"Great RCA interconnects under $100?"

Do you think I should try to improve the system by finding cables which may help me improve the system further. Assuming of course that I can? I fear if I find a more 'neutral cable' it will reveal some shortcoming in my 'matching' and I have to start all over. :-)

Well thanks for the high praise, Newbee, but I think there are folks here far sharper than I with the tube gear. Boy, without getting very specific it sounds like you probably shouldn't play with something that's good already...or is it? Is there something still missing? I'm betting you're gonna' play some more, just by the fact that you asked the question. The old adage, "...if it ain't broke..." just doesn't apply to audiophiles. I'm all for experimenting if you have the time and patience, but then when do you stop and say it's good? Gee, that was a big help, wasn't it? One of the very basic things I've noted time and again about materials is that silver seems to me to be fast and revealing and seems to not be great in the bass region. Copper seems to be slower, but does bass betta'. Probably old news to you and anyone with much experience here. A broad generalization at best. FWIW, in my own last fiddling about with wires in my tube system, I kept ending up with silver wires between pre and amp, and copper between source and pre. I kept trying different permutations and always ended up back there.

As for watches, I still wind mine too...I like the ritual. Chrono too; vintage military, yet quite elegant in its simplicity. Oh, and my wife drives an older Passat - great car. Toilet paper? I like Charmin cause of that Mr. Whipple dude. I think he wore a Timex.

Marco

Never thought I'd start a "what watch do you wear" thread, but there you go!
Just for closure, I wear a $150 Casio (big bells & whistles model) that only gains 4 second per month; not bad huh?
Time to go listen to some music I think...

$100.00 is not really enough to even build your own SOTA cable. Four quality RCA connectors start at $50.00 and up.

I'd vote for Silent audio Apollo cables silver or copper (A or C), if you can find them. I have not seen them advertised on audiogon for a while. Looked inexpensive were inexpensive but sounded better than most interconnects at many times their price.

However there is a problem with the recording studio analogy.
So you have a band, mics, cables, monitors, more cables and a mixer to a recording device. Yes you have a guy tweeking he tones in most cases. The EQ going to the recorder may not be the same sound as the players in the room, right? But in cases of electronics, there doesn't have to be sound in the room, maybe they are all under headphones. Starting to see what doesn't matter? The amp used may not bring out the true sound of that instrument. :)
It doesn't matter what the sound in the room, it doesn't matter the sound in the mixer, monitors amps, or hearing specs of any golden eared teck or deafened guitarist or anyone in betwee.
We do not have the luxury often to compare the event of that performance to the recording that comes out the other end. But, our event statrts from the recording, vinyl, disc, tape, or (sticking with hard media) the recorded product.
So no matter what lens the photographer used to shoot that tree, clear or fuzzy, that has nothing to do with us after.
Look at Santana Abraxas, or Rolling Stones Let it Bleed. Those mics are hishy. there are loads of well meaning recordings that due ot label, time, budget, or whatever are awful.
No matter. We are given the media we have. So from there, yes it is subjective to ear, equipment, room (maybe?). But what the engineer used though interesting is not our concern. Unless we want to engage in more of our "chasing" which all of us do as in the Conditions of the tubes discussion above. I've done it, and will again. But including that, in the equation will require more coffee as the energyy to compensate what was used prior to product to get to the "truth" is a near impossible task. "toss a dart" to pick one is a good place to start, maybe. But it depends what you want. If you like more mids go copper. If you like more detail go silver. If you like mids with a sharper forward edge go silver over plain copper. . If you like detail and warmth the gold over silver. There are grades of copper, and silver that make a difference. Yes, I've put in the R&D to make plain cables under $100 that sound to most like much more expensive cables. Please forgive typos.