Originally Posted by BCRider

I have easily noticed that the "slick" die drawn smooth cables are way better than just regular round strand cables. But from there it seems to be mostly mumbo jumbo when you move up to teflon or other coated cables. I've used a couple of such cables in the past and didn't notice any real world improvement in feel over just the smooth drawn regular "slick" cable. However I will say that I've also had noticable improvement in feel when using premium housings. I really liked the old Jagwire kevlar wound housings that were made similar to shifter housing with longitudinal support strands. They really hardened up the brake system feel. No noticable difference on the shifter systems though.

One thing I've noticed with shifter systems is that they do respond well to regular replacements of the housing regardless of which cables you use. The smaller cable seems to cut into the plastic housing lining more easily and when that happens it begins to bind things up. It seems that by the time a cable requires changing on a shifter that the housing needs to be changed as well if you want to restore things to a like new snappy feel to the system.