Best Cables for around $500

Ronwills, Crimson cables sounds great right out of the box. Within 10 hours you will be hearing most of its potential. Some of my friends who use it tell me that there are subtler improvements to soundstage width and focus till 200 hours. But let me tell you that if you do not like the cable in the first 10 hours you will not like it after wards as well. There is a rightness to this cable which shows up within the first hour itself.

The trial policy is simple, it is 30 days money back guarantee.

i will chime in to say that the mit cables i have are easily the most "real life sounding" analog interconnects that i have, and i'm a cable klepto. i didn't want to like them, either, as they're pricey and, as you mentioned about their website, you never know what the @#(*& is going on with them. but it is what it is, and they sound really good and excel on detail and subtleties, which sounds like what you're looking for.

i auditioned most lines up to the magnum and ended up with the shotgun ma, but they were all good.

the only other cable i'd add to your list would be the analysis plus solo crystal, they're great too, though perhaps not quite as naturally balanced as mits.

one cable rec i always feel happy making, too, is the van den hul first for digital applications, it's amazing. i have the metal screen version (as i'd bought it for analog originally), but i have no idea if the version of it matters when using it for digital (some people get a hum with the regular first when using it in analog applications, but my first metal screens are actually more quiet than other cables so they seem to have fixed that). anyway, they're the most lush, least "digital" digital cable i've tried (again, just beating out a mit).

best of luck.

JPS Labs Superconductor Q - I'm using them between my DAC+Pre and power amp. I think they are pretty transparent because they let me hear the difference between various sources.

I love my DNM unbalanced IC's. They can be made in balanced also. Very revealing yet super smooth. Great on acoustic music.
Good-luck,
Rodge

Mogami Gold 2534. They use this in recording studio. I bought 2534 from Amazon and compare with a much more expensive 1K cables such as Audioquest, and Revel. I am please with the way it sounds for under $70. Because the wire gauge is small you have to crank up the volume a bit.