Military grade silver plated copper, Teflon insulated will beat just about everything tha's in your price range (12 ga, about 37-41 strands). The surplus wire I use has replaced in other ystems Kimber 8TC, XLO, Cardas--and when cryo treated was *uncomfortably* close to Pure Note Epsilon.
It's best to spend your $$$ on neutral ICs. I am using Ridge Street Audio MSE Gen II, which are extremely transparent, neutral and musical.
Don't forget noise control and room acoustics. You'll need to get them right before you can start making educated choices...