Who makes budget speaker cables which are truly “good” or “exceptional” in quality?

With a little DIY-efford you can make the second best cable I have ever known/auditioned (the best was a solid silver wire by the Swiss company Audio Consulting, very pricey..., thread in a cotton hose).
It consists of 6 solid cores of bell wire in a PVC coat. So twist 3  opposed leads each and crimp with a cable lug/cable shoe, cable termination or whatever you need. You will get a cable that will outperform nearly every cable of the big names! Build with confidence- this cable won't disappoint you!

I have used many different cables from many companies. After over 55 years of audiophile fun and games I now use AWG10/type3-k tinned marine mains wire. Type 3 has greater strand count and k is for awg30 individual strand size. It can be had at reasonable per foot cost (under .50) and has superb audio characteristics. All interconnects and speaker wiring has only one goal, to transmit the signal with no alteration. If a connect is adding some "voice" to the sound then for me it is unacceptable.

You all have been brainwashed, imho

That's humble alright (third meaning).

There are lots of good cables out there without breaking the bank. Don't listen to anyone that says speaker cables don't make a difference or only need to be a certain guage, that's nonsense. Kimber makes great cable that gets you close to the music without edginess or fake sparkle and I use it most of the time. Anything past that level you will be spending hundreds if not thousands for a 2-5% increase in transparency and sound quality. If you don't want to spend over $100 I've found a lot of flat copper generic cable to do a good job as well but don't go with standard zip chord. Don't do it!