Be consistent with brand?

I agree with Sugarbrie, I've been down both roads and I think it's a synergestic thing between components. If you check with most audiophiles, I would think this applies to cables and components. I don't know many that have components from the same manufacturer. I've done the whole system with a certain brand of cable, but I prefer to have 'specialized' cable handle a 'specialized' application. For instance, while I may prefer one manufacturers speaker cable, I might not like the way their interconnect handles digital.

For more details. I have a Nordost SPM as my Pre-Power link. Siltech to the CD Player and Tuner. Van Den Hul to the Turntable. Music & Sound Black to Tape Deck. MIT T2 BiWire Speaker Cable. A smaller system in the Den has Cambridge Audio Studio Reference to Tuner, Music and Sound Grey to DAC. LAT Digital Cable to CD/Transport. Store Brand Bi-Wire Speaker cables. DVD Player also has Cambridge Audio Studio Reference. Subwoofer has Tributaries to low pass connection. A couple Vansevers Power Cords.

Whatever works, works. Although I suspect that a mix and match approach may be a band-aid approach towards fixing deeper component problems. Think about for a second -- the CD player is a little bright and the preamp is "revealing" -- the solution is an interconnect that is somewhat "soft". Such a fix can be very effective. Personally, I use Discovery interconnects for all analog connections, but I also use Sumiko OCOS for the speaker cables. It works.

After testing different type, brands, and models of cables.
For my paticular system, the all one brand approach worked best. Harmonic Tech Pro Silway for interconnects and Pro-11n for speakers, AC11-N for PC. Although I am using a balanced version for the CD to preamp connection. Everything was fine and then I tried a Sonic Horizon Skyline PC. After testing Synergistic models and a couple of DIY's, it was obvious that the Skyline was far superior. I now realize that same manufactures works best throughout the whole system until something sounds better. And then all the rules change. I guess that I am bi-polar. For now!
I think?

First off I don't have loads of experience with different brands of cable but My take on it is like this...Most cable companies have certain design philosophies, whether they are legit or not is not part of this thread, but if you truly believe that one mfgr. is on to something with an IC for example, wouldn't that same design principle apply to their other cables? It looks like the cable companies design their stuff using a wide variety equipment from different manufactures but no matter what is in the system they ( as far as I know, I may be wrong ) allways use their own wire to connect everything together. For example if I believe that Tara labs design with active shield makes all the difference in the world, then why would I want to put another IC downstream that doesn't have active shield? Or maybe I try the Tara labs and I think it sounds thin, but unbeknown to me Tara just doesn't work well with the other cables in my system or shows through how thin they really are???