Budget re-cabling

@kraftwerkturbo - 30 years ago "audio cable science" was in it’s infancy - even the good ones were bad compared to todays cables

Some comanies, like Nordost, introduced cable geometries that provided improvements, but they still used OFC copper and large solid conncetors

Todays cables are vastly superior in evrey respect

• low mass connectors that provide clear, clean signal transmission
• superior insulations that reduce noise floor
• metal purity and new manufacturing techniques produce wires like OCC copper and OCC silver for improved dynamics
• noise floor reducing geometries

And it just keeps getting better.

I have good cables on my $300 mini system and it sounds amazing, compared to the cables it came with

Companies like Audio Envy have done all the hard work for you at a reasonable cost - you’d be surprised.

But remember, any new cables require at least 100 hours break in

Good luck with your quest - hope you find the right cable.

Regards - Steve

If you're not opposed to adding your own terminations, the Monoprice cable is really quite good.  It's very similar to Canare and other bulk cables, but tends to run a bit less. 

Signal Cable.

Frank is the consummate gentleman and knows his business.

I have personally spent much more, and gotten much less.

pinetreeaudio makes cables of all types, custom lengths, construction, connectors, very reasonable prices

https://sites.google.com/view/pine-tree-audio/speaker-cables/speaker-cables?authuser=0

small diameter, individually insulated strands, I used to use 8 wire (2 lines) telephone wire.

Now I make my own using OCC copper Cat8 cables, simply cut the connectors off, add WBT or other high quality connectors on. (similar but better than the old Cat 5 you described.

here’s a quickie find

https://www.ebay.com/itm/394460784966?var=663011200983&hash=item5bd7b1e946:g:zuoAAOSwj51jNUF9&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAAwBjwJuDYijSqOv%2FyGMxWSa8k6btHFi%2FyynKwuX9FoCbAPqhnejbLHa%2F%2F5IYpUM57WjoZPZAx3vurbPEXi6o0XgdCnJKcsPRSRZteU7YcT0yLrFqXmrZV9HqFbo6gLSgGcFZ3d8SA2DJAUwUvgN6VMRl841CgJ4UW%2FlFQKsBh3e5IFFMZa%2FhPZCnWZryEH4Ebi7%2BM5Ayh7hm569IdcNm%2F0kafBnWPHYonHvXsxURTXfCXiK2Yy4SvubCWdD3QmFdfSA%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR-Cc-u_oYQ

NOTE: make sure the conductors are pure copper, some, only the connectors are.

AWG gauge calculator

https://www.wirebarn.com/Combined-Wire-Gauge-Calculator_ep_42.html

i.e. 26awg x 8 strands = 17awg, much more than enough for home use lengths

If you're curious about going old school, look at 10 gauge Blue Jeans Cables at a little more than a couple of bucks a foot would be worth a comparison.