Help me pick some new or used speaker cables

I was thinking, if you have them toed in so you can't see the inside surface of the cabinets, you might be getting too much high frequency energy to your listening position. Try toeing them out until they are firing straight down the room and see if you get a reduction in high frequency energy. It might help to tame them a bit.

Been years since I’ve listened to AQ Midnight. Midnight was a pretty good cable for the money at the time but I recall it was great on the bass, but lifeless on the top; you can definitely do better. Being you have a ModWright Pre maybe read up on WyWires which Dan Wright used to use exclusively and recommend to his clients which I own as well. If you can find a used pair of the Platinum Series that’s what I’d suggest;,the Silver Series is still very good and will be far better than your current cables, by far. Real quick, WyWires are open, natural cables that just let the music flow and don’t draw attention to themselves. They’re pretty well known, but not a huge name so you don’t see lots of cables on the used market. Sometimes, Alex the owner has trade ins or show demos and will sell them… worth looking into. 
 

Don’t let the price fool you, but Canare 4S11 will be an improvement over your AQ Midnight. The Canare takes time to settle in so don’t rush to judgement. Good luck.

Have a look at Cable using PC Triple C Wire, there is a substantial improvement to be found using this wire, in my experiences if it in use on a selection of systems, it presents in a way that makes using the previous cables seem the unattractive option.

Usually thoughts go to what are all the options on PC Triple C.   

@adg101    Good timing.  My WyWires Gold Series speaker cables are listed here.

For your speakers, Clarity Cables Organic are a great solution.  They have no area of weakness, and will make all other cable sound thin in comparison.  I have very transparent, detailed speakers with authoritative bass in VMPS RM40 BCSE ribbon speakers with all the upgrades except the OXO.  I found out about the Clarity Cables Organic from Doug Schroeder, one of the reviewers from Dagogo Online.  He has been using them for years.  Heard them at his house.  They would be within your budget at the selling price.  I got my 8 ft. pair for about $1500 including 1 ft. long CC Organic jumpers.  After break in, they have been virtually a perfect fit.  They are also open and have very good texture in the lower mids and below.

Bob