Who uses Audioquest and why?

mantis

Just curious to see who likes there cables and why.

Dan

RuSsMaN

I do.

They sound good.

Cheers,
Russ

TroyD

AQ is good but I got Kimber in my sole.

At least until the end of October.

BDT

shack

What Russ said. And their customer service is up there with Polk. I had a pair of 3 year old ICs that were causing feed back (loose ground or something). My local dealer (who did not sell them) sent them to AudioQuest and in less than 3 weeks I had them back...fixed...no charge...not even shipping...no questions asked.

disneyjoe7

I do because I love how they sound.

Using DiamondBack interconnects and Bedrock Speaker cables.

audiobliss

shack wrote:

What Russ said. And their customer service is up there with Polk. I had a pair of 3 year old ICs that were causing feed back (loose ground or something). My local dealer (who did not sell them) sent them to AudioQuest and in less than 3 weeks I had them back...fixed...no charge...not even shipping...no questions asked.

That's an awesome CS story. I know where I'll be looking for my cables when the time comes!

Willow

I have one pair as well.

Why cause I wanted to try something new and different.

BrentMcGhee

I have yet to hear anything from audioquest and i have never really looked into buying any of them becasue all of the cables i have seen on there website are way to expensive for me. I mean really..... more than a grand for most of there cables, that is def out of my budget.

However starting in november tweeter is dropping monster power for panamax and monster cable for audioquest????? I cant imagine that at the prices audioquest is at that monster cable and audioquest are even close to the same market. They must be coming out with a more entry level series or atleast a series that is closer to the monstercable price that tweeter carried, becasue if they don't i cant see the people that are coming in to buy a mits tv and a bose or jbl htib spending that much for what they would call a no name cable manufacturer. I mean whether monster cable is worth the money or not is besides the fact. Monster is a name that even if you are not in this hobby you will recognize. The monster cable name to speaker cable and interconnects is just like the bose name to speakers.

I guess we will just have to wait and see what happens.

AsSiMiLaTeD

BrentMcGhee wrote:

I have yet to hear anything from audioquest and i have never really looked into buying any of them becasue all of the cables i have seen on there website are way to expensive for me. I mean really..... more than a grand for most of there cables, that is def out of my budget.

WTF??? You must be talking about someone else, because you sure aren't talking about Audioquest

They do have a FEW cables that get very expensive, and I'm sure not many people here own them. But the VAST MAJORITY of their cables are very reasonably priced. You can get a pair of Copperheads for like $75 NEW, cheaper elsewhere - that's about some of the best cable for the money you can buy.

I cant imagine that at the prices audioquest is at that monster cable and audioquest are even close to the same market.

Again, not true. The Monster Cables that I've seen that would compare to the Audioquest stuff are usually as expensive if not more expensive than the equivalent AQ stuff. I've a friend who just bought some Monster 1 meter run THX cable, and paid $100 for it, $25 more than what I paid for my Copperheads if I would have bought them new...$65 more than what I actually paid (thankx steve) - and the AQs sound better...at least to us...

shack

BrentMcGhee wrote:

I have yet to hear anything from audioquest and i have never really looked into buying any of them becasue all of the cables i have seen on there website are way to expensive for me. I mean really..... more than a grand for most of there cables, that is def out of my budget.

However starting in november tweeter is dropping monster power for panamax and monster cable for audioquest????? I cant imagine that at the prices audioquest is at that monster cable and audioquest are even close to the same market. They must be coming out with a more entry level series or atleast a series that is closer to the monstercable price that tweeter carried, becasue if they don't i cant see the people that are coming in to buy a mits tv and a bose or jbl htib spending that much for what they would call a no name cable manufacturer. I mean whether monster cable is worth the money or not is besides the fact. Monster is a name that even if you are not in this hobby you will recognize. The monster cable name to speaker cable and interconnects is just like the bose name to speakers.

I guess we will just have to wait and see what happens.

I'm not sure what site you have been looking at but MOST products in the AudioQuest line are well below $1,000.

Prices from Audio Advisor (which are very close to retail) and have just recently increased. All of these products have been around for at least 5 years.

Interconnects:

G-Snake - .5M = $20 to 6.0M = $75
Sidewinder - .5M = $35 to 6.0M = $145
Copperhead - .5M = $60 to 6.0M = $170
Diamondback - .5M = $95 to 5.0M = $425
King Cobra - .5M = $125 to 5.0M = $575
Jaguar - .5M = $275 to 5.0M = $950
Panther and Cheetah do get into the $1,000 range but they are TOL

Digital coaxial and optical cables start at $20.

Speaker cables start at $40 for a 6 ft. pair.

There prices are not as low as "direct to consumer only" Blue Jean or Signal but they are no where near as high as you have stated. I have already admitted I'm a fan of AQ, but I have had Blue Jean and currently use several Signal cables. IMO dollar for dollar AQ beats M hands down.

Willow

Check the FM sometimes you can find some for cheap, like me!
Not that I'm cheap, the cables :rolleyes:

BrentMcGhee

Wow i have apparently riled some feathers..... well i must confess, after i read all of your replies i went to the aq website and browsed around a little deeper this time. I guess all the other times i went there i always looked only at there top of the top cables.

I may after all give aq a try now that i have actualy seen what they have to offer.

shack

BrentMcGhee wrote:

Wow i have apparently riled some feathers.....

Mis-information is never a good thing...

AQ obviously has a small following here. With your employee discount (you work at tweeter..right?) you should be able to pick them up at a very nice price. Give them a try, You may like them.

BrentMcGhee

Yeah i probably will wait until our audioquest accomodation kicks in so i can try some of there cables but the thing that i have really been wondering about is that i just sold my monster power conditioner because i was going to upgrade to a higher one and also get the monster voltage regulator. It was right after that that i found out we were no longer going to carry monster after november. So my question is has anyone had any experience with panamax's power conditioners? Should i jump the gun and get the monster power conditioner and voltage regulator or wait for my panamax accomodation and try theirs.

shack wrote:

Mis-information is never a good thing...

AQ obviously has a small following here. With your employee discount (you work at tweeter..right?) you should be able to pick them up at a very nice price. Give them a try, You may like them.

mantis

BrentMcGhee,
what Tweeter do you work for ? What do you do ? Yes From what I have heard , Tweeter is dropping Monster and picking up Audioquest and Panamax. Both products are in my opnion better then monstercable. Monster is a solid performing cable that works good in alot of systems, but the way it looks that Tweeter is going, things are changing for the better. Krell , JM labs , Panamax , Audioquest and dropping monster. Wow thats alot of change. I'm all for all of it.

The Audioquest wire I want to get deep into. I want to play with it, listen to it and see where it takes me. It may pan out to be not for me but I want to know.

The Panamax power centers are excellent. Thats another thing I want to look at closer. being in our stores will give me more time to spend with them and "get to know them" much better.

Exciting times

Dan

TroyD

I thought that you were already the preeminent expert on all things wire........I thought you and the boy blunder have already done double blind testing and generally 'demo'd your face off' with all brands of wire already?

BDT

BrentMcGhee

Mantis
I work out of the fredericksburg store (0231). I am the IHI scheduler in that hub.
I have to agree with your thoughts on all the changes at tweeter. I am def glad to see them going back to carrying some of the higher end equipment that i first knew them for. I really enjoyed playing with a new 2 channel setup in my store consisting of krell and focal.

Normanality

I'm in love with my Audioquest (Audiotruth) Lapis interconnects.
I've yet to hear another brand (in the same price range) that sounded so clean.

SCompRacer

Normanality wrote:

I'm in love with my Audioquest (Audiotruth) Lapis interconnects.
I've yet to hear another brand (in the same price range) that sounded so clean.

Best I've heard in my system so far too. Of course you know that.

mantis

TroyD wrote:

I thought that you were already the preeminent expert on all things wire........I thought you and the boy blunder have already done double blind testing and generally 'demo'd your face off' with all brands of wire already?

BDT

I have demo'd Audioquest cables in the past with my sidekick in crime fighting. But it was only a pair of speaker wires which where 4 solid core cables older Audioquest vs Monstercable M 1.2s on B&K and martin logans at a job we did. There also was a pair of Audioquest IC's and we demo'd them against M1000 Ic's. Thats all of my experience with Audioquest.

I'm not an expert on all things wire. I'm no differnt then most except I have demo'd alot of differnt wire.

Dan

Beekyman

I own 3 sets of their "Diamondback" series and I have been very pleased with them. I also use their terminations on my speaker cables as well. I would not hesitate to buy another set.

mantis

I'm looking forward to going threw there intire line.

Dan

RuSsMaN

mantis wrote:

...threw there intire...

Dan

2 spelling, 1 grammar.

A Trifecta for Dan!!! Atta' boy.

PolkThug

There's a reason their cables are named after snakes.

mantis

PolkThug,
meaning snake oil????

Dan

halo

I'm using AQ Sidewinders now and I can hear a difference between them and the Monster, AR, & Radio Shack IC's I've used in the past. IMO it is a slight difference but its one that I like. The biggest reason I switched to AQ was because of Shack's CS story plus all the praise they receive around here. As far as price goes I was checking various manufacturers (SC, AQ, BJ, Monster, AR, & RS) and they were always the least expensive. I've even purchased a set of YIQ-G Component Cables for my DVD player and they were also the least expensive during my comparason shopping. The AR's that I was using failed - when I called their CS I was told "no original receipt, no original packaging, no replacement". The same thing happened when a Monster S-Video cable I had failed a couple of years ago.

I've also been using a Panamax DBS 500 surge protector/line conditioner and I've never had a problem with it.

The level of gear I have is nothing spectacular. I'd imagine that the better your rig is the more likely you are to hear a difference between IC's. I'm no expert on this subject - its just my $.02.

george daniel

PolkThug wrote:

There's a reason their cables are named after snakes.

And the answer is

steveinaz

I've used Sidewinders, Copperheads, and Diamondback IC's; Type 4 and Granite speaker cables. Good stuff. In IC's my preference was for the Copperhead, and the Granite speaker cable in that department. About 6mos ago I made a change to Kimber, and I'm very happy with them.

AQ cables do very well in the treble department, allowing treble to remain grainless and smooth. I also like the idea of solid core copper as apposed to stranded wire. My Kimbers may have swayed me a bit on the latter observation. I am a little weary of the Sidewinder/Copperhead line as far as durability goes. They've got to be handled gently; which should be the case w/any cable, and shouldn't be a reason to not buy them.

mantis

When I got a pair of Diamondbacks form the cable swap program, I wasn't completely Impressed. My Hero's sounded much better.

But that doesn't mean there higher end cables are going to give the same results.

We shall see

dholmes

Someone tell me whats wrong with Monster cable? Is it the price?

mantis

dholmes,
nothing wrong with Monstercable.They sound a certain way and if your system works well with them, then there is no reason to use anything else. That holds true for any wire company. If it works , use it.

As far as price goes, they are competitively priced. There not cheap nor expensive for the quallity they give you. I never seen a Monster cable go bad. Never. Or for that matter not work out of the box. Never. I have used Monster in the past and I was happy with them with the level of system I owned then. Once I started upgrading, Monster didn't work for me anymore.

People kick monster due to the company and what they have been up 2 lately.They are also the most known cable in the world and audiophiles don't like to use whats KNOWN to a point.

You decide if Monster is right for you. I say it's good quality cable for the money you spend on it.

Dan