You'll be surprised at how good the RCA interconnects made from the Wood's Patio cord from Walmart will sound. I made my first pair as described in Jeff Day's Six Moons article. The Switchcraft 3502A RCA connectors are very good and the Switchcraft 3502AAU Gold-plated, long body connectors are even better. Instead of using cheap Brass, Switchcraft uses a Copper-Sn alloy that's almost as good as Copper itself. They're very reasonably priced as Switchcraft mass produces them here in the U.S. They're designed for pro audio use and maintain a very strong grip. The Canare F-10 male RCA connectors are very good too.
The second pair I made, I stripped the white Vinyl jacket off the three AWG 16 conductors and made a tri-braided cable using the Switchcraft 3502A RCA connectors (similar to the Kimber PBJ). I used one conductor for the signal (+), and two for the ground (-). I was very careful to evenly braid the individual wires. I later compared these to more expensive cables I borrowed from friends including Kimber PBJ's, AudioQuest Diamondback's and Kimber KCAG's. The Kimber KCAG's won out as expected, but the tri-braided White Lightning Moonshine sounded as good as the Kimber PBJ's and trounced the more expensive AudioQuest Diamondback's. Compared to the original White Lightning Moonshine design, the tri-btraided cable was more extended and transparent.
I recommend that you put the interconnects through a long burn-in period before you make any judgments. Sending 2V or less line-level signals through these cables will not break these cables in quickly. However, once your interconnects are burned in, you'll be surprised just how balanced and detailed they sound from top to bottom.
As for the Walmart speaker cables, the best bargain dual banana plugs that work really well with the Walmart cable are the Neutrik NYS508. There's no soldering involved, as you only have to crimp on the connectors with set screws using a small screwdriver. Another good banana connector are the Homegrown Audio LOK Suregrip BFA connectors. These are similar to the Multicontact LS-4 connectors that Jeff Day recommends, but they don't require soldering.
I encourage you to check out Mick Feuerstein's Web pages on modiying the Playstation. Modding the Playstation really takes Red Book CD playback to another level. You'll really be able to take advantage of the Walmart cables then.
