Help with first cable upgrade.

It would be best if you purchased from dealers with a return policy or trial period.

If your on a tight budget and your system is a little bright the Canare bi-wire could work well. 10 foot speaker wire would run $20, make some interconnects out of there microphone wire and switchcraft rca's for $2 a piece from B and H photo for dirt cheap. Make power cables out of there speaker wire just use 4 conductors or 1 or 2 cables for each run and higher gauge for the ground and some cheap watt gate ends. There is a 8 meter pair of Grover Huffman FX plus balanced interconnects on Audio Circle for $100 buy it and cut it up you could make a power cord and a few interconnects. 

By far the easiest/cheapest/fastest way to learn is take whatever crap you have now, stuff it in your pocket, and drive on down to any stereo store. Where you say to the guy, "The guys on line are saying I can do better than this. I can only afford $X. What do you think?"

Then listen to what they have for $X, followed by your patch cord. Then listen to something 2X, or better. Repeat with power cords. Repeat this whole thing at another store. 20-30 min per store, couple hours altogether, you will learn as much as a month of shipping stuff back and forth, and with no credit card/shipping hassles.

This was the first thing I did back in the day and it opened my eyes big time, and fast. You do not need home audition. You do not need a special system. You most definitely do not need "reference" tracks or anything like that. If the differences are so slight and hard to hear you need any of that then forget it, no way it is worth the price anyway. So don't bother. Pulling those stunts they will only peg you as not knowing what you’re doing anyway. Just be real and open to learning and chances are they will help you learn. Worked like a charm for me.

I doubt if cables will bring you much relief if your system is too bright. Canare, to my ears, is pretty neutral.

I would spend the money on upgrading your source. And try before you buy.

My $0.02.

I had a set full of blue jeans a while back which were great for years, then I had the opportunity to demo a set of considerably stupid money by comparison from Hapa Audio. Holy crap what a difference. Like absolutely 2 different tracks entirely. We’re talking the difference of Bluetooth speaker on a subway vs full orchestra 2nd row. That being said, those cables were by comparison stupid money at over $400 but the immediate difference they made on my budget setup was more than the sound quality increase from 400 spent anywhere else in the system, and it will scale with each improvement along the way. Like Millercarbon said, plan your upgrades wisely and budget accordingly. But the ideal that you must equally split amongst all cords is a load of bull. Find the easiest tweak/weakest link and start there but plan for what your system will be 5 years from now, not just next month. Just my personal experience $0.02. Have fun!
-Lloyd