Best budget $300 Balanced IC Recommendation

I am currently breaking-in while thoroughly enjoying a pair of Patrick Cullen's "Cullen Custom XLR interconnects".
They sound remarkably good between my W4S DAC-2 and W4S ST-500 power amp. The build quality and appearance are also very good, not only the sound.
At $70 + $9 shipping and with 30 days return policy, how could one go wrong?
You don't like how they sound in your system, return them.
You'll only be short round trip shipping for the audition, a max of $18, albeit the cables fit pretty well inside priority mail "if it fits it ships" boxes of around $5. So it will be $14 for a 30 days in home audition.
By all means, try them. You'll be pleasantly surprised.

I can recommend the Soundsilver brand sold here on Audiogon. Stewart is an honest gentleman and great to work with. His cables are extremely reasonably priced and come with a money-back. Pure silver. Sounded great in my system.

I will second the Pure Note Alluvion. It is exactly at the upper limit you refer (at least for now). I recently bought the balanced version to use between my W4S DAC2 and W4S ST-500. Still burning them (currently I am at about 150 hrs) but these are remarkably smooth yet have such an astonishing amount of internal detail. Look for comments at other forums too. The music beatifully floats between my Martin Logans with exceptional soundstage and absolutely no "silverish" sound or glare. At least in my setup you can nearly feel the limits of the recording room. My other balanced ic's are a Tara Labs Master Gen2 and a DH BL-1. For comparison the Tara (still use it in my Theta gear) is no slouch. It is smooth and very musical but not that resolving, the DH is also a very good cable to startup and might fit well in your system, but they didnt seem to have the inner resolution and smoothness of the Pure Note (of course they are made of different materials and at different price). Alluvion is highly recommended even if they were $600.

Agree with THOLT on Soundsilver interconnects! Amazing value for what you get! Stewart is awesome to deal with as well.

If you want to spend more then i can also recommend the Pure Note Alluvion xlr`s.

But for great sound, build quality and superb value - you can`t go wrong with Soundsilver.

Stewart at SoundSilver, is an amazing guy. I had a problem with one of his cables. Intermittent connections. Even after Stewart lost his home and cars in Hurricane Sandy, he was a true gentleman. He told me to send my broken cables to his new address and he would fix them NO CHARGE. I boxed them up, and included a postage return box for Stewart to return my cables. Not only did I get my cables back, fixed perfectly. I also got a 10 dollar bill in the box, because Stewart didn't think I should have to pay for the shipping. It is Audiogon guys like this that keep this hobby great.

STEWART: You have amazing cables, and the business ethic that is first rate. Thank you SO MUCH.

E Adams
Mansfield, GA