With even basic soldering skills, some patience, and a bit of heatshrink, you can make a very nice sounding pair of balanced IC's in your price range by purchasing high quality bulk IC cable from Furutech, Neotech, VH Audio's own Symmetry cable, and others, then installing XLR connectors from Furutech, Neutrik, or others. For example, from Partsconnexion, 2M of u-P2.1 IC cable is $82 and four of the Furutech FP-701/702 connectors would be $50. For a total cost of $132 you would have PCOCC wire that has undergone Furutech's magnetic and cryogenic Alpha treatment and some nice connectors. You could upgrade the same cable with some of the nicest connectors out there FP-601/602 for a total cable cost of about $332, which could get down to your (under $300) price range if you wait for one of their 15-20% off sales (usually in Oct, Nov and Dec).