RFI and EMI hitting the shield needs to go someplace. Ground is the best place for it to go! I used to know the technical "why" of it, but that was long ago.
I think Canare Star Quad sounds better than your average Horizon or Whirlwind cable, but it isn't nearly as pretty sounding as the Mogami Quad cable. If you only need to make a few good cables, spend your money on the Mogami Quad. If you need a lot of cables, and you have a restricted budget, then the Canare is better than Hosa, Horizon, etc. But I think in the end, the Mogami is worth the money. I found about 3 different models of Belden to sound better than the Canare too. It is still a bit more expensive, but again, if you are only making a handful of cables, the increased cost is not much of an issue. Canare goes for about .40 a foot, while the Belden and Mogami is closer to .70 a foot. On a 20' cable, you are talking a difference of about $6 per cable in price. Not really that much of a difference really if you are only going to make like 8 cables when you consider the better sound that passes through it. But, you will buy what you are going to buy, and I am sure Canare owners around here will disagree (although I bet few of them have ever compared Canare to other mid priced brands of cable before!)
I am a Creep!