I find it a bit odd that someone who owns Weiss and EAR has no idea about interconnects, because they're pretty sophisticated components. But if you never fooled around with cables, I suggest you buy a couple of pairs of ICs from Blue Jeans for about $30/pair and listen for a few months. They are good, pro-quality cables and will give you a baseline. Later on, you can try some higher-priced cables and see if you think they're better. Without a baseline, you have no way to know. As to the "10% rule", I think that may be good advice when you're purchasing a new system and you're on a tight buget, but I have used expensive cables on cheaper components and found they made a huge improvement. If you're of a mind to move ahead right now, I would look for a pair of used Audience AU24s, which are great cables for the price. The older models are excellent and the company has great customer service when you need it.