Cable interfacing issues w/ CD player Need help

I recently downgraded my speaker cable to a much less expensive cable. The size and width of former cable was a source of family discord. The cheaper cable is much smaller in size and nobody trips over it. However, it lacks about one third less midrange detail of the former more expensive cable which I sold and made some bucks.

To further complicate things, I purchased a new CD player, a Mapleshade Audio modded Cambridge Audio 550C touted to compete with 3K players. It replace a Rega Apollo. My problem is this this: I am not sure if the lack of detail in the midrange is more related to new CD player or the inexpensive speaker cable. Before getting the new player, the Rega Apollo sounded good with the less expensive speaker cable, which I am going to replace with something much better. When I plugged in the new and modded Cambridge Audio CD, using the same speaker cable, the loss of detail in the midrange seemed more evident. The player was new with little burn-in time. Todate, and with 60 hours break-in, there is no improvement. I changed IC's from a Chord "Chameleon" to a Morrow Audio MA-3 IC, which seemed to offer some overall improvement, but also adds some edge at the very top end, which was not the case with the Chord IC

I realize now I should have never made "two changes" almost at the same time. Nevertheless, I don't want to just go out and buy any good to VG USED speaker cable, to see if the loss of detail is speaker cable related. There are a few bargains on Audiogon, like a listing for a 14 ft pair of Analysis Plus Oval 9 speaker cable for $250; but is that only going to complicate the problem and evaluation process. For the record, my speakers are Acoustic Zen Adagios. I moved from their Hologram 2 speaker cable to Audio Art SC-5 cable which is just fair in my system. AA cable was pre-burned-in at the factory All advice and comments welcomed!!!! Thank you