Speaker cables for Sonus Faber Olympica II

I have ordered the Audio Envy speaker cables. I will try them in my system for about a month or so, and if I can't notice much improvement, i will most likely end up returning them.

@b4icu -- I appreciate your offer, and might take you up on it if the AE cables don't live up to the hype. 

I agree with @adg101. Clear Days are amazing. I would have kept my cables, if the replacements did not burn a hole in my pocket. They are seriously good cables for the money. There is another person here who has WyWires, but still hanging on to his Clear Days.

Speaker cables should not be stretched. 
The Amp's DF and the cable length determine the speaker cable AWG. 
NOT the speaker!
Tell me what is your power Amp's DF and I'll calculate you the thickness
(AWG) required. You can look for a cable that thick at eBay and get it 8 banana plugs. It will sound best and cost way less than $500.

My previous cables were all Clear Days including the double shotguns with Paul’s jumpers. I felt they were and are still great cables for the money and punch above their price point but I sold them after moving to WyWires. I started with Silver series and slowly moving up to the Platinum series.
Back to the WyWires Silver series which is only a name as they are all copper... no silver in any WyWires cables. The first difference comparing the two it was obvious the Clear Days brought attention to themselves where the WyWires just got out of the way and let the music play. Secondly there was more stage, width and depth with the WyWires were the Clear Days were more closed in but not bad but definitely lost the openness or air. With the Clear Days I struggled to make my speakers disappear whereas the WyWires with what I already described even with eyes wide open my speakers disappear. The WyWires did not lose fine detail over the silver Clear Days so don’t assume it’s a soft or rolled off cable. The bottom end on the WyWires will dig a little deeper as well. Overall the WyWires are very natural and just get out of the way.
Paul was a good man and made a fine product and we lost a really good manufacturer in this hobby when he left us. Definitely not bashing on Clear Days as I enjoyed them for several years but for my ears and system I’ve preferred WyWires and highly recommend them and suggest looking into them. You’ll have no problem finding a used set in the Silver series to start with in your budget. Keep your Clear Days until you find your next set and let your ears be the judge.

If you want to try something new within your budget look into Canare. Serious good cables, flexible and did I mention affordable. I’ve recommended to others and so far no complaints. Might want to read up on them and can be found on Amazon last I checked. They’re used in pro audio in the field and studios for good reason. They do take some time to settle in so be patient.

@milpai Thanks for sharing. As much as I like Clear Days for the open, lively sound, I feel that at times it gets a bit too hot on the top. I hope Audio Envy is different in that respect. 

@arafiq ,
The Audio Envy were very revealing just like the Clear Days. They were open and cast a wide sound stage. They were not run in at all with 0 hours on them.

@soix I hear you man. I've already splurged more than what I had planned to this year, so yeah I was being cheap :)

Originally, I was thinking of temporarily using longer cables as a stopgap measure and then buy more expensive ones later on. But this is a fantastic price. Appreciate the recommendation. Will check it out.

Call me crazy, but I’d think very fine $10,000/pr speakers can justify a bit more than $500 cables, especially if you’re running shotgun bi-wire cables, no?  There’s a 12ft. shotgun pair of Acoustic Zen Satori cables on eBay for $650 that should do justice to your Olympicas if you can spare the change.  Best of luck. 

Thanks @milpai ... I recently purchased an AE power cord for my DAC and am very pleased. Their speaker cable was in fact the first one that came to mind, but wanted to see if there are other alternatives. Do you mind telling us what sonic attributes made an impression in your friend's system?

I would highly recommend Audio Envy for that price range. I had compared them to my Clear Day Shotguns (8 foot) in a friend's system and they were very very close to Clear Days.