Audioquest

Laughing...

I will have to watch for those models on the used market.

Spell check sucks!  I typed " you shouldn't of said"

Oh no....you sound not of said Wind is upgraded, now I have to try!

Thumbs up on Niagra and its replacement Wind. Niagra a great cable to find used and authentic if you can. I got off the cable merry-go-round when I discovered Niagra a year ago. Of course Wind is similar but upgraded! 

TY- michelzay for the price index.
Happy Listening!

gshepardbuster, You are right, SKY and WBY shares identical inside core wiring. WBY has 32% more FEP isolation in between wires. AQ Niagara (one 20AWG and 2X 21 AAWG) uses 15% less silver compared to SKY( 3X 20AWG). Perhaps that's why Niagara sounds a little bit warmer vs. WBY.
This gave me some motivation to replace my AQ Cheetah by AQ Niagra (used and authentic one which is not easy to find).

However, WBY connectors are more sophisticated vs. SKY, especially RCA ones. There is a small company in US fabricating those RCA connectors. A couple of years ago, retail price of each WBY RCA connector was ~$350! Four of them are used in one pair!!!! Most of cable companies use Neutrik connectors (~$5), like Nordost Vahilla  (~$5500/1m) !! Based on magazine reviews, I tried Nordost Vahilla 1 and I did prefer AQ SKY.

Jafant, I guess AQ Niagra (~$1900/1m) is discontinued and is replaced by AQ Fire. AQ SKY is about ~$2900/1M, AQ WBY ~$4500/1m and AQ Meteor is ~5900/8ft. I need to say that I was sooo lucky to have an excellent deal on my cables.

cheers.

Guys-
what are the prices of Niagra, Sky & Meteor ?

michaelzay, Thanks, I have not heard the Sky but suspect it's very similar to WBY.  That being said the Niagra is almost as revealing as WBY with maybe the slightest touch of warm in comparison...

I have heard, and like, the AQ Sky XLR IC myself.

gshepardbuster, Those are very nice audio gears you have. I am using AQ SKY all over my system, except AQ Cheetah from Turntable to my phono pre (einstein turntable's choice). Their difference is not subtle! I was thinking to upgrade at least part of my ICs and move toward AQ wild blue wonder. Unfortunately and as usual,  auditioning is not possible for these pricey cables, only buying option with no return! BTW, I don't have any intention to hijack this forum from SCs to ICs. I was just wondering if you would provide a comparison between AQ Niagra (somehow placed between AQ Cheetah and SKy) and AQ WIld. I would appreciate it.

cheers,
M.

Thanks, my bro in law says it's my crack!

Nice system- gshepardbuster

Thank You- michelzay.

jafant,  Vpi Classic Signature to Niagra RCA to Mcintosh C1000 transistor. Meridian 808.3 to Niagra XLR to Mcintosh C1000 tube.  Wild Blue Yonder XLR from tube unit, Niagra from transistor unit, to Mcintosh 1.2 kW monos.  1.2kw to Wildwood BW 800ds.  PS audio P 5 regen for sources only with AQ NRG 10s.   

Jafant, I looked around and tried a few other speaker cables from other brands. Some gives you an illusion of super-extended soundstage, but you get less resolution/details and/or a unpleasant frequency balanced sound.

At AQ Volcano price range, it is very challenging to find an alternative.Unless you are willing to pay 2-3 times more andyou might get some improvement as 10% or so. I use AQ Meteor on my first setup and AQ volcano on second system. AQ Meteor is 2 times more expensive and its improvement (specially on HF extensions) compared to AQ Volcano is like <10%.

cheers.

I now have AQ Wildwood and yes they are even better than Oak.  Not cheap though!

Anyone else?

Yes, I like it as well- zephyr.

I wanted to learn about a better AQ speaker cable than the Volcano
(if it exists).

I had 3 pairs of Volcano at one point (shotgun bi-wire for my mains plus 1 pair for center channel). Volcano was a great speaker cable in so many ways,...

Many Thanks! guys-

I too like the Volcano, in that specific series, it looks like Pikes Peak is th top speaker cable.  Any recent iterations of this speaker cable series I should be aware (better)?

Wire sizing, ie differing gauges and overall combined gauge looks the same as oak, good call michaelzay.  I had Oak with Colorados for quite a while and can say it certainly did NOT suck!

It seems, AQ Volcano is replace by AQ Oak. Retail price wise, they are similar as well as their wire structure being all PSC+. AQ used to provide more details about their cables like AQ Volcano, but for some reason they stopped doing as such.

http://www.audioquest.com/pdfs/earth_feature/volcano.pdf

There is also, AQ Comet (almost same cost) but this one uses 1/4 silver PSS and 3/4 psc+.

I have a pair of AQ Volcano which is a much thicker cable compared to AQ Oak and AQ Meteor (that I use on my primary setup), perhaps because of its higher no.of RFI insulation layers.

hope that would help.
cheers.

Anyone?