Affordable cables

Audio Envy. Their Studio Prestige RCA ICs and O'Nestian 4:4 Balanced ICs have replaced Cardas GR in my system and sound way better. High quality at an affordable price.

Hi Jetter 
I agree with you on the belden speaker cables from bluejean. Made my system too bright. I made a pair of twisted cables that work well.  On the pressure , no worries. 

"....If I were in the market for a new set of cables, I'd look into some of the smaller, cottage industry types who don't have the market exposure and need to factor all of those ads into their pricing."

Nonoise,

That's exactly what I did when I needed some interconnects. I had Take Five Audio make several sets using cryoed Mogami 2534 and Furutech connectors. Excellent quality/value and they outperformed all the expensive ICs I had on hand.  

"Nonoise" mentioned "Music Metre" cables. Did that company go out out business or did some other entity take over and change the name? The company's web site went offline circa 2009. I'm asking because I rather like(d) them: attractive design and (as far as I can tell), decent sound relative to lower-end Kimber at least.

I think the guy who ran Music Metre moved on some time ago. I remember going to his place (I believe it was in Glendale, Ca.) and he made his cables in his work shed behind his house.

At the time, he had every connector made and spools of wire and sheathing. He'd lay the cables on his table, put a load on them, and measure them with his multi meter. Then, he'd flip them around and measure again. He did that with every cable he made and made sure that both runs ran in the same direction, before final assembly.

 He'd then mark them for directionality. And this was back in the early '90s. Seems some people were ahead of their time.

All the best,
Nonoise