What I have experienced with cables, is that to get the sound you want, you have to use the cable in your system in the application intended. Price should not be a consideration...there are very inexpensive cables that are far better than their expensive counterparts in an application. Take that same expensive or inexpensive cable and use it in a different system, and the cable will sound different. One thing I have found universal is that unshielded cables always sound better than shielded cables...more open and relaxed. There are applications in which you have to use shielded because of noise.