Recommendation for an audiophile speaker cord that is not "bright"?

Thanks for the continuing feedback. I realize now that the quality of the power to my house may be a problem - we live in a rural setting, with 300 yards of a buried power line to the house (adjacent to a state forest, although I doubt the animals are problematic).

So, I am trying out some pre-owned Transparent Audio RSC8 Reference speaker cables.

First impressions- 
1. Much more punch to the lower mid-range bass frequencies (not the very lowest frequencies);
2. Less searing high frequencies;
3. More "musical" (whatever that means) but "darker" (whatever that means) - loss of some midrange resolution compared with the expensive Nordost speaker cables, but at least I can tolerate the sound of an electric guitar.

Now, these have the "Hi-Z" filter on them, apparently to compensate for the high impedance output of my ARC reference power amplifier (although it is a GS150). I wonder if this is a low pass filter of some sort - cutting off high frequencies. I have no idea.

Still on the search for a better speaker cable, although with some great recommendations from you folks about how to proceed...

...the OP

P.S. - I realize that the transparent boxes have a somewhat minimal configuration of an inductor, capacitor, and resistor in the boxes on the speaker cable (see the following web sites):
(1) How to Make a Transparent Audio Reference XL Speaker Cable: https://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-make-a-Transparent-Audio-Reference-XL-Speak/
(2) What is inside a Transparent speaker cable box: http://web.archive.org/web/20051227043038/http://cable.tcnerd.com/whymit.asp

First impressions-
1. Much more punch to the lower mid-range bass frequencies (not the very lowest frequencies);
2. Less searing high frequencies;
3. More "musical" (whatever that means) but "darker" (whatever that means) - loss of some midrange resolution compared with the expensive Nordost speaker cables, but at least I can tolerate the sound of an electric guitar.
--------------

1: moore punch comes from lower resistanse, better flow
2: indicates lower internal crossover distortion+see over
3: Better harmonics due to lower distortion, cleaner "signal". Mid-resolution is not lower, just less edgy or distorted. 

The change in resistance of the cable will be minimal from the ones you have described so that punch is not from improved current flow which will be minimal to 0.


The brightness/detail (and harshness) was likely an unstable amp with your Nordost that went away with cheap cable if I remember. The "Transparent" has a few dollars (or pennies) of parts to address instability in wide bandwidth amplifiers.


That detail was just high frequency emphasis ... It was not real. That midrange - upper base punch is because you are now hearing it properly without it being masked by high frequency "hash".