What do audiophiles want from a cable?


What should a high quality interconnect or speaker cable do to the sound of a system? Make it more transparent? Improve the sound stage and focus? Soften unpleasant highs? Tighten the base? Bring out the mids?

To me, a good cable should reveal more of what is on the recording and more of the true nature of my components. So when trying new cables, I look for more detail and accuracy without becoming cold and clinical. This seems logical, and yet after reading reviews and trying a few of the cables in the reviews, I find that the cables that have received glowing endorsements are not especially transparent or revealing. They modify the sound, but they don’t take me where I want to go. I wonder if the reason I don’t hear what the reviewer heard is that I don’t know what to listen for. Am I too focused on cable accuracy and resolution, and not enough on actual sound quality? Or is it just a case of no two systems sounding alike so why trust a review anyway? Thanks.
mward
I try to use cabling to my advantage in the sound system.  Cables are ALL different and they have different traits and effects on components, rooms, and recordings IMO.  Key word being different lol.  No cable, system, room, speaker, ear, or brain is exactly the same really, so it seems to me that everyone's mileage with cabling will vary MWard.  What you will hear in a cable that you are using in your system, in your room and with your brain will almost always be different from another reviewer in another location, that's for sure. 

I can hear a certain cables sonic signature in my sound system.  I strategically put cabling into the system with specific components where I think they will work best in order to improve the system as a whole, and get the sound I want to hear.  It's a trail and error thing until you find what you like or what you think is most true to the source.  Spice is nice, but you have to start with a good room and good equipment or a good cable could be wasted IMHO. 
Cables are components, just as important as active components. Your question is in essence incorrect.
Can you hear anything without cables?
I think the crux of my question is, am I a good audiophile?  Am I judging cables the right way.  I'm entirely focused on accuracy but not on how they make instruments sound, does a piano sound like a piano, or would I rather have it sound like a poorly recorded piano?  What is the accepted measure?  Would you rather have a piano sound like a thin representation of a piano or would you like cables that fix that problem?  Is a cable that fixes the problem the best cable?