Help with speaker cable under $500 for new system

FWIW, I have used the Canare 4s11 sold by Blue Jeans as well as some 10ga Belden sold by Blue Jeans. I have used them both in 15' lengths and to my ears the Belden is much cleaner and balanced than the 4s11 used in a single wired configuration making it into, effectively, 11ga. I've never used it in a biwired configuration for which it was originally designed an which effectively reduced the gauge to 14. The Canare is more attractive though :-).

Again thanks to all for lots to think about. Mitch, your advice in particular is perfect for me.

Onhwy61,
For that matter, OP would not know ANY of the recommendation that folks would make. If he would have know which cable would work in his system, he would not have asked for a recommendation :-)

That is why I suggested him to talk to Paul at ClearDay first, instead of requesting for demo.

I would not worry about lower DF. Inductor in series with the woofer has resistance in order of 0.1 ohm limiting DF to 80 anyway, not to mention that speaker's own impedance is mostly resistive. Even 4 ohms would make DF=2. Additional resistance in series shouldn't contribute much. Less than 10% would be ideal (0.4ohm). I would worry more about reactive inductance of the cable at high frequencies (higher for thinner cables). Assuming 0.4uH/ft your 12' cable would have (both ways) 24ft x 0.4uH = 9.6uH. Reactive impedance at 20kHz would be 1.2ohm. On the other hand tweeter's impedance can be pretty high at 20kHz making it unimportant.

I'm using Acoustic Zen Satori. Silky smooth and fast. It should be within your budget (used).

Audioquest CV6 used if you can find it is very solid and affordable.

Other than that maybe consider pro wires like Mogami for good no nonsense value overall.