Audioquest speaker cables

Can't make a comparison, but I did hear a pair of William Tell hooked up to the new Klipsch La Scala and they sounded very good. A tight, clean, dynamic cable.

I would not use a Audioquest bi-wire speaker cable.  Their cables are excellent design, but they are normally just 13awg or close to 12awg cables.  When you do the bi-wire option, you are just splitting that into a 14.5awg + 15.5awg cable. 

I would recommend using a non bi-wire cable and connecting it to the top (tweeter) binding posts.  If you don't like the jumper block between the binding posts, then get a high quality jumper cable.  You lose current capability if you bi-wire an Audioquest speaker cable.

There are other speaker cables which are fine bi-wire.  These are cables that are 8awg to 10awg to start with.

I am actually moving up from some far less expensive cables. It is my first upgrade and considering both. I know either would be a major upgrade, but I know if I got the Robinhood’s, I would wonder how much better the William Tell’ would be. I need 15 feet so the price difference is fairly large.

So they use a different AWG with the bi-wire option?  The William Tell zero is 13 awg.

Yes. Both @ctsooner ​​​​@gdnrbob have the better AQ after hearing both. 

15’ is a significant performance hit, no matter the cable - i am sure you are aware.

Yes the AQ can and should be two sets of cables, so no concern about awg.

hope this helps, enjoy the journey and the music. Rutan at @audioconnection can demo both.

jim

I  use AQ power cords and a Niagara 1200. I like what it does for my system. I have not used their speaker cables or interconnects. Have you considered triode wire labs products?

I looked at your system, i think the copper might sound better w brick fireplace and the B and W tweeter. Save some significant $ You could also try single cable w jumper to ease in cost wise, then add 2nd run later.

jim

Yes, I believe the bi-wire is copper.  Yeah. I go back abd forth between getting the wires separate to save money upfront or biting the bullet and getting it all at once.

The cable company recommended I get the bi - wire upfront.

So they use a different AWG with the bi-wire option?  The William Tell zero is 13 awg.

Most Audioquest speaker wire are comprised of 4 wires for RED+ and 4 wires for BLACK- (the low end products such as Rocket 33 use 3 wires or 2 wires for each RED/BLACK).  When they do the bi-wire on a speaker cable, they just take 2 wires for each banana/spade connection.  The core 13awg speaker wire is the same.  You just are splitting the speaker wire "in half" for bi-wire option. 

If Audioquest really doubled up on the bi-wire option, the price of the "bi-wire" version would be over TWICE the price of the normal version.

tomic604 stated this:

Yes the AQ can and should be two sets of cables, so no concern about awg.

I believe he is recommending using two sets of speaker cable for speakers that have 4 binding posts.  You can definitely connect multiple speaker wires to the amp side.  Either you double-stack two spades or you use one spade and one banana.  On the speaker side, one "normal" speaker cable is attached to the top binding posts and one for the bottom.  You are still buying two sets of speaker cable.

winning vs learning…. pretty much any AQ wire can be configured in a true external biwire configuration, including a factory shotgun biwire configuration…and yes, they cost 2x.

I don’t recommend an internal biwire configuration, not for AWG reasons, but because it negates MUCH of the advantage of biwiring which is to get the HF wire 3-4” away from the expanding / collapsing field of the LF wire. 

BTW i have a set of now ancient AQ Type 6 in a shotgun biwire configuration that have literally 25 k miles on them…i loan them out so people can experience a true shotgun solid core biwire cable…. i lost count but 7-8 audiogon members have tried them… @bigkidz Peter might comment. Right now they are somewhere in Michigan….

Best to all

jim

both models of AQ you cite are available in  copper or silver. I use a 30” pair of silver in my Reference system, a 7’ shotgun biwire copper set in my other system.

At first they sounded a little rolled off to my ears but I let them play and tried them in a few different systems to get a handle on them.  Then I got more of a handle on the sound.  Good soundstage, mids and bass.  So for the value they were very good.  I own a more expensive pair now to go with my Vandersteen 5As and maybe Model Sevens soon.

Auxinput is right on the main point...better to go with single wire WT and upgraded jumpers than RH Combo, but wrong on the detail about how AQ works in the Folk Heros range...the Combo is in fact a pair of Zeros and a pair of Bass in parallel.  True, their lesser bi-wire cables are made the way he describes.

If you are interested in a different option, check out Silversmith Audio.  https://silversmithaudio.com/fidelium-cables/  .  No need to purchase bi-wire cables as their bi-wire adapter will do the trick.  Very nice sounding.