I have heard most of the cable brands you mention. Certainly it depends on your system, but in mine and a friends, the Prana was better than the Nordost Valhalla, Synergistic Designers' Reference, and Kimber Select. Where the Kubala-Sosna Emotion provided my system with more bloom and bass, the Prana gave it more quickness, smoothness, and fine detail. It was just amazingly natural. In my opinion, speaker cables are where Pranawire truly excels. I would not hesitate to call Joe Cohen and audition some. The cables are, however, very stiff and tough to work with in tight spaces.
To me, the Transparent MM was good, but sounded more electronic and unnatural. However, the MM version is certainly a large step up from the XL. For the money, I believe you can do better than Transparent unless you are talking about their reference digital cable.
To me, the Transparent MM was good, but sounded more electronic and unnatural. However, the MM version is certainly a large step up from the XL. For the money, I believe you can do better than Transparent unless you are talking about their reference digital cable.