Interconnect under $200 new or used.....

Canare StarQuad microphone cable. Shockingly good. The pro recording engineers all use it. I ran 30' sections from my Earthworks omnis on my Steinway though a Grace class A pre to an Alesis, and then into my Nordost SPM'd system. The old left/right brain halves did the old whirling dervish congnitive diss-dance, but what the hell...sounds GREAT (if I practce enough).

I compaired the Zu Oxyfule to the Hero & it was more natural & detailed in my tests on my system. They retail for @ $100 / metered pair. Check out the Zu Gede, they are $200 per pair, but Zu has been running specals on ebay.

I've always thought Straightwire had some of the best cables at that price point.

I highly recommend van den Hul "The Second", which after much trial and error, has become my cable reference for tonal neutrality. I find it works best when used between CD and preamp, which I speculate is due to the radio-transparent nature of carbon fiber that prevents RFI from contaminating the signal. Some may mistake the absence of RFI as loss of "detail", but don't be mislead. This cable will articulate all the natural detail that is present in the signal, without the high-frequency hash that makes your ears weary.