Balanced Cable recommendations for Ayre equipment

I had an Ayre CX-7 and an AX-7e that I sold only last week. I had tried a few XLR-cables between the two and got the best (i.e. best micro-dynamics, best bass, no grain) results with Virtual Dynamics Nite. Unfortunately, the new Nite Platinum series is well beyond the price limit you quote even at factory prices. I had luck in that I could pick up a factory refurbished ("R") pair from the previous series for $290. If this looks like an interesting alternative to you give them a call, they always have a number of "R" cables on offer (because they have a trade-in program when people upgrade).
Good luck
Karel

The only cabling I've heard Ayre products run with is Transparent... it wasn't bad, but surely nothing to jump up and down about... so you might want to forget about Transparent wires. Dry and overpriced. ...but then, if you like that sort of thing...

Reterminate your Hero with Neutrik gold XLR's, part nos. NC3FX-B and NC3MX-B. If I remember correctly, the two white conductors will go to ground (pin 3) and the remaining two different colored ones (red and blue?) go to either pins 1 and 2, so long as you connect the same color to the same pin at each end. You can probably sell the RCA takeoffs to pay for the entire project.

I have an all Ayre system, and have tried many, many cables...all balance, because balanced is the ONLY way any Ayre component can do its work the best. Oddly, the worst cables are the Ayre and Cardas designs, the best being the Audioquest Sky series and the Anti-Cables. These 2 cables sound very, very similar using Ayre. The cost differential dictated my use of Anti-Cables. They transformed my system.

I second the anti-cables, they're the best by far of any cables costing 25x their price! The only downside, they take an enormously long time to break-in(interconnects 400-500hrs.)speaker cables 150-200 hrs. leaning more toward 200hrs. Most people don't allow for the break-in time, that's why you see them for sale a lot and the bad reviews some give on them.