Please Help Me Choose a Speaker Cable


I need to replace my existing speaker cable setup with something more wife-friendly. I am currently bi-wiring with Audioquest Type 4 (tweeters) and Aperature 16 (woofers). About 20 years ago I bought the wires off a spool and had them built w/ banana plugs. You can see a pic of the offensive cable setup on my system page (https://systems.audiogon.com/systems/6318). I put a nice jacket over the cables hoping that would be enough to clean up the messiness.

What I want is something of equal quality that will also fit inside my VTI speaker stands. The stands have a 3/4 inch opening and the 4 banana plugs don’t fit through. I want to continue bi-wiring but would go single if the sound was just as good on a different set of cables. A bi-wired cable terminated with two spades at the amp side would fit through the stands (2 banana plugs might fit also).

I don't want to spend more than $600 and need a 10-12 ft. pair. There appear to be a lot of options on Agon right now. I see names I know are pretty good like Audioquest and Kimber. If I were to pick one I would probably go with the Audioquest Rocket 88 or CV-8 or maybe the PS Audio Xstream. Maybe there are better options for less? Will the cables in this price range be good as or better than what I have? If not, maybe I should try terminating the two cables into one set of banana plugs on the amp end to see if that fits.  I guess I would prefer spades because they would be more flush to the speakers, thus a little cleaner looking.  

Thanks.
treebeard1
<dealer disclaimer>
Purist Audio Design makes excellent cables.  With a $600 budget you can find Purist Musaeus Rev C and Purist Musaeus Praesto bi-wire speaker cables at your 3.0m-3.5m length need...they are such low noise, high detail, musical cables, it's hard to find fault with them.  I haven't heard a cable outperform them at each price point.  Good luck on your search.
Thanks for all the recommendations. I sent the AQ CV-8 cables back for replacement. If these don't work out I have many suggestions to try!

hi i have used various cables over the last 35 years , i would like to suggest Townshend audio DCT isolda speaker cable , Townshend audio have been around some 5 decades there factory is over here in the uk everything is manufactured to a very high standard, please check the company out on the internet , theres some great deals for there DCT isolda speaker cables on ebay.co.uk you could pick up a 3m length for around 450/500gbp you will not be disappointed the openness and 3D imaging can come as a shock if you are not used to it the overall sound remains very natural , i also use there fractal interconnects the designs of these cables makes for some very interesting reading i am not a dealer or have any financial interests involved , im just offering some very honest and hopefully helpful advice regards john    

As @rackon said, I thought your existing cables looked pretty tidy as well.

Time for a dedicated listening room :)