A long standing and useful advice is to consider spending 10% of your total system cost, on the total cost of aftermarket wires.
This is a good and useful way for a person lost in the cable jungle, to use as a guideline.
Naturally, folks with a great deal of experience may choose other levels, but they know more what they expect and want.
For my own experience, over 55 years... The first time I even thought about anything of any sort of better cable was not until after 1980s. Then I bought some Mark Levinson bulk cable and Radio Shack gold plated RCA. (I still have some of those, but with Vampire Tiffany connectors, even though I do not used them now) It took me until hte late 1990's and more upgrades to 'hear' my first power cord that actually I could hear a difference.
In 2010 I retired and did some major upgrades. And noticed I could hear better cables. In the mid 2015 I first bought some $300 a pop IC, and realized I wanted more, and moved up to $1000 a pop. I spent $9000 on new cables. (knowing I would eventually upgrade equipment a lot .. later on.
Last year I bought two new things, Speakers, and a SACD player/DAC. Along with those I got a lot on odd things. duplex outlets, and recently butcher blocks.
Now I can hear really small variations, and can easily tell cables apart.
But curiously, I am pretty much right at the 10% for interconnects anyway. not counting power conditioning and AC stuff.
Anyway, the 10% is a great way to keep from going overboard on IC. It gives you a range of prices.. and will help your system to grow in a more structured way.
If you cannot hear any differences.. do not worry. Maybe later, as your listening and system improve, you may be able to. It is always good to have well regarded IC..So the IC are not holding back the sound (even if you cannot really grasp exactly what they are helping) So when you do get to where you can hear differences in things like calbes. You already have some.. even if you keep them a spares and extras!
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