whats the very best sounding cables for realistic money

As a cable designer for 2 decades I can declare all cable designers want the same thing to design a cable that leaves no signature of it's own without distortion. The end result is to render a true musical presentation, in tone, realism, openness, and satisfaction. It's an amazingly difficult goal. In the end we all want to hear the recording as if we are there experiencing it first hand.  

So, as a designer of cables for many decades where do you stand on the dodgy subject of is there or is there not such a thing as directionality? If you don't wish to answer I'll understand.

Yes there is directionality depending on the design, my cables are directional because of the elements within the cable to stabilize the magnetic wave form. More basic designs like generic cables are not directional unless there is a dedicated shield that would be attached to ground on one side.

Check out 'Blue Jeans' cables. At about 30.00 they are very cheap. These replace MIT 770s, Audioquest Lapis, Monster and more. They are very well balanced and dynamic and transparent!!

for AC power bottle head cord or better a Topaz isolator

for DC power to a USB DAC, use an isolator/regen device and a LPS for best results (which may be zero depending on your DAC etc.) - wind up a DC cord using a star-quad layout or buy from Ghent

for speakers, use short runs with mono-blocks and try various cheap cables until you like the effects of complex impedance changes

for ICs, use balanced

all the above are inexpensive and effective - shills, fan-boys and fraudsters will try to sell you ineffective things for thousands