Looking for more transparency.

Mapleshade interconnects were actually a little warm in my system. Or maybe not warm, but tone dense.

The speaker cables didn't sound like anything. Which is what I liked. 

All systems and ears are different. 

Just made an 8' pair of speaker cables using 8awg copper wires from Home Depot. Used some leftover Truflex, heat shrink, and locking bananas  I had and for < $50 total they look good and sound pretty decent. Let's see if they even get better as they age...

No matter what anyone says, cables ARE latter day tone controls.

Personal experience here. This may not work for everyone. I had something give my system more transparency and make it a bit richer sounding. The individuals sounds are a little richer and air in and around everything lets me hear the recording environment much better. Moving me closer to feeling there is nothing between me and the musicians. There is no downside I can tell after having it in my system for about 6 months. What I did was paste my connections with TC=Total Contact contact enhancer. I was surprised by the improvement I got.  I would highly recommend it for those that do not mind putting something on their contacts. 

Do you still have the grills of your speakers in place? A lot of folks do -they usually just look better that way. When you're young with great hearing it probably doesn't make much difference, but as you start to suffer from age induced loss of the higher frequencies it can become critical. If you haven't already tried, do it. FWIW.