You should read Bryston's web site for James Tanner's comments about interconnects. Bryston makes its own interconnects, and I used their balanced interconnects with my Bryston setup (SP-1, 4B-ST, and 5B-ST). The Bryston IC's were certainly satisfactory, but I was vaguely dissatisfied -- for reasons I can't really articulate.
After playing the "cable swap" game for about a year (with AudioQuest, Kimber, HomeGrownAudio, and other brands), I eventually tried the Alpha-Core Goertz TQ2 interconnects, and the Alpha-Core Goertz MI2 speaker cables. I have been VERY pleased with their performance in my system, with my speakers (Vandersteen 3A Signatures). You don't indicate what kind of speakers you have, so you must take my comments for what they are worth. You may (infact, probably will) get different results with another speaker system.
I'll close with a general comment: if you are unsure about cables, an excellent starting place is with the Kimber Kable line. There is a wide price spread for both IC's and speaker cable, and based on my experience with Kimber products (more than 15 years worth), I think that Ray Kimber's products offer a lot of performance for the money (at each price point). The Kimber PBJ and Hero interconnects are excellent, as is the "VS" and "TC" line of speaker cables. Last, I think that single-ended (unbalanced) interconnects work just fine for for the majority of home theater systems, UNLESS you have very long runs of interconnect from the preamp to the power amp. Single-ended IC's are also cheaper than balanced IC's, so you can get better quality cables for the available budget.
After playing the "cable swap" game for about a year (with AudioQuest, Kimber, HomeGrownAudio, and other brands), I eventually tried the Alpha-Core Goertz TQ2 interconnects, and the Alpha-Core Goertz MI2 speaker cables. I have been VERY pleased with their performance in my system, with my speakers (Vandersteen 3A Signatures). You don't indicate what kind of speakers you have, so you must take my comments for what they are worth. You may (infact, probably will) get different results with another speaker system.
I'll close with a general comment: if you are unsure about cables, an excellent starting place is with the Kimber Kable line. There is a wide price spread for both IC's and speaker cable, and based on my experience with Kimber products (more than 15 years worth), I think that Ray Kimber's products offer a lot of performance for the money (at each price point). The Kimber PBJ and Hero interconnects are excellent, as is the "VS" and "TC" line of speaker cables. Last, I think that single-ended (unbalanced) interconnects work just fine for for the majority of home theater systems, UNLESS you have very long runs of interconnect from the preamp to the power amp. Single-ended IC's are also cheaper than balanced IC's, so you can get better quality cables for the available budget.