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

I made myself a pair of cables using DH Labs Q-10 bulk wire and DH Lab's locking banana plugs (nice quality). They aren't dirt cheap, but a pair of 8ft cables is under $400 with DH Lab's 10% coupon. These were a big improvement over the Audioquest and Nordost cables I was using. The Q-10 cables won't be a match for every system, but in my system (Parasound JC-5 and Goldenear Tritons) they provide a nice smooth sound with excellent bass and great imaging. A step up in clarity compared to the Audioquests (Mammoth) and a much fuller, richer sound than the Nordost (Red Dawn). 

Anyone else tried Knukonceptz Karma 8 guage with their bananas, they sound great to me and very low cost for what you get. Their interconnects also work very well.

Clear Day, Blue Jeans, my Analysis Plus Solo Crystal Oval 8’s at the used price that I paid...

very happy with Blue Jean Cables - even made in US - Seattle - I have a pair of their RCA interconnects and locking banana plug speaker cables - I save a ton of $ on the latter by terminating them myself. Great banana plugs and online instructions.

Hi,
I have tried about six different speaker cables across a wide price spectrum, including the OP's Analysis Plus cables. I spent a great deal of time researching speaker cables and found it to be quite frustrating, noting there are two camps, one that says there is nothing special about speaker cable with the exception of resistance, and the other pointing out why very special designs and materials can and will make a difference. During my testing of different cables I found myself in-between the two camps. Different speaker cables DO SOUND DIFFERENT! Solid core, high strand count, low strand count, silver plating, braiding, super special copper, dielectric, etc.. The most important thing I learned was that price was NOT correlated to performance! In fact, the most expensive cable I tried did not perform well in my system, there was a lack of bass. My adventure led me to select either a Kimber 8TC or Blue Jeans 10 White made by Belden for Blue Jeans, 5T00UP. The choice was simple, the Blue Jeans cable for around $50.

I will close by saying during my testing of different cables it was a bit frustrating because the differences in SQ that I noted were small. In some cases very small. I would also like to note that companies like Kimber and Belden post the specifications of their cables and don't hide behind any claims of suspect technology. So, yes, I would recommend Blue Jeans cable 10AWG/White cable if your priority is price vs. performance.

Thanks for reading!