Speaker Cable Recommendation

the 1st, best sounding, and cheapest pair I own are Cardas Quadlink. Question though... How does it sound with cheap wire?

Signal Cable Silver Resolution bi-wires would work great and in your budget.

I started with Monster, then moved to MIT terminator, then to $1000+ Transparent Super, then to the budget "world beater" Mapleshade. I'm using lamp cord now, the system still sounds good.

Try the Master Built (by Delphi Areospace) Purple Line. They are amazing and compete with much much more expensive cables.

Akg_ca is spot on. Same cables sound different in different systems. Try to get ahold of as many as you can at the same time and do critical listening with a/b testing. Listen for detail (cymbals, plucking of guitar strings, drums), how harsh or bright they sound, how the bass sounds, slam or punch (kick drums) and also get a piece of music where there is alot going on at one time, i.e. drums, vocals, guitars, bass; see if any instruments are getting lost or not. Then switch cables and replay the same piece of music. Remember too that a cable that sounds good initially because it is so detailed may become fatiguing after an hour, and it may also let you hear all the flaws in recordings, which gets annoying also.
I think you ought to try some signal cable silver resolutions and also some clear day double shotguns (Frank at signal, and Paul at clear day are both very reasonable gentlemen). I'm not so big on audioquest or blue jeans belden 10awg. It is all system and listener dependant though! Good luck, and have fun with it!