Cable Madness

There are lots of good cables out there. Some of them will 'click' with your system and some won't. If you want to save money, buy used and sell the ones you don't like. If you want to save time, the Cable Co. has a rental program where your rental fee goes towards purchase. They have a huge library of cables. You can try out most commonly available cables. (No affiliation, just a satisfied customer.)

I think you may be limiting yourself with a $1000 budget for 2 balanced ICs plus a bi-wire cable. For used cables, $1500 would give you more choices.

Some good ICs to try - Cardas Neutral Reference, Audience AU24, Shunyata Aries, Acoustic Zen Matrix Ref. II, Luminous Audio Synchestra Signature. These are all good copper ICs that are fairly neutral in character. I would avoid silver ICs until your system gets broken in and you're really familiar with its sound. Then you can tell if you'll like the sound of silver. In my system, I use a silver IC from CD player to preamp (Kimber KS1130) and a copper IC from the preamp to power amp (Cardas Neutral Ref.) This provides a good balance in my system.

For speaker cables, Kimber Bifocal XL is my favorite of the biwire type and can be found for about $1000 used. AZ Satori, Shunyata Lyra, Cardas Neutral Ref. are also good choices.

Wow Ozzy, I never had any experience like that with the Cable Co. I rented cables 8 or 9 times before I bought anything, usually 3 cables per time, over about a one year period. They were very accommodative. How many rentals did you do?

Also, my first rental was 10%, but subsequent rentals are 5%. You're right about the retail pricing. The advantage I see to using the Cable Co. is you can find the absolute best match for your system instead of just getting close. For that service you pay a little extra.