ES,
In my experience, you can hear a difference in the presence, eq, and strength of the signal.
There are other elements that contribute to how you may or may not hear the differences. Quality of monitors, A/D/A converters, cabling, etc.
I used to use a Mackie 1604VLZ for tracking and monitoring. Once I started purchasing better microphones I found that the sonic nuances of the mics seemed to be lost in the Mackie channel preamps. I ended up getting dedicated mic preamps for tracking and connecting the sound card directly to a Presonus headphone amp, which passes the signal through to the poweramp for monitoring. The differences in mics, preamps and variable impedances are much more pronounced, now.
Don't rule out anything in your signal. If you have top notch gear, but then use cheap cables to connect to your monitors, the cheap cables may not allow the nuances to pass through. This can happen exponentially throughout the signal chain.
If you monitor with headphones, you may also find that the audio signal tranfers differently through different brands and models.
You are asking good questions, and your curiosity will serve you well. Use the search feature at the top of the page and you'll find hours of reading on most subjects related to recording.
Terry
