I've compared and had a lot over the years. Only ones that really did it for me were all Synergistic. The first ones that really amazed were Synergistic Research Element Copper Tungsten Silver speaker cables. The CTS replaced some nearly 20 year old SR Resolution Reference .5 speaker cables that were themselves really good, well good enough I was happy with them for 20 years! The CTS were "only" 15 years old when I bought them earlier this year- yet so good I never dreamed a wire could make so much difference. These CTS came with Galileo power modules for the Active Shielding. Right away I had Michael Spallone modify the MPC which brought them up to a whole new level. Talk about pleasure! Truly amazing inner detail, deep stage, powerful dynamics, black background. Probably the last speaker cables I will ever own.
With interconnects, hearing the CTS got me wondering how much better my Resolution Reference interconnect could be. So a month or so ago I decided to try the Synergistic Atmosphere Euphoria. These come wired for grounding, which I have yet to use. Even so these are at least as impressive as the CTS. They are on my turntable, the only thing used for serious listening, although these things sound so good it should be called pleasurable listening, or sometimes when spinning one of my White Hot Stampers transcendental listening. Sorry. Running out of superlatives.
Sometimes people who think they know something will try and fool the gullible into thinking wire isn't all that. All I can say, the only other things I love as much as my Synergistic wire are my Herron phono stage, Koetsu, Conqueror arm and Miller Carbon Turntable. Yes wire is that big a deal. Finding the best is not easy. You mentioned a lot of wanna-bees, and I went through a bunch more myself. When you find the right ones though, then you realize all you had to go through to get there was totally worth it. Hits my pleasure button every night.
