Best interconnects used for around $500 +?

Purist most musical.

Several Years ago when I had a CJ CV12 preamp I used MAC silver cables with good results. Currently I too use Clear Day ICs with my Odyssey system including a tubed preamp. Very nice combo. But I did test drive the Ohno and Purist Vestas. WhileI thought the Ohnos were thin sounding the Vestas were beautiful, musical. They run around $300. I had two sets testing between dac-pre and Pre-amp. Ultimately I went with the Clear Day for additional detail but if you are looking at musicality vs detail with less musicality the Purist were really something. I can only imagine as you go up the line. I tested both through the cable company. May went to test two pair of each to put get the full picture. Regards.

As someone who goes into almost every cable A/B test skeptical that I will hear any differences, I usually end up convinced that I hear some differences only to be left wondering if it matters. Recently I borrowed the Audience  au24se XLRs and couldn't believe how veiled my system became. I looked at the terminals and the connections just to be sure there were no issues there and all seemed well. Left-Right was identical. Extremely disappointing compared to my Audioquest Columbia 2m balanced ICs.

I know you're asking about SEs and not XLRs, but I still believe this is a worthwhile data point whether it be related to build quality, design philosophy, etc. Disappointing is disappointing. When I compare expensive ICs I don't expect to hear that.

DNM HFTN IC cables run about $500.00 new and to my ears are very hard to beat at 4x their cost.