Best budget $300 Balanced IC Recommendation

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

I have a couple of friends which bought Mogami cables. Both systems seemed to be lacking in mid range and mid bass. The cables seemed to extend the top end and low end with a missing middle and low middle. These were well broken in cables. My friends are changing them out looking for better sounding cables.

Stewart sounds like a great guy! Sorry to hear about his loss in sandy. A few other great guys, who make great cables are Paul at clear day cables (double shotgun speaker cables are excellent) and Frank at signal cable. I am currently using signal cable silver resolution xlr's and speaker silver resolution speaker cables. Great sounding cables at a very reasonable price. I'd like to add that I feel really good about buying products from a company that when I call or e-mail them, I talk directly to the owner of the company. Priceless!!