Audioquest

sucks2beme

I went down to Best Buy to the Magnolia section last night to get an interconnect for my new headphone amp. The salesman told me they are closing out Audioquest and switching over to Monster. I ended up buying a set of 10' CV-6 speaker cables for $175!! The interconnect cables were on sale too, but the speaker cable deal was great. List $675. I worked most last night, so I have only done a short listen. I was using Monster Z3's with Nad separates and Snell bookshelves. I listened to Cassandra Wilson, and the improvement in vocal clarity jumped right out at me. If you want Audioquest stuff, get down there!
BTW, does anyone know about how long the batteries are good for on these cables?

Emlyn

Excellent deal. I'm assuming these are the DBS version. Here's what Audioquest says about the batteries, which you can check with a button triggering a green LED on each pack:

"AudioQuest's patent pending Dielectric-Bias System (DBS) puts all of a cable's dielectric into a comparatively high-voltage DC field beginning at the moment that the cable is terminated. This exceptionally simple design puts a wire down the middle of the cable, which is merely an extension of a battery's anode. In other words, this wire is attached to the positive terminal of the DBS battery pack and not to anything else. The wire is not in the signal path and has no interaction with the signal.

The shield or outer spiral of conductors is used as the DBS cathode by connecting it to the negative terminal of the battery pack. Again, there is no interaction with signal flow and no extra connections are introduced into the signal path. The batteries are doing no work. They will last as long as the batteries sitting on your storage shelf, so you will very seldom need to change batteries. To check battery status, the DBS pack includes a button and LED."

I have a couple sets of their DBS cables, one bi-wire and the other not. Both are among the most neutral speaker cables I've used, but offer a lot of detail and a big wide soundstage.

Early B.

I'd love to try a pair of these cables. Also, do they happen to have AQ Jaguars on sale?

sucks2beme

They are DBS.
They didn't have any Jaguars. The best ic's they had were the diamondbacks.

schwarcw

+1 on the Jaguars and the Panthers. Both are the DBS type and I'm very pleased with the sound. I experienced improved detail and bass response. These can be found on Audiogon for a much better price than new. If Best Buy is closing these out, you can be sure someone grabbed a bunch and you should see them show up for sale on Audiogon.

Zen Dragon

sucks2beme wrote:

The salesman told me they are closing out Audioquest and switching over to Monster.

Now there is a sad story. Magnolia is a fairly respected mid to high end retailer. I can understand them stocking monster, but not closing out the audioquest. I wonder if Monster made them drop the other line as a requirement for carrying their products. :mad:

Early B.

Yeah, it's sad, but I suppose the AQ stuff wasn't selling nearly as well as the Monster brand. Most people who shop at BB and even at Magnolia are more likely to succomb to Monster's marketing hype, especially when you're talking about choosing between various Monster speaker cable options and the lesser known AQ speaker cables listing for $675. You gotta admit, the battery thingy really seems like a very expensive gimmick.

Zen Dragon

Yes, I'm sure the upper end Audioquest likely only had a very limited market. Not all their cables are $700 though.
I run some of their Sidewinders that have good build quality. I think they're like 40-50 bucks for 1.5 meters which prices them squarely in the same pricing arena as Monster.

kingkip

Does anyone else think a $500 mark-up on cables is a bit excessive? It would be interesting to know how much it costs to manufacture the cables.

mantis

kingkip wrote:

Does anyone else think a $500 mark-up on cables is a bit excessive? It would be interesting to know how much it costs to manufacture the cables.

High end cable cost alot. High end everything does.I believe to much. I have installed 36K Transparent speaker wires on 85K Dynaudio speakers, 12K Krell Mono blocks x2, 3k Transparent Interconnects, 3k CD player etc so yeah when you get up there things get out of hand.

Basically you gotta match your system with wire, if your system can benefit from 675.00 wire, then use it. If it doesn't help, then your wasting your money. 20% of your system cost is a good ratio to figure out where you should be in wires. I learned this from Transparent and it seems to hold pretty true.Audioquest has completely different views on this subject.They say forget the cost and keep going up until you can't hear any differeneces anymore.I can't justify spending 2k per pair of Interconnects on my Rotel preamp and amp. I would have more money in Interconnects then my seperates. You can be the judge of that.

I have over 4K in wires in my system.I have 95% all Audioquest and a few Kimber Power cables left.I use for speakerwires the CV8's.Interconnects are Jaguars. I felt when I upgraded from Kimber, I made a nice Improvement.

Dan

zombie boy 2000

Looks like Sucks2beme beat me to it...
I was out of town this weekend and stopped into a Magnolia, and they were indeed closing out their entire Audioquest stock.. It looked like 50% off all IC's and speaker cables, and after talking to the sales rep, even these prices seemed negotiable. Even so, they didn't seem to be moving any. If I had been in a position to spend, I would have swiped up a few of the lower entries....

Early B.

Just grabbed a pair of 10 ft. CV-8's for half price from Magnolia. Thanks for the heads up.

ohskigod

might have to stop there on the way back to the office

organ

Very cool. You pretty much STOLE those cables.

Does the DC from the battery act as a shield or prevents inductance? I'm too lazy to read technical info right now.

Toxis

They're supposed to open two Magnolia's in KC... supposedly. Guess I'll miss out on the deal for some AQ cables.

ohskigod

there was a clearance by me too. I didnt see speaker cables, but did pick up 2 pairs of audioquest copperheads (1m) for 75 bucks total.

okiepolkie

After reading this thread, I contacted Audioquest and am on the way to becoming an authorized reseller. I have been able to get monster for a while now, but I'd rather not sell it. This gives me a middle/high option for several of my installations.

sucks2beme

I'm not sure the battery is anything but a gimmick, but the speaker cables do sound good.
I went back and bought four Copperhead IC's to try out. I'm running a 2.1, so there is the cdp cable, one from the pre to the woofer in, and one to the woofer out to the power amp. They were way too bright! The hight end was a bit bright, and the lows dropped right off. The Monster THX Ultra 1000 IC's were way to dull sounding(not much in the way of highs). I then tried something stupid. I used one AQ on the cdp connection, the other two were the Monsters, and the AQ CV-6 speaker cables. Wow, I now have better highs with a respectable low end. I would of thought this combo would have sounded odd. I took back three of the AQ IC's and kept the one.
The seach continues. I am now thinking of trying other IC's, maybe Cardas? Ideas anyone?

schwarcw

Zach,

If you get some Jaguars to resell, drop me a line:)

Carl

Early B.

sucks2beme wrote:

I'm not sure the battery is anything but a gimmick, but the speaker cables do sound good.
I went back and bought four Copperhead IC's to try out. I'm running a 2.1, so there is the cdp cable, one from the pre to the woofer in, and one to the woofer out to the power amp. They were way too bright! The hight end was a bit bright, and the lows dropped right off. The Monster THX Ultra 1000 IC's were way to dull sounding(not much in the way of highs). I then tried something stupid. I used one AQ on the cdp connection, the other two were the Monsters, and the AQ CV-6 speaker cables. Wow, I now have better highs with a respectable low end. I would of thought this combo would have sounded odd. I took back three of the AQ IC's and kept the one.
The seach continues. I am now thinking of trying other IC's, maybe Cardas? Ideas anyone?

Yeah, the Copperheads are on the low end of the AQ spectrum, so I'm not surprised by your results. You should consider mating your CV-6's with an "equivalent" interconnect such as the Jaguar. Or maybe try some Kimber Heros. I have the CV-8/Hero combo and it sounds great. I'd like to try the Jag's but I've exceeded my audio budget for a while by purchasing the CV-8's and it's all your fault.;)

ckpiv

I have a set of Jaguars going from my cd player to my preamp and preamp to my amp. The sound is very neutral and detailed. best IC I have heard on my system. I picked mine up on ebay for 175 to 200 for boxed new sets. They do not come up too often, but when they do there are usually several available at a time.

sucks2beme

If they had 1 meter Diamondbacks, I would of got some. I may get some from another of their stores in the area. The Jags are way out of my price range for now. If I do find a steal, I'll let all of you know.:D
The After listening some more last night, I could live with the current sound quite well. Using the AQ first in the audio chain makes a noticable difference in my headphone sound as well.
Makes me wonder how others couldn't here a difference in cables. The Monsters are not cheap IC's. Yet they have a very different sound.

sucks2beme

http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue18/audioquestinterview.htm

This is the link to an interview of the AQ guys about stuff, including DBS.

I broke down and bought all King Cobras at $87.50 a pair for 1m IC's.
I had to go to three stores to find them.
Now this is a good sounding IC!!:D Well balanced, unlike the Copperhead.

schwarcw

I still don't have a good write up from Audioquest or anyone as to the importance of the voltage in the DBS cable? These cables come in 12V, 24V and 36V styles. I'm assuming the higher voltage implies a better sound since the higher voltages are on Audioquest's higher priced cables. I personally use the cables and I found them to be very good.

Carl

Early B.

schwarcw wrote:

I still don't have a good write up from Audioquest or anyone as to the importance of the voltage in the DBS cable? These cables come in 12V, 24V and 36V styles. I'm assuming the higher voltage implies a better sound since the higher voltages are on Audioquest's higher priced cables.

Yeah, I'd like to know as well. AQ even sells 36v turbo kits to boost the voltage on any DBS cable:

http://www.amusicdirect.com/products/detail.asp?sku=AAQTURBOKIT

The battery is dormant, so why should the voltage matter?