Reasonable high end interconnects: without breaking the bank

jworth:

A recent AQ audio left me severely nonplussed. System was all McIntosh driving Bi-Wired B&W 800 D3. Generally excellent, with all AQ cables.

Switching the speaker cable to a higher priced $12k vs $6k destroyed the balance. Vocals became boxy.

Restoring the speaker cable and replacing the DAC/pre cable with one @ 2x $ made the system unlistenable. The top end became aggressive and phase coherence destroyed. Silky cymbals became clangy with edgy harmonics. Grand piano sounded like 3 separate instruments.

A perfect demo that price means nothing and cables must mate to the system.

I am a big fan of Kimber Kable.  They are well made.  I like them enough that I use their wire inside my speakers and could not be happier with the quality of their products and customer service.  They have a strong price/performance ratio and are my first choice.  

+4 for elizabeth, very good advise given, for the Ops question of silver vs copper again I'm with elizabeth. Spend an extravagant amount assembling silver loom (used) only to be disappointed. Back to copper. I do firmly believe that cables are system dependent and one size does not fit all. Price does not guarantee better. For example I had Transparent Ultra SCS at multi multi Benjamins only to be never wowed at all, boring, then bought some Tara labs (used) and cheap and was blown away. They are still in the system. I found Blue jeans cable very good for providing a base line and are a very acceptable cable in all configurations.  Not plugging BJC as none remain connected but they did their duty well and provided great comparison opportunity.  
I see a lot of plugs for specific brands and that's a good opinion but it's opinion of their system which differs from your system. 
Get a affordable baseline first before wasting $$$ trying to get YOUR sound via cable swapping. JMO!

nonoise
Being an objectivist is merely a facade for being subjective in that belief.

Ultimate catch 22. Well played. Objectivity is no longer possible.

That was partially the intent. Some folk use objectivity as a fall back position, a crutch to use when they don't have a good or valid point with which to counter something that makes sense, like, "I hear what I hear."

The only other option is to employ ad hominen attacks questioning the person's sanity, gullibility, or ability to hear well enough. It's not quite a straw man argument and more like a mott-batte (spelling?) technique where you waylay an argument with something akin to what you're talking about but not related to the actual discussion. From there, one can redirect the discussion to a more defensible position, which at first blush, makes sense, but in actuality, has nothing to do with the topic.

All the best,
Nonoise