Best Speaker cables on the cheap?

Those are probably made by Tributaries. General consensus is that silver plated copper tends to sound somewhat bright and has a tendency towards upper midrange glare / possible sibilance problems. This will probably settle down after pumping some power through them for a while, but don't know how long it will take or how much that would change. Obviously, others might have different points of view on this.

If your dealer really is confident in the cables, ask him if you can take them home on a trial basis and return them if you don't like them. Keep in mind that they WILL settle in a little bit, so play them as much as possible and then give them a listen. Just for comparison sakes, when you think you know how the Tributaries sound, put your old cables back into the system and compare the two. That will give you some type of baseline to refer back to when all is said and done. Sean
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Xiaohuang7 & Sean - Yes it is Tributaries. Silver plated copper. I have a bunch of it in my garage. I purchased it a long time ago when I was budget conscious. Looking back, I see it was a big waste of money. I would have been better off saving up the cash to buy something else. Now I have 100 worth of this stuff in my garage. Last week I used a 5' run of it to bundle up my cardboard for recycling.

Since it comes on a BIG spool, I doubt the dealer would let someone demo it. As soon as it's cut, it starts to tarnish... Quite frankly it's not that great and really isn't worth the price. Even the spools of copper Monster Cable is better than the Tributaries.

You might try http://www.accessories4less.com they have a good selection of inexpensive speaker wire which can be used to make cheap cables in a pinch.

However - the magnet wire suggestion was a good one.

In the price target you seek, try CLEARVIEW GOLDEN HELIX CABLE distributed by Mapleshade records. I believe the design is based on high end Omega Micro cables by Lloyd Walker.
For information on Clearview, visit:
http://www.mapleshaderecords.com/tweaks/speakercable.html

It looks silly but the stuff sounds pretty good. Of course the Double Golden Helix is better but.. it costs more.
Sometimes you can find it used on audiogon for a great price.

Sean, you might also note that Nordost Valhalla is silver plated copper. While I agree with the idea that silver plated copper has it's flaws, I think the faults you mention are more specific to cheaply made silver plated copper wire vs well engineered types.

Bwhite, quite honestly, i did not know the Valhalla's were silver plated copper. Thanks for making me aware of that. As usual, there are always exceptions to ever rule. Besides that, some rules shouldn't be rules at all : ) Sean
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I just made a nice discovery. I also have some cheap 6' monsters that I'll use until I can afford something better. I've been dissatisfied with the upper frequency range. Reasoning that the close proximity of the two conductors in the cable was creating capacitance and mutual inductance, I separated the two sides of the wire and distanced them by about 4". I was surprised by how much that simple trick improved the sound. Give it a try. It's not the most aesthetically pleasing but since you already have the cables, it's free!

Well, good news, i won 100 bucks yesterday from the superbowl, and i plan to buy something this week. Im thinkin AQ type 4 or Clarity emberglow speaker cables. Thanks