Here's a fun cable question...............

Set of valhalla long i/c's for pre to amp. (free from the cable guy)
Used Tenor monblocks (11K)
Used Talon Khorus X's (7K) (18K
Used SCD-1 w/full audiomod's (4K) (22K)
Used BAT vk-30SE w/phono (3k) (25K)
Nottingham space deck turntable with space arm and dynavector XX cart (2k) (27k)
Used Macintosh MR-78 tuner (1K) (28K)
New Alesis ML96 hard disk rcdr(1K) (29K)
Racks, cones etc (1K) (30K)

This system reflects the fact that I like to have multiple sources. I almost chose to build it around magnepan 3.2's and wolcotts, but I tend to prefer dynamic speakers for their smaller size and strong dynamics.

I chose to go with an active verses a passive Placette preamp. This may be a mistake, but I chose this route because it allows me to have good phono stage without interconnects between phono stage and preamp. Additionally I feel that a cheap cable tends to drain dynamics. I am betting the bat preamp will add some drive to the system.

The last alternative would have been to build a system around an ayre amp and some eidolons like I have now. Maybe. Guess I just want to try something different as usual.

The cable would be a PC on the digital source, probably JPS labs or something.
Actually R/S gold series isn't so bad, so I'd gladly listen to those on John's system. But does RS have balanced home audio cables? Don't think so, perhaps adaptors.
T

I would buy all of the cables from Radio Shack. Even the one he would pay for. I would buy some spools of their magnet wire, and make my own cables to my specification, just like I have already done on my current system. If I had to buy the RCA plugs there too, I could live with that, although I'd like better plugs. I use bare wire connections on the speaker wires anyway.
Alot of you are probably thinking: There goes that crazy TWL again. Now he's advocating Radio Shack home-made cables for a high-end audio system. Yep. And they work. And they are not alot different than that Sakura OTA cable that got a couple hundred posts on the thread about it. Now, I am not saying that there aren't better cables out there, but I am saying that these are good cables, and they might even provide better synergy with certain systems than any other one that might be available. And if you tried them and didn't like them, it would hardly be a great financial loss, since the total cost of a set of ICs and speaker cables would only cost less than 1% of the cost of a set of Valhallas. That's less than the sales tax on a set of Valhallas.

Transparent OPUS speaker cables, about $30k since the "man" is paying.

I agree with Sonic_genius : Speaker cables for sure ! But I would pick the MIT Oracle V1.

$5k goes on the system and the other $25k is used to fund my year off work to listen to it. As for cables, I'm with TWL, though military surplus places are an alternative to radio shack.

Speaker cables, then I'd sell the $30,000 "free system" and buy the rest of the Valhallas I need.

I'd ask the cable buy to get me a pair of 1awg platinum speaker cables, a 1000000000 mile run. Then I'd melt it down and sell the damn thing for a profit.

The mystery man is Tony Soprano. Good one on the balanced interconnects, I don't believe they sell them. Yikes, I would not want to use their power cords.