Spkr cbls & IC's-must they be same brand

Not always. Usually it's just a dealer trying to keep you from buying something he doesn't carry. It's always quickest and easiest to get you in, get you out, and on to the next customer...if you just buy whatever they say, and keep it all in the same series, in the same brand. Salesmen are always pushy (and sometimes subtle about it), and when you're dealer isn't trying to get you to buy something, that's when he's being honest........I would say, if you are staying in the same brand, it wouldn't hurt to get interconnects in the next level or two up from the speaker cable. The reason: the interconnect is upstream, and a better speaker cable can't correct what a lesser interconnect has done, but a lesser speaker cable will do very little harm to much of the refinement that the better interconnect affords the signal, which is then amplified by the power amplifier, before it gets to the "lesser quality" speaker cable. THIS IS PART AND PARCEL OF WHAT THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO HIGHEND AUDIO SAYS...although I think he recommends always staying in the same brand, since he thinks both ic and speaker cable will have been designed from the start to synergize well with each other. I DISAGREE, because I've heard some of the best NOT synergize, but instead exaggerate the relative weaknesses of each. Even the great Harley cannot convince me that I don't hear, what I DO hear. TRUST YOUR OWN OBSERVATIONS...hardly anybody really does, but I do, and I won't apologize for it. good luck...

Yes, Redkiwi. And, how very astute that you remembered which cables I thought did not synergize well. Of course it was in my system context (always must be taken into consideration...most of us know this, of course), and I suspect that in a laid back system with some unusual tonal things going on in the upper bass, perhaps those two would be the ONLY cables that would work. Also, I totally agree about the AC cord being tuned to the corresponding component it powers, moreso than to the cabling in the rest of the system. Very good points.

Redkiwi: I am about to try some Synergistic Research interconnects, yes...don't expect much, though. But, I don't see why it should necessarily be presumed that the speaker cables should "only" work with MIT interconnects (your'e thinking that only something very unusual would allow such high performance from such an affordable speaker cable? Guess I can understand that.).............................It's certainly not been the case with the MIT interconnects, which work with every speaker cable I've tried, and help even to point out the imperfections in those speaker cables (that I HAVE noticed with other interconnects a while ago, but it was harder to "see" those imperfections). If that's not "reference quality" (in my system anyway), what is? I'm sure there is some synergy, but these T-2's are making my brother's cheap Sherwood receiver sound very nice and "real" without loosing detail, and this is with NO interconnect (internal FM tuner)...so, unless it unusually also synergizes well with cheap and colored internal circuit board traces (besides "only" with MIT's interconnects), and NOT with interconnects from other manufacturers...then it would seem that these T-2 speaker cables might just be better than everything else I've heard!...........................Redkiwi, I'm more than happy to try your Wireworld Gold Eclipse 3 speaker cable. Just send it to me, I'll pay insurance and shipping both ways. I could send you the T-2's or T-3's to use in the meantime. Let me know...

I got the Kaleidoscope 2 from the Cable Company, but had to wait a while for them.

I might have known you'd only have really short ones. I wish I had monoblocks. I have the 330 Shotgun interconnect, and both RCA and balanced are terrific, and better than everything else under $3100.