As a former FM owner (I had to sell it, long story,) you can use your own interconnects, no problem. You're correct about the speaker cable. I don't see this as a problem as the FM equipment is optimized and designed for use using their own cables, which are excellent, imo. I still use FM interconnects in my current system. They in fact work very well, which surprised me a bit. I think what makes FM less successful is the limited production for most units, and the super high prices. Very few people can afford it, and perhaps the ones who can have a hard time justifying paying that much for stereo equipment. But, that is the FM philosophy, I suppose. I would probably go for a used unit nowadays. The prices used to be much less years ago. And the production and philosophy was pretty much the same back then. Of course the new units are the latest designs, but are they really head and shoulders above the older models that were much less expensive? Are they really that much different? I can't answer that at the moment. Even though I had units that are now discontinued (I had the 244C pre and the 611 amp,) I do regret selling them off, but again it's a long story, and let's just say I was in a pinch.