I recently researched audio interconnects to see if I should upgrade my cables. As you probably read in your research, this is a contentious topic without any scientifically rigorous proof one way or another, althought inclusion of DBT is an important first step and may indicate that ultimately no differences will be found if the research progresses. I actually don't know what I think about cables differences since no scientifically rigorous research exists (the current studies seem to have poor internal or external validity). Given that definitive proof does not exist and may not be produced for some time, I decided to try a few cheap cables and see if I noticed a difference. I wanted to try cheap cables that had money back guarantees. I bought cables from Blue Jean Cables (bluejeanscable.com) and Heartland Cables (heartlandcables.com). Both of these companies offer cheaper cables than the mainstream cable companies and offer 30 day money back guarantees. In my system and in my admittedly biased testing, the cables seemed to have made a difference. As I said before, I don't know if cables actually do make a differences. The difference I perceived may have been due to bias. At the same time, there actually may be differences in cables since studies that have used DBT have not addressed external validity issues (e.g., did not control for potential confounding variables such as differences between systems and listerners). So as this debate continues seemingly in perpetuity, one option to consider is to try some cheap cables that have money back guarantees (such as Blue Jeans cable or Heartland cables) and see if you feel the cables improve your system.

-ROJ