Audioquest Midnight 2 Hyperlitz Fat'ole Speaker Cables - 8ft

falconcry72

AudioQuest Midnight II Hyperlitz speaker cables - 8ft pair - bananas all around.

These are the definition of "garden hose" cables.

They're pretty rough. The bananas work fine, but are worn, and the copper ends look rough from being exposed. The cable housings are scuffed up too. Yea, they're kinda ugly... but they work great, and have some serious copper inside! 8 strands of solid-core copper per terminal. They are big and stiff. Serious bass and warmth in my experience.

They retailed for about 500 bucks. I bought them here a while back:

http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?103893-Gigantic-Solid-Core-Speaker-Cables&highlight=midnight


I'd like to get 100 for them, given their condition, shipped to your door, via paypal gift. Cash in person is of course fine.


***If you'd like, I can re-terminate them for you. I'll cut the ends off, restrip the copper, use new terminations of your choosing, solder and heat shrink'em. I can even put new tech flex around the whole cables. I'll do a good job. This royal treatment will cost you an extra 80 bucks, for a grand total of $180 shipped.

dragon1952

Excellent sounding speaker wires if you don't mind wrestling a bit :^ ) These were around $10 pr/ft back in the day.

falconcry72

dragon1952 wrote: »

Excellent sounding speaker wires if you don't mind wrestling a bit :^ )

Thanks for the props!

These were around $10 pr/ft back in the day.

That's wayyy off.

polkfarmboy

dragon1952 wrote: »

These were around $10 pr/ft back in the day.

Are you trying to kill the FS thread

falconcry72

polkfarmboy wrote: »

Are you trying to kill the FS thread

lol. Just to be clear, when I bought these cables from Dane, I contacted audioquest to see what they were worth, and they told me that they would have retailed for between 350 and 500 depending on when and where.

That said, they are kinda rough, so I'll do 75 shipped to your door as-is, or 155 shipped to your door re-terminated by yours truly.

dragon1952

wow.....I'm really sorry. I didn't even read the post....just saw what was for sale and commented. :redface: My price quote was what I thought I remembered hearing was the price per foot for the raw cable. I had some of this for a long time so I did research it and it was quite a while until I found anything I liked well enough to replace it. As for what it was sold for retail for terminated pairs I have no idea. Like I said, I was talking about bulk unterminated.
Again....I apologize :redface:

falconcry72

dragon1952 wrote: »

wow.....I'm really sorry. I didn't even read the post....just saw what was for sale and commented. :redface: My price quote was what I thought I remembered hearing was the price per foot for the raw cable. I had some of this for a long time so I did research it and it was quite a while until I found anything I liked well enough to replace it. As for what it was sold for retail for terminated pairs I have no idea. Like I said, I was talking about bulk unterminated.
Again....I apologize :redface:

No worries, mate!:biggrin:

falconcry72

I checked with Audioquest to verify my value assumptions, and this is what they just wrote to me:

Dear Sir,

An 8 ft. pair of Midnight was approx. $400 a pair when it was current. The cost to re-terminate all ends of a pair would be $110.00.

Not sure how dragon1952 was gettin' it for 10/ft/pr...

dragon1952

To clarify, $10 per foot, raw and unterminated. That's $160 for an 8ft pair. I don't know if they tech-flexed them back then or not, but if you look at what they sell the current line of factory terminated pairs for vs what you can buy it for in bulk the difference is quite a bit. There were also several versions of the Midnight so it depends on which ones were quoted. BTW, the ones you have there look like the first version of the bulk cable.

falconcry72

dragon1952 wrote: »

To clarify, $10 per foot, raw and unterminated. That's $160 for an 8ft pair. I don't know if they tech-flexed them back then or not, but if you look at what they sell the current line of factory terminated pairs for vs what you can buy it for in bulk the difference is quite a bit. There were also several versions of the Midnight so it depends on which ones were quoted. BTW, the ones you have there look like the first version of the bulk cable.

Cool, thanks for the info.

I started re-stripping them, and the copper looks really nice. It's 10AWG, with 8 strands of solid core per termination.

I'm going to restrip, terminate, heat shrink, and techflex them, and I'll probably just keep them in the JIC box.

Anyway, should be a fun project. :cheesygrin:

erniejade

I have the Crystal bi wire version of that cable. They do sounds fantastic! In my opinion, well workth the asking price and then some!

falconcry72

So I dissected these cables today... man am I glad I did. This is a case of "it's what's on the inside that counts".

8 runs of solid-core copper per terminal; 16 per cable; 32 total. Each one is individually insulated. There is a thick run of nylon separating the positive and negative for the length of each cable. AQ says they're 10AWG; I think they're more like 8 or 9, since each individual run of solid core seems to be 17-18AWG. I really like working with the solid-core; you just bend it and it stays put!

Here are some progress pics. I got techflex on the way. Once that goes on, they'll look as good as they sound.:biggrin:

falconcry72

I finished re-finishing the cables, and I'm gonna keep'em.:cheesygrin:

Mods please mark as SOLD. Thanks.

Here are some pics of the end result, if anyone's interested:

polkfarmboy

Great work... never new them cables had 16 poles of articulation and if they were MIT then them 16 poles would cost about 15k

falconcry72

polkfarmboy wrote: »

Great work... never new them cables had 16 poles of articulation and if they were MIT then them 16 poles would cost about 15k

Thanks, PFB. :biggrin:

No articulation poles here, but it's interesting that you mentioned MIT; I used the same techflex as they use on their Shotgun and up cables.

bikerboy

What type of connector did you use? If you do want to sell them LMK.

falconcry72

They are gold plated brass. Nothin special, but very serviceable. They fit snuggly, but not overly tight like others of this style.

I'll let you know if I want to let them go. I'd like to fund a DIY cable from scratch. I got some ideas...

falconcry72

Ok. I'll let'em go. I want to make some from scratch.

I'll still honor the 155 shipped price, although I expanded the scope of the re-termination a bit.

bikerboy has first dibs and a PM coming.

bikerboy

I'll take them. PM sent.

falconcry72

bikerboy wrote: »

I'll take them. PM sent.

pending payment.

dekuda

Nice buy, let us know how they sound. I have a biwire pair from erniejade that I am gpoing to try. They are terminated with spades on the ends which were somewhat corroded so I just cleaned them up. They are big and bulky.Here is a article on the hyperlitz cables from AQ. They mention the cable theory and the advantages of biwiring which I find interesting.
http://www.audioquest.com/pdfs/aq_cable_theory.pdf

heiney9

polkfarmboy wrote: »

Great work... never new them cables had 16 poles of articulation and if they were MIT then them 16 poles would cost about 15k

You obviously don't know what "articulation poles" are, they aren't simply the number of wires per run.

falconcry72

dekuda wrote: »

Nice buy, let us know how they sound.

I'll tell ya, after re-terminating them, I took a good listen, and I'm impressed.

BTW, cables are SOLD.

dekuda

falconcry72 wrote: »

I'll tell ya, after re-terminating them, I took a good listen, and I'm impressed.

BTW, cables are SOLD.

You did a nice job with the new termination. I bet the buyer will enjoy as long as he knows it is like working with a garden hose, bulky and not very flexible.

falconcry72

dekuda wrote: »

...as long as he knows it is like working with a garden hose, bulky and not very flexible.

lol, that's the truth! They're actually more flexible and easier to work with than my MIT Shotgun S3's, but I enjoy the "struggle".:biggrin: