For speaker wire, if you want to wet your feet very cheaply, I always suggest getting some basic 12awg stranded OFC copper speaker wire from Monoprice (or any other source). At $15 for 50 feet, it’s such a cheap way to see how copper works in your system. Honestly, they aren’t that bad.
If you are okay with a DIY approach, you could get some Neotech NES-3002 speaker wire from VH Audio and cut/strip the individual solid-core strands and mount them in Furutech FP-201 (gold or rhodium) spades. It’s not difficult, but just takes a little time on your part. This speaker wire is on my list to try (I’m currently just using the 12awg stranded).
If you want to get a manufactured speaker cable, the Wire World Equinox 7 comes to mind, or the Wire World Eclipse 7 (if you’re willing to spend the money).
I don’t know about other speaker cables, but one thing I make sure to look for is OCC Copper and solid-core conductors. You could look at Kimber 8TC, which is a good cable. Kimber is not OCC, but close. It’s also not solid-core, but the varistrands only have 7 strands in each bundle.
For interconnects, I have tried the Wire World Eclipse 7. It is a very good copper interconnect. I would say it’s somewhat on the soft / laid back side, but everything is there. I hand-make all my own cables and I haven’t found a manufactured cable that can compete.
I do have a set of Audio Sensibility XLR cables up for sale on audiogon, but again they are solid-core silver. They use three OCC solid-core conductors per signal leg (20 / 22/ 24 awg). This makes for a 17awg cable, which is significantly larger than your 26awg. It is a very fast and clear cable, revealing very minute details in the music. It’s about the best silver cable I have heard, but again it is silver. It will translate waveforms to be a higher frequency than they should be. This is excellent for sources/equipment that have a very slow slew rate and are very warm.
