than happy with what I have.