Audioquest vs. Others

@stereo5

I did make the statement that Audioquest breaks cables. Seriously, who decides to mix sulfur with copper and think, "yeah, this is going to sound amazing." Especially when you don't see "Purple Copper" being used in any of their top tier products. For example, the difference between Suregrip 500 series and 1000 series, besides $80-$90?  One uses "Purple Copper" (sulfur + copper) and the other uses "Red Copper" (or, just plain copper).

I am all for creating a diverse and affordable range of products, but not when it means using materials, that by their design, will dull the sound quality.

Look at many of Audioquest's competitors. How many of them boast about using high purity, high conductivity OFHC or some other rendition of "pure copper" throughout their entire product line? What does Audioquest  use? Long Grain Copper, Perfect Surface Copper and Perfect Surface Copper Plus.  Which translates into: Not-so-conductive copper, Not-so-conductive copper with a polished surface and pure high conductivity copper with a polished surface.

Again, I don't hate Audioquest, but I am disappointed in their current line up. In my opinion, they have sacrificed too much quality in order to mass produce for a more common market place. You can find Audioquest at Best Buy, Nebraska Furniture Mart and other common stores.

Why does this concern me?  Because it offers more fodder for the "snake oil" argument. It's no wonder the nay-sayers pick on Audioquest, when they test their low to middle tier products and don't hear a drastic difference. (Notice that none of those nay-sayers test their $9000 speaker cables, interconnects or power cables.) 

Anyway, I am happy to take the heat as I have not only invested in Audioquest  for decades; they took thousands of my dollars and time, but have decades of experience with their product line.

i really do think you should chat w Bill Low - i ran a billion $ business and walked the manufacturing floor every day across multiple shifts so i could get unfiltered inputs…. Could be your conversation sets them on a new course, perhaps w open mind you will learn more.

Your gushing about Kimber power doesn’t seem to translate into the Kimber IC business, i count at least  4 different dialectric materials, cotton at the high end…..

Finally, i  admit to having mostly high end AQ wires. I takes 8 hours of labor at Vandersteen to build up 4 x 1 m speaker cables on AQ silver wire. Probably not available at Nebraska tractor supply. I do have a half meter set of Coral in my mobile recording rack patch bay, they sound lovely…

Certainly my wish for you is great sound, enjoy the music

@tomic601
I doubt Bill wants to hear any more criticism about his products. ;)  I am still displeased that he ended his Nighthawk line; I think they had a great product that was more than worth of continued development. I have called AQ many times and have gotten good advice throughout the years. I only recently became disillusioned, but again, I doubt they want to hear from me or that my opinion will matter. I even asked if they could custom make a power cable in their Wind Series with a C7 connection.  Nope.  They refuse to make a high quality C5 or C7 connectors.  This is when I found Kimber and Shunyata.  They were willing to make high quality C7 and C5 connector power cables.  Once I acquired those and saw/heard how they blew away Audioquest, I suppose I was hooked.


Honestly, I almost got a Kimber IC in their select line.  I wanted to replace the AQ Yosemite with their particular braid system in silver, but later went with Synergistic Research for both cost reasons and the performance the RCA foundation had on my subwoofer.

I wish there were more product vs product comparisons out there in order to make more informed decisions, but I cannot know if there is anything better unless I am willing to try it.  I was going to upgrade to AQ's Angel cable, since there are numerous reviews of that cable (but not the Yosemite.) I do wonder how the SR Foundation 3.5 mini to RCA would stack up against the AQ Angel.  The Angel is $1200 for 1m and SR Foundation was $834 for 1.5m. I have discovered cost isn't always the best factor in determining quality. So, in my situation, it will be SR Foundation versus AQ Yosemite.

At Nebraska Furniture Mart, they have a premium sound room that is 100% wired up with AQ Dragon power cables, the Niagra 7000, and William Tell ZERO speaker cables. Of course those products aren't in-store, they are special order...but at least you can hear what an entire high-end AQ loom sounds like (after about $50,000+).

Just wanted to say I recently purchased Audioquest Yosemite RCA's. My system is budget high-end, imho. Bass is ever so slightly more forward but extremely clean, bass riffs previously unheard to this degree of accuracy. Midrange and treble are also equally pristine. Great timbral accuracy. Very good micro detailing and black background which makes imaging excel. Hearing midrange textures and nuances I'm unfamiliar with. Really good cables, imho. I have not compared to other expensive cables, only cheaper Audioquest stuff and no name cheapo stuff.

 

Someone previously mentioned that you can get FEP insulation for much cheaper from companies other than Audioquest. I've seen teflon dielectrics, but Teflon has come out to be a nasty product that breaks down and leeches into everything, so not safe, imho. I have yet to see another high end cable manufacturer claim FEP insulation. Can anyone direct me? 

@khbaur330162 Yes, Nordost is one, i am sure many others. I keep a set of Blue Heaven interconnects along w AQ wire in my setup box. Blue is FEP.

glad to hear your wire upgrade went well.

Jim