Looking For 90% of the performane of the super expensive cables for much less money

Good luck you will never get 90% of the performance of top cables such as Purist which i using at a very cheap price.Much of the cost is r&d materials and construction technics.Good luck though!!

ebm nailed it ........ Your OP title is  asking for a unicorn.

There is one irrefutable and irrevocable basic tenet in this crazy hobby as you meander the Yellow Brick Road to Audio OZ:

Everything is built to its price-point with a performance quotient in lockstep, and therefore you get what you paid for ...... full stop.

Look at Audio Sensibility out of Toronto.

https://audiosensibility.com/blog/

You have a better chance of closing the gap if you purchase used. For interconnect cables something like Audioquest Niagara. Audioquest current Thunder powercord offers excellent value and you should be able to get the recently discontinued Wireworld Silver Eclipse 7 speaker cables for a decent price. 

If you select and pick carefully in the used market and avoid those marquee names that for whatever reason command used values far in excess of their relative worth (i.e. Nordost, Transparent) then you can do very well (btw not meaning to say that these aren’t great cables, just that their used values are much higher than equally good cables from other manufacturers, good if you are a seller, bad as a buyer)

My rule of thumb for used cables (assuming not current models) is as follows (recognizing that no one ever pays full list for a new cable as well)
- reasonable price range 30-40% of MSRP
- excellent value range 20-30% of MSRP
- a steal (or a fake, be careful) - less than 20% of MSRP

Avoid paying more than 35% of retail unless you really know you want that cable

Consider for example this "steal" that someone made yesterday
http://echohifi.com/details/12661/Shunyata_Stratos

I make cables with Duelund wire. If you are into DIY you can also. Sold $2000 Cables for these and these sound better. The Duelund stranded copper wire in oil impregnated cotton is wonderful and as good as the big dollar cables I have owned. Better than most really. No need to spend more. $160 for ICs and some $200-$250 for speaker cables.  

@akg_ca 

The OP's goal might well be unrealistic but I've read your "...you get what you [pay] for......full stop" comment once too often.  I disagree.  Value doesn't follow price in lockstep.  There are exceptional, high value to price audio products out there.  There isn't a single price to value curve that applies to all components of a given type.  While I absolutely believe you can pay too little and regret it, it is also possible to overpay for what you get.  Would that pricing were always based on R&D, high quality materials, labor and a reasonable profit margin.  Advertising adds little value for me as the end user, but these do have to be recovered in the price.  Some manufacturers build brand equity into their pricing formulas.  Let's not even discuss the cynical (few) that use high price as a product differentiator and marketing tool.  

I built my own out of solid silver cables with silver plated XLR connectors and never looked back. 

https://www.partsconnexion.com/CONNEX-66070.html

I mean, yes, I could play the cable game, or I could be satisfied with something that sounds great, is inexpensive and uses materials it would cost hundreds of dollars if bought retail. 

Best,

E

The audiophile’s dream.

Regarding the phono cable, if perchance your EVO III cartridge is the high output version you will want to keep in mind the following statement in the cartridge’s manual:

Note: If your receiver or pre-amp has capacitance loading capabilities, a Sumiko high output moving coil cartridges should be loaded with a value no higher than 200pf, and ideally below 100pf.

According to a review I’ve seen in "Soundstage" the Thor TA-3000 phono stage (if that is the model you are using) does indeed provide a selection of four different load capacitance settings.

You would presumably want to use the lowest of those four settings, if I’m correctly assuming that the numbers in their statement refer to the total of wiring capacitance plus phono stage input capacitance. But given that the tonearm cable and the connectors that are involved will probably present a load capacitance in the area of 20 or 30 pf or so, keeping the wiring capacitance in itself in the area of 100 pf will not be possible with many phono cables.    ***And that has no particular correlation with price.***    For example, the Purist Genesis phono cable has a capacitance of 45 pf per foot, while the far less expensive Signal Cable Silver Resolution phono cable is 18.9 pf per foot.

If your EVO III is the low output version, though, while cable capacitance would be considerably less important, minimizing it would still be preferable. See the information provided by Lyra cartridge designer Jonathan Carr that is quoted at this link, which is based on test results with a low output moving coil cartridge having the same output voltage rating as the low output version of the EVO III. And note the conclusion:

Comparing the simulations of the 3 cables shows that higher capacitances in the tonearm-to-phono stage interconnect cable demand lower resistor values at the phono stage input to control the resonant high frequency peaks. This in turn reduces the cartridge’s dynamics and resolution, and can also worsen tracking ability.

Good luck. Regards,
-- Al

Three more ways to improve the cables you have.

1. Send them to the cryo lab pronto. Even if they were cryod at the factory, which most high cables are.

2. Establish which direction is the best direction.

3. Burn them in on a burn in device or a burn in track on a test CD. Even if they’ve been in your system for years this will further improve them.

http://www.bluejeanscable.com
Interesting company.

They've done all my cables, and I think I'm at least at 90%.

Used Tara Labs RSC ic's and speakers cables.  Wonderful for from $150 to $400.

I bought expense cables...Heard no magic and returned them.

Kimber 👍🏻

rewire to Mogami and Kimber.

https://www.bluejeanscable.com/store/audio/indexmob.htm

98% performance for 10% cost 

Good Listening 

Peter

I was going to say..  90% is really easy.  99% is harder.  Beside that, just call The Cable Company and borrow some cables.  It’s cheap and easy.

Check out Silnote. I’m extremely happy with their entry level XLR-to-XLR and XLR-to-RCA interconnects. They only sell direct. Middleman margin is quite substantial. My dad is also a big fan of Wireworld.

Mr. Vandersteen uses Audioquest in his setup systems.  If you like solid wire, Audioquest makes some pretty nice equipment.  No, I am not affiliated with them.

Audioquest.....
RV who invented your model 5 supplies AQ wire with his model 7 power amps
yes there are other fine wires also
i would take a well executed copper wire over most silver any day
i am getting excellent results using some very affordable Kimber and Shunyata wires in our condo system w Vandersteen Treo
the Reference system uses AQ Wild and I think the law of diminishing returns splendidly illustrated @elizabeth is right 
BTW
properly setup IMO few speakers at any price rival the 5
.....
enjoy

For IC’s running between sources and your preamp, try doing the Schroeder Method of parallel assembly. Check at least 3 cable threads for details. 

Schroeder uses clarity Cable 

It’s generally applicable to any cable. Review the threads. 

FYI for those interested:
https://www.dagogo.com/audio-blast-schroeder-method-interconnect-placement/

Related forum threads are here: https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/new-teo-audio-ics-who-has-them 
here: https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/anyone-try-teo-gc-jr-interconnects-yet
and here:
https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/doug-schroeder-method-double-ic

The studios that record the music you love use the cheapest cable they can find when they are building. A $10000 cable will sound the same as a coat hanger dipped in rubber.

spend money elsewhere.

The capacity of humans for self-delusion is unlimited - Mr.Spock

Try Triode Wire labs cables. 30 days return. Pete is a great guy to deal with - always responds fast, delivers on time and his cables are very well build, flexible and sound great. I have the top of the line obsession and in my system its better than the Shunyata sigma HC. The TWL digital bested the latest Audioquest tornado power cords ion my system.

What’s with all the left-over 80s dudes? There isn’t really any controversy any longer but I have to admit it’s a real good opportunity to play Sniper, Stalker and Whack-a-mole, you know, games like that.

kjl1065 .....If you want a really,really great pair of top notch IC’s..the Gabriel Gold brand will deliver in spades!!! I have a full loom in my system and they are the real deal for the money spent. I would highly recommend them to anyone that has an ear for high end,high quality sound...on a not so high end budget.

I’m just having fun guys. And yes, packman was a ton of fun in the 80’s

I've tried most all cables mentioned here in last 40 years .Audio Art is the most value for money on the market .If your listening is primarily rock, Anticable will do fine , not bad on jazz either .

schubert"Audio Art is the most value for money on the market .If your listening is primarily rock, Anticable will do fine"

That is amazing how would any cable designed and intended for use in Music Reproduction Systems possibly distinguish on its own the genre, style or orchestration of the music signal that it is transmitting at any single point in time?

Interesting and as always controversial thread.  On the cable/interconnect thing, I have two opinions......and little practical experience to back either up, so take that for what's it's worth :)

While I do believe that different cables, IC's etc. can sound different in different systems, I think the cost of many of the "boutique" stuff is absurd. Ultimately, it's wire with some nice connectors. You can twist it, shield it, comb it, braid it, cryo it, use different dielectrics, play with the gauges, but in the end...........it's still wire.

Perhaps if I had deeper pockets I could and would play that game, but I'm of the mind that any properly designed cable, interconnect or wire, should get you at LEAST 90% of the way there...............better ways to spend your money..................Maybe I'll try some 12/2 romex just for fun. :)

OBVIOUSLY , the cable can not . Classical is FAR more demanding of a recording than rock or small group jazz in many ways .Sound Stage and definition of 90 musicians at a time for starter.

schubert"Classical is FAR more demanding of a recording than rock’

That is a wholly mistaken, misinformed, and elitist pronouncement completely lacking in any evidence, substantiation, or reference it is a broad, sweeping, and unsupported generalization based on a completely confused, sociocentric belief and conviction rather than actual observation, data or research. It is actually a faith-based claim.

elizabeth
Geoff, Do you have a favorite cable brand? Mine is Kimber, with a helping of Cardas. (I tend to dislike AQ due to some failures of insulation on some Midnight years back, and then a AQ record mat that became a goo record killer if any LP was left on it for more than an hour..) the rest I know nothing.. nothing.. So you see I have a slight hold back on anything AQ.. Hurricane included.

>>>>>Comments accepted without comment. Would you believe I don’t have a favorite cable brand. Actually, to be perfectly up front, I don’t use cables or power cords.

I have been to over 2, 000 live classical concerts in the last 50+ years .I DO know what I say is so .You do not .

Is Classical Music elite ? Yes it sure is  .ALL claims are faith based to include science , especially science .

@geoffkait 

Well finally you admit you don't have a system powered up - oh wait - let me guess your system works on teleportation power and signal transfer ? 

Good Listening

Peter

schubert"I have been to over 2, 000 live classical concerts in the last 50+ years .I DO know what I say is so .You do not .'

This statement is based on blind conviction, faith, and belief you can not possibly know anything about me at all because I have protected my right to anonymity hear so you can insist that you're knowledge, experience, and pronouncements  here are superior to that of others but the truth is you have no data, substantiation, or even casual observation to support your cherished beliefs at all but you are welcome to feel as smug and self-righteous as you like especially as you make Christian-based observations about the behavior of others here which you know nothing about. 

pbnaudio
@geoffkait

Well finally you admit you don't have a system powered up - oh wait - let me guess your system works on teleportation power and signal transfer ?

>>>>I’ve already said too much. 

elizabeth"Science is not faith based. It is the opposite of faith based."

Elizabeth of course you are completely correct however you must understand that those who insist and cling to faith-based beliefs and  convictions must as a means of supporting their beliefs equate them with those which have been established through the scientific method because if they did not do this they would not be able to repeat, defend, and promote their beliefs they must achieve an "equality" between their faith and science or otherwise their faith based beliefs are revealed as the fantasy, fabrications and woo that they are! 

Actually we do have examples of faith based notions that are presented to us as science. The “science”of the earth’s age, earth’s formation and creation, Big Bang etc... all have major gaps that require “faith”.  

Whoa! What? What major gaps in science are you referring to? I don’t like gaps. Gaps and Geoff clash. Whatcha got, grannyring? Anything?