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My favorite for sound and cost are D’addario EJ16 (lights) and EJ17 (mediums). I buy them in bulk and the cost is under 5.00 a set. They wear out reletively quickly 6 weeks is about the max. They lose some of the shimmer in their sound and feel less bouncy. I have heard though some people like them after the “settle down”. Suffice to say I have gotten fast at changing strings. I have two in the hopper to try (I have one guitar set up specifically for mediums). One is D’addario’s Nickel Bronze balanced tension string NBBT medium 13.5/56s and the other is Acoustix’s balanced tension Bright light 11/50s. I will be putting these on an old Koa 018k . I’ll report back.
I like Santa Cruz Parabolic (balanced tension) strings but the price is ridiculous. I have been told that the reason they are so expensive has to do with the way they are coated (prior to being wound rather than after being wound) but they are still marking up 400%. They are good but by my experience not that good. I have to say they do not feel like a coated string, of which I am not a fan. So hat’s of to them for solving that problem!
Have fun trying out the different strings. I would suggest and maybe you already know, buy a few different sets and have them ready to go. I have had the experience of putting on strings and not liking them and being able to change them out. I didn’t have to suffer the sounds I was not digging. Funny though because the same strings sound great on another guitar I put them on. It goes to show that all stings don’t act equally on all guitars.