Reasonable high end interconnects: without breaking the bank

Darwin cables did it for me. Haven't given a thought about cables since I changed over to them
Yes, check their deals on their website. Highly recommended

I remember reading good things here about Duelund interconnects, $100-$200 budget if I'm remembering correctly.

Another vote for audio sensibility, just read all the knowledge in their Web, really good cables and prices 

I can also recommend Audio Sensibilty. I have two of his top power cords the Signature and they are really good with a full and smooth sound across the whole frequency spectrum. I read a revue of his top speaker cable and it is supposed to be just killer. I would bet that his interconnects are awfully good too. Stephen the owner is also a super nice guy to deal with and he offers 30 day free trial period!  Teo audio also has excellent interconnects and I would say even their least expensive model can compete with those from other manufacturers that are much more costly.  I actually use Teo Double Double Ultra which is a fantastic high end cable using the Schroeder Method, there is the thread here in the cable forum covering it, that is a wonderful cable that I probably wouldn't replace for a long time. Taras and Ken at Teo are very  nice and  knowledgable guys....I believe they still offer 30 day trial period too.

I will add my vote for signalcable.com. Very reasonable, made to spec, in-home trials. Impossible to go wrong. I added his top end power cable to my B&W 800ASW and the improvement was instantaneous and dramatic. And as to the other question, yes, silver matters, at least to my ears. Linn blacks are a fine budget IC, but Linn silvers sound ethereal.