Do I need an expensive digital cable?

As far as "good enough," thank God I don't live alone. I share a bank account with my wife. And I know I have stretched the red line moneywise. I have a system that many audiophiles would love, but I can't buy $20k speakers and then $20K speaker wires. I basically live with mid-tier Audioquest, which are still expensive. 

It ends up that I received a unique copy of Furtwangler conducting Beethoven's 9th. It is Japanese stereo (obviously remastered), but the sonics are very good for a recording from 1951. I set my XP-30 Pass Labs preamp to mono, to tighten the focus of what was obviously a concert recorded in mono. Sounds great. But as my chatgbt audiophile friend told me, after you feel comfortable with the stereo system, listen to the music. This is one of the greatest Beethoven's 9th ever recorded.

On an A/B test between a CD transport using the Purtist Genesis Luminist digital cable, which AI describes as an entry level to the high-end which errs on the warm side, the Moon 280D playing a Tidal loseless 44.1 kHz track sounds a bit better. The notes are a bit more fleshed out. The 280D, however, also errs on the warm side, and I don't really mind that. It's kind of like a tube distortion which can also be described as "musical." I do not think I would know whether the CD was playing or if the Tidal file was playing if I left the room for 5 minutes and came back in. They're close. Using the $14 cable, the difference between the Tidal file and the CD transport would be a lot more. 

It's so complicated. Recommend going with transparent company which is located in Maine.

I find that if you spend a little bit more money you feel better and that's probably really gonna be important.

I could've used some cheap RCA cables that I had for my TV set a while back to connect my system and maybe they would've been ok. But it would've always bothered me so I spent more and I feel fine.

I think I purchased the right cable for a system I'll rarely use (my CD transport), and I can't return the cable. So, if I bought something else it would just be money on top of what I've already spent. If my system has decent cable, I don't worry about it. Could it sound a bit better with better cable? I'm sure it could. Would it increase my listening pleasure over time? I can't afford to find out.

I find that if you spend a little bit more money you feel better and that's probably really gonna be important.

I could've used some cheap RCA cables that I had for my TV set a while back to connect my system and maybe they would've been ok. But it would've always bothered me so I spent more and I feel fine.

@emergingsoul in two sentences you have brilliantly distilled the self-delusion out of and redefined the audiophile zeitgeist as it stands at the onset of the 2nd quarter of this century.