Stewart sounds like a great guy! Sorry to hear about his loss in sandy. A few other great guys, who make great cables are Paul at clear day cables (double shotgun speaker cables are excellent) and Frank at signal cable. I am currently using signal cable silver resolution xlr's and speaker silver resolution speaker cables. Great sounding cables at a very reasonable price. I'd like to add that I feel really good about buying products from a company that when I call or e-mail them, I talk directly to the owner of the company. Priceless!!
Best budget $300 Balanced IC Recommendation
I have a Cambridge Azure 840C with both Balanced and SE outputs. I have been using Kimber KS1021's with Black Pearl silver and copper stranding. Anyway, I wanted to try the balanced connect and ordered a pro cable for about $20. I could not believe the results! The pro XLR cable sounded almost as good as the Kimber and it's not even broken in! This tells me balanced is the way to go. I'll probably sell the Kimber's to finance the purchase or trade for a balanced IC. Looking for some help and suggestions - thanks!