Help with Audioquest

organ

I picked up a pair of AQ Type 4 speaker cable today. Each run have 4 individual wires in one large tube. 2 red, 1 black, 1 blue.

Now I need to make a +ve and -ve. I have no idea how the wire is braided inside. Do I connect red with red for the +ve and black with blue for -ve? Red with black and red with blue? Does it matter?

Also, can anybody tell me what kind of sound I should be expecting from these cables? Warm? Bright? forward? laid back? I'm currently using standard Mo*ster 16ga. It will probably be about a week before I try it out because I'm listening to the LSi9 right now. Oh yeah, the AQ is for my Klipsch not Polk.

Thanks

Maurice

disneyjoe7

Ok, here's my input on this hope it helps.

Red 20 gauge to Black 17 gauge wire.

Black 20 gauge to Blue 17 gauge wire.

I'm thinking they are "Forward"


Unless you're connecting these bi-wired?

shack

Warm and laid back is not a term I would use with AudioQuest. Not Bright...but detailed would be a good adjective... I know I like the way my Polks sound with AQs. Can't say about Klipsch.

disneyjoe7

Originally posted by shack
detailed would be a good adjective...

He didn't give me that option Detailed

BTW I do love how they sound with Polk....:)

Skynut

Red and red kills fred dead. black and blue makes you feel screwed.
Warm and fuzzy with a hint of Brutus overtones.

Okay I do not know what I am talking about.
Sorry

shack

Originally posted by disneyjoe7
He didn't give me that option Detailed

Gotta think outside the box DJ7FS.

BTW how do you like the King Cobras?

disneyjoe7

Originally posted by shack
Gotta think outside the box DJ7FS.

BTW how do you like the King Cobras?

I think the Diamond Backs are much better? I felt that the King Cobras are too detailed too forward they made me turn down my stereo. I think they great for a small room 2 channel setup if you never turned it up too loud.

organ

Originally posted by disneyjoe7
Ok, here's my input on this hope it helps.

Red 20 gauge to Black 17 gauge wire.

Black 20 gauge to Blue 17 gauge wire.

I'm thinking they are "Forward"


Unless you're connecting these bi-wired?

Thanks for the help, Disney. On the second one, did you mean to say Red to Blue? There are two red, one blue and one black. From the instruction you gave me, there are 2 blacks. btw, are they directional?

Shack,
That's good enough for me. I find their "Diamondback" IC to be very detailed and I wouldn't call them warm at all.

Skynut,
LOL:D.

Maurice

disneyjoe7

I never worked with this cable myself, so I took this from their website as far as colors.

I do say small wire to a large wire for + / -, so it ends up as 15 gauge wiring.

organ

Aaaah. Alright, I figured it out. I stripped the outer jacket and the small wires have markings on them so I know how to do it now.

I made a mistake. There are two reds and two blacks. No blue. One of them looked blue before I stripped the outer jacket.

The two larger ga are labeled "bass" and the two smaller ones are "treble".

Do you recommend I bi-wire or twist the "bass" and "treble" wires together and use jumpers? It looks like a very small wire. 20ga for HF and 17 for LF?

Maurice

disneyjoe7

Originally posted by organ

Do you recommend I bi-wire or twist the "bass" and "treble" wires together and use jumpers? It looks like a very small wire. 20ga for HF and 17 for LF?

Maurice

That the magic of Audioquest small wiring for the frequency being passed. As far as the Bi-wire thing it's your call, I'm not a fan any longer of Bi-wiring. So I connect 1 bass to 1 treble same on the other side, but that's your call.

organ

Thanks a lot for the help DJ.

I think I'm going to try bi-wiring first. It's going to be a pain in the **** to make jumpers out of these stiff **** cables:).

Maurice

madmax

I would say they are detailed and smooth. Two reds together, two blacks together. I've always used them as a single rather than bi-wired other than when I used two sets of them. They are real easy to work with. The actual wires are very soft. So soft in fact that they conform very well to the posts and make an excellent contact.
madmax

Early B.

Ditto. Detailed and smooth, but not necessarily laid back. Awesome speaker cable without a doubt.

disneyjoe7

Originally posted by madmax
Two reds together, two blacks together.

Never worked with Type4 cable personally is there a small red and a large red. Alone with a small black and a large black. My input was based on the picture off AudioQuest website, (which is colored nothing like it is in really life.) so I hope I didn't mess anyone up.

organ

Madmax,
Yeah, I'm very surprised how easy it was to work with. I thought the cables were going to be stiff.

Early,
You got that right. It's a kick **** cable.

It took me over an hour to prepare the cables and pretty them up with some heat shrink tubing. I know I said I was going to wait until next week to try them out but decided to hook them up (bi-wired) last night. I listened to them last night and all day today. Wanna break them in because I have a JJ and EH 6922 coming to the front door in less than 12 hours from now.

So far the Type4 is one amazing cable. I was using a pair of Polk Cobras but found them much too bright at high spl so I installed some 16ga leftover Monster stuff. The AQ kicked all their asses. I wasn't expecting a big improvement but damn. First thing I noticed is the clarity and detail. It made my previous cables sound sibilant. The bass is very impressive. It doesn't hang around in the front where the soundstage is. Now it's in the room. Imaging is much better too. I love it. The HF is awesome. The refinement I'm getting from the horn tweeter aproaches that of the Vifa in my LSi9. The dynamics increased as well. I'm not going back to stranded speaker cables.

I agree with what have been said about these cables. Detailed and smooth is a great description. I also find them to be on the dark side of neutral. Not warm but darker. They've had many hours on them and I have no idea how long it will take to break them in. So far they're worth every penny.

Next thing for me to upgrade is my speakers. The dealer (same one I got the AQ from) gave me a great price on a pair of Klipsch RF-7. But after doing a lot of thinking and reading, I think I'm getting a pair of La Scala. They have to special order the RF-7 and La Scala so no demo before buying. Hopefully they will be my last pair of speakers. That dang La Scala is 104db/w/m!!!

Maurice