What are the alternatives for Kimber and Cardas?

I recommend contacting The Cable Company and start listening for yourself using one of their "loaner programs". There are several cables, and it's an extremely subjective thing.

http://www.thecableco.com/

Don't assume that price has anything to do with performance.

Ballan has a good suggestion and a good point.

Kimber and Cardas are two solid products.

I have found over the years that many cables sound really terrific, and the pool of potentially satisfying possibilities is fairly robust.

I have come to the conclusion that if one is going to shell out large dollars for wire, the safest bet from a standpoint of strong residual value is to buy products that are in constant demand.

If this idea carries any weight with you, then take a look at the classifieds to see which cable companies have a strong list of items for sale, and follow newly listed items to see how long they stay on the market.

Some other options are Shunyata, Analysis Plus, MIT and Kubala-Sosna (no particular recommendation here from me...it's all too predicated on user preference).

If you find another cable for cheap that sounds like a Cardas Gold Reference please let me know. I really like what they did for my system between my pre and power amps. That said I didn't want to use Cardas Gold Refs in all positions. For instance my TT box to SS Phono stage is pure silver, "Homegrown Silver Lace." I have very detailed speakers. To sum it up it is a function of how well the IC accomplishes your objective between the two elements it connects.

I use Van den Hul The First Ultimate; I am also a dealer for them. They are very highly regarded over seas as an alternative to Cardas, but at a considerably lower price. They often come up here for under $250 a meter pair, the retail is about $400. I am familiar with Cardas and use Golden Reference as speaker cables. I also use silver for one TT, VDH for the other. Transparent makes even better cables than Cardas but makes them look cheap by comparison. You can't go wrong with Cardas but the VDH is close in my opinion. I don't sell on the internet so not trolling for sales, just giving my opinion. Whatever you buy I would go used.

Just my 2 cents, as I have used both Cardas Golden Cross and Cardas Golden Reference, I'd have to say the Golden Cross work better for me. The Reference is a bit stale and very neutral, where the Golden Cross has more dimentional and fuller richer lushness... this works for me in certain set ups better than the Reference. I also like the Ensemble cables, especially their interconnect, at least as much as the Golden Cross, but it is not as dark and heavy as the Golden Cross.