Old, grainy, bright & financially restricted

My old ARC D-240 is on the grainy side, my B&W 703's are on the bright side, the Kimber speaker wire on the thin side, which culminates in an all-too-often fatiguing listening experience. Add to this, my limited budget for audio gear.
I recently had the opportunity to try a set of Transparent Music Link Ultra IC’s between my DAC and preamp. The results were surprising. I believe that the inclusion of this one interconnect actually tamed some of the brightness, or at least opened up the soundstage enough that the brightness was less noticeable. The bad news for me is that I can’t afford to pay my friend’s asking price of $600 for the IC. So again, I ask my fellow Agoners to help out by asking which IC’s are similar in musicality to the Ultra’s, but more affordable (used $200 or less range)?? Obviously, I’m looking for something that will mate well with my system and not accentuate the already bright response. Eventually, I will look into new speaker cables.

Thanks
Ben