To The Mountain Top: Audioquest Everest Speaker Cable
DarqueKnight
Posts: 6,765
Introduction
I have had excellent results with Audioquests DBS (dielectric bias system) interconnects and speaker cables [footnote 1]. I recently took advantage of a good deal offered on an 8 foot pair of AQ's top speaker cable, the Everest. When I asked the seller why he was selling and what didn't he like about the Everests, he just said that he was upgrading to more expensive Purist cables [footnote 2]. Ooookay.
The cables arrived to me in mint condition and, according to the previous owner, were only used for 150 hours. Due to his meticulous nature, the previous owner had sent the cables back to Audioquest for retermination prior to putting them up for sale. The original spades had some light scratches on them.:eek:
Figure 1. These "budget" Audioquest Everest cables will have to do
until my money gets older...until my bank account grows up.
Cable Construction
The Everest speaker cables are identical to the Volcano cables except for the jacket color and the conductor metal. Both cables have an effective wire gauge of 9 AWG, but the Everests use pure silver conductors and the Volcanos use copper conductors. The conductor material accounts for a great disparity in price. An eight foot pair of Volcano cables retails for $3,300. An eight foot pair of Everest cables retails for $11,700 (over 3.5X the price of the Volcanos).
The Everest and the Volcano cables both feature the same signal integrity technologies such as "perfect surface" metal conductors, the dielectric bias system, "earth feature" geometry, spread spectrum technology, and conductive insulation.
Figure 2. Two DBS gladiators face off for cutthroat audio trials.
Evaluation Procedure
My standard qualitative and quantitative listening evaluation methods were used. The position of instruments and voices within the soundstage were noted on a chart. Notes were also made regarding the character of sounds within the soundstage. Volume levels were measured with an analog Radio Shack sound level meter and the preamp volume settings corresponding to a particular sound level were noted. Listening evaluations were made at an average sound pressure level of 85 dB-C, except for the times when low level resolution was being evaluated.
Listening notes were first recorded with the Volcano cables and then with the Everests. The last song listened to with the Volcanos was the first song listened to with the Everests.
I did not listen to the Everests with the DBS disconnected.
The Sound - Tickle Me Everest
I was unable to find a consumer or audio press review comparing the Volcanos and Everests. I didn't bother to call Audioquest to inquire about the differences between the two because I pretty much knew what the party line was going to be. After my listening and note taking session with the Volcanos, I swapped in the Everests and prepared for a grueling session of moving my 535 pound audio cabinet out from and in to the wall to swap cables back and forth. I also expected to take some licks from the law of diminishing returns; I just hoped that it wouldn't be a K.O. type of event.
I soon found that my concerns were for naught. There was no need for swapping cables back and forth. The Everests were clearly superior in every respect. The minute the music started playing through the Everests, I started smiling. Then I started grinning. Then I started giggling like Kevin Federline does on the day the child support checks arrive.:)
On Dave Brubeck's "Take Five" track from the "Time Out" SACD. I immediately noticed more musical detail, but I also heard more tape hiss from the analog master tape source. I expected the Everests to be louder, but they were not, neither subjectively or measurably. They were, however, fuller, richer, more detailed, and had a more expansive soundstage in all dimensions. Dave Brubeck's piano, which was 3 feet to the right of the right speaker center line with the Volcanos, was now 7 feet out. I imagine that I would have heard a similar expansion on the left side of the soundstage, but my left speaker is 3 feet from the side wall. Drum notes not only had more impact and articulation, but more complexity. There seemed to be smaller bass notes riding on top of larger bass notes, for lack of a better description. With acoustic bass notes, in addition to the string tones, the sound of notes reverberating inside the wood body of the bass was very clear and well defined.
How much do you have to spend before you hear everything there is on a disk? During this session I listened to music that I was very familiar with and had been listening to for years...and yet, I heard new sounds with each selection played. The experience was somewhat like being cured of color blindness. I was able to hear (see) all the images before, and I was able to hear (see) some of the colors, but I wasn't able to hear (see) all the colors and different shadings of colors that those images displayed.
On many songs, voice and instrument images were elevated 1 to 2 feet higher than their positions with the Volcanos. This was particularly true with drum kits, which sounded as if they had been placed on a stand one or two feet up from the floor. I found myself looking slightly upward at the players a lot more.
After I had had my fill of CD, HDCD, and SACD, I decided it was time to stop paying the penalty of lost information demanded by the sampling theorem. I kicked off my analog listening session with the "Bum's Cathedral" track from David Sanborn's excellent "Backstreet" LP. Previously, I had always heard Sanborn's saxophone with other instruments to the sides and rear of it. This time, I heard Sanborn's alto sax dead center with the drums behind him as he was encircled 360 degrees by a "bubble" of synthesizer sounds. I had never heard anything in front of him before. I popped in the Backstreet CD, which is of average recording quality, to hear if the synth sounds in front of Sanborn would be there. They were "hinted" at, but the CD provided nowhere near the immersive 3-D experience of the LP.
In summary, the Everest speaker cables provided the following performance benefits over the Volcano cables:
1. More powerful and articulate bass.
2. More clarity and detail throughout.
3. More harmonic richness: thicker, fuller, heavier images within the soundstage with much more harmonic overtones.
4. A taller, much wider, and deeper soundstage.
5. A greater sense of music flowing effortlessly from the images within the soundstage.
6. Much greater low level detail.
7. Giggles. The Volcanos made me smile and grin...but no giggles.
I have had the pleasure of listening to some superlative audio systems at audio salons and at manufacturer's premises. I don't recall that I have had this much fun at any of them. Of course, I didn't know as much about what to listen for back then.;)
Diminishing Returns
Figure 3. The winner...by a wide, wide margin.
As stated previously, the Everests are 3.5X the retail cost of the Volcanos. On the used market, Everests are 2.5X to 3X the cost of Volcanos. Quantitatively, the Everests were not 3X better in my audio system. The bass didn't hit 3X as hard. There wasn't 3X more musical detail obtained from source material. Subjectively, the substantially increased soundstaging and imaging properties, as well as increased musical detail, justified the extra investment in such good sound. The extra cost is especially justified when I consider that this cable trial result also had an unexpected benefit: I no longer need to continue shopping for a bigger, beefier power amp to "find my sound" [footnote 3]. Apparently, amp/cable synergy can achieve revelatory results. The Everest speaker cables turned out to be the missing piece of my audio puzzle.:)
Conclusion
I'm glad, and relieved, that upgrading all the core components in my two channel system is finished. I do plan to acquire one of Mr. Windfeld's wonder cartridges sometime this year [footnote 4]. I might upgrade my tonearm to the Graham B-44, but I am not yet convinced that this would be worthwhile endeavor...for someone with my modest interest in analog. From what I have read and from the dealers I have talked to, the amount of improvement you will hear from the B-44 is highly system dependent. Even in the best case scenario, the B-44 is not touted to be a "revelatory" experience over the 2.2 Deluxe.
We'll see.
[1] The interested reader can refer to my reviews of Volcano speaker cable, Niagara XLR interconnects, Sky XLR interconnects, and LeoPard tonearm cable.
[2] A 3 meter pair of Purist Audio Design 20th Anniversary speaker cables has an MSRP of $22,500. Cheap by carriage trade standards.:)
[3]
But if I know you, you'll keep it in the back of your mind because you've got a jones for a Pass Labs X600.5.
[4] Ortofon MC Windfeld Cartridge
I have had excellent results with Audioquests DBS (dielectric bias system) interconnects and speaker cables [footnote 1]. I recently took advantage of a good deal offered on an 8 foot pair of AQ's top speaker cable, the Everest. When I asked the seller why he was selling and what didn't he like about the Everests, he just said that he was upgrading to more expensive Purist cables [footnote 2]. Ooookay.
The cables arrived to me in mint condition and, according to the previous owner, were only used for 150 hours. Due to his meticulous nature, the previous owner had sent the cables back to Audioquest for retermination prior to putting them up for sale. The original spades had some light scratches on them.:eek:
Figure 1. These "budget" Audioquest Everest cables will have to do
until my money gets older...until my bank account grows up.
Cable Construction
The Everest speaker cables are identical to the Volcano cables except for the jacket color and the conductor metal. Both cables have an effective wire gauge of 9 AWG, but the Everests use pure silver conductors and the Volcanos use copper conductors. The conductor material accounts for a great disparity in price. An eight foot pair of Volcano cables retails for $3,300. An eight foot pair of Everest cables retails for $11,700 (over 3.5X the price of the Volcanos).
The Everest and the Volcano cables both feature the same signal integrity technologies such as "perfect surface" metal conductors, the dielectric bias system, "earth feature" geometry, spread spectrum technology, and conductive insulation.
Figure 2. Two DBS gladiators face off for cutthroat audio trials.
Evaluation Procedure
My standard qualitative and quantitative listening evaluation methods were used. The position of instruments and voices within the soundstage were noted on a chart. Notes were also made regarding the character of sounds within the soundstage. Volume levels were measured with an analog Radio Shack sound level meter and the preamp volume settings corresponding to a particular sound level were noted. Listening evaluations were made at an average sound pressure level of 85 dB-C, except for the times when low level resolution was being evaluated.
Listening notes were first recorded with the Volcano cables and then with the Everests. The last song listened to with the Volcanos was the first song listened to with the Everests.
I did not listen to the Everests with the DBS disconnected.
The Sound - Tickle Me Everest
I was unable to find a consumer or audio press review comparing the Volcanos and Everests. I didn't bother to call Audioquest to inquire about the differences between the two because I pretty much knew what the party line was going to be. After my listening and note taking session with the Volcanos, I swapped in the Everests and prepared for a grueling session of moving my 535 pound audio cabinet out from and in to the wall to swap cables back and forth. I also expected to take some licks from the law of diminishing returns; I just hoped that it wouldn't be a K.O. type of event.
I soon found that my concerns were for naught. There was no need for swapping cables back and forth. The Everests were clearly superior in every respect. The minute the music started playing through the Everests, I started smiling. Then I started grinning. Then I started giggling like Kevin Federline does on the day the child support checks arrive.:)
On Dave Brubeck's "Take Five" track from the "Time Out" SACD. I immediately noticed more musical detail, but I also heard more tape hiss from the analog master tape source. I expected the Everests to be louder, but they were not, neither subjectively or measurably. They were, however, fuller, richer, more detailed, and had a more expansive soundstage in all dimensions. Dave Brubeck's piano, which was 3 feet to the right of the right speaker center line with the Volcanos, was now 7 feet out. I imagine that I would have heard a similar expansion on the left side of the soundstage, but my left speaker is 3 feet from the side wall. Drum notes not only had more impact and articulation, but more complexity. There seemed to be smaller bass notes riding on top of larger bass notes, for lack of a better description. With acoustic bass notes, in addition to the string tones, the sound of notes reverberating inside the wood body of the bass was very clear and well defined.
How much do you have to spend before you hear everything there is on a disk? During this session I listened to music that I was very familiar with and had been listening to for years...and yet, I heard new sounds with each selection played. The experience was somewhat like being cured of color blindness. I was able to hear (see) all the images before, and I was able to hear (see) some of the colors, but I wasn't able to hear (see) all the colors and different shadings of colors that those images displayed.
On many songs, voice and instrument images were elevated 1 to 2 feet higher than their positions with the Volcanos. This was particularly true with drum kits, which sounded as if they had been placed on a stand one or two feet up from the floor. I found myself looking slightly upward at the players a lot more.
After I had had my fill of CD, HDCD, and SACD, I decided it was time to stop paying the penalty of lost information demanded by the sampling theorem. I kicked off my analog listening session with the "Bum's Cathedral" track from David Sanborn's excellent "Backstreet" LP. Previously, I had always heard Sanborn's saxophone with other instruments to the sides and rear of it. This time, I heard Sanborn's alto sax dead center with the drums behind him as he was encircled 360 degrees by a "bubble" of synthesizer sounds. I had never heard anything in front of him before. I popped in the Backstreet CD, which is of average recording quality, to hear if the synth sounds in front of Sanborn would be there. They were "hinted" at, but the CD provided nowhere near the immersive 3-D experience of the LP.
In summary, the Everest speaker cables provided the following performance benefits over the Volcano cables:
1. More powerful and articulate bass.
2. More clarity and detail throughout.
3. More harmonic richness: thicker, fuller, heavier images within the soundstage with much more harmonic overtones.
4. A taller, much wider, and deeper soundstage.
5. A greater sense of music flowing effortlessly from the images within the soundstage.
6. Much greater low level detail.
7. Giggles. The Volcanos made me smile and grin...but no giggles.
I have had the pleasure of listening to some superlative audio systems at audio salons and at manufacturer's premises. I don't recall that I have had this much fun at any of them. Of course, I didn't know as much about what to listen for back then.;)
Diminishing Returns
Figure 3. The winner...by a wide, wide margin.
As stated previously, the Everests are 3.5X the retail cost of the Volcanos. On the used market, Everests are 2.5X to 3X the cost of Volcanos. Quantitatively, the Everests were not 3X better in my audio system. The bass didn't hit 3X as hard. There wasn't 3X more musical detail obtained from source material. Subjectively, the substantially increased soundstaging and imaging properties, as well as increased musical detail, justified the extra investment in such good sound. The extra cost is especially justified when I consider that this cable trial result also had an unexpected benefit: I no longer need to continue shopping for a bigger, beefier power amp to "find my sound" [footnote 3]. Apparently, amp/cable synergy can achieve revelatory results. The Everest speaker cables turned out to be the missing piece of my audio puzzle.:)
Conclusion
I'm glad, and relieved, that upgrading all the core components in my two channel system is finished. I do plan to acquire one of Mr. Windfeld's wonder cartridges sometime this year [footnote 4]. I might upgrade my tonearm to the Graham B-44, but I am not yet convinced that this would be worthwhile endeavor...for someone with my modest interest in analog. From what I have read and from the dealers I have talked to, the amount of improvement you will hear from the B-44 is highly system dependent. Even in the best case scenario, the B-44 is not touted to be a "revelatory" experience over the 2.2 Deluxe.
We'll see.
[1] The interested reader can refer to my reviews of Volcano speaker cable, Niagara XLR interconnects, Sky XLR interconnects, and LeoPard tonearm cable.
[2] A 3 meter pair of Purist Audio Design 20th Anniversary speaker cables has an MSRP of $22,500. Cheap by carriage trade standards.:)
[3]
But if I know you, you'll keep it in the back of your mind because you've got a jones for a Pass Labs X600.5.[4] Ortofon MC Windfeld Cartridge
Proud and loyal citizen of the Digital Domain and Solid State Country!
Post edited by DarqueKnight on
Comments
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Pass Laboratories X.02 Preamp
Pass Laboratories Xono Phono Preamp
Parasound Halo JC1 Monoblock Amps (600 wpc into 6 ohms)
Teres Audio Model 255 Turntable with Graham 2.2 Deluxe Tonearm
Sonic Purity Concepts and Design Record Clamp ("The Clamp")
Ortofon Jubilee Moving Coil Cartridge (Until I hear from Mr. Windfeld)
Cary Audio CD 306 SACD/HDCD/CD Player
Polk Audio SDA SRS 1.2TL Speakers (Modified)
Audioquest LeoPard 72V DBS Phono Cable
Audioquest Niagara 72V DBS Interconnects (Preamp/Power Amp and Phono Preamp/Preamp)
Audioquest Sky 72V DBS Interconnect (SACD Player)
Signal Cable 10AWG MagicPower Cords for Amps and SACD PlayerProud and loyal citizen of the Digital Domain and Solid State Country! -
OK, the Volcano review got me to order Mont Blancs....now what do I do?
Wish I could hear the Everests.
Someday. -
woofiepaws wrote: »....now what do I do?
A review of the Mont Blancs would be nice.:)Proud and loyal citizen of the Digital Domain and Solid State Country! -
DK, you gotta stop doin' this stuff. I just got my second pair of AQ CV-8's w/the 72v BP and now you post this? Arggghhhhh! I'll never be done until I'm broke. Damn you!
~ In search of accurate reproduction of music. Real sound is my reference and while perfection may not be attainable? If I chase it, I might just catch excellence. ~ -
Stellar review! You should do this for a living!
-
I agree
outstanding review...as always
I enjoy all of your reviews, and this one is right there with the others
Very informative and easy to understand.......maybe you should do this for a living !!
Thanks for the Review
Have you ever done a shootout between AQ and MIT ?Cary SLP-98L F1 DC Pre Amp (Jag Blue)
Parasound HCA-3500
Cary Audio V12 amp (Jag Red)
Polk Audio Xm Reciever (Autographed by THE MAN Himself) :cool:
Magnum Dynalab MD-102 Analog Tuna
Jolida JD-100 CDP
Polk Audio LSi9 Speaks (ebony)
SVS PC-Ultra Sub
AQ Bedrock Speaker Cables (Bi-Wired)
MIT Shotgun S1 I/C`s
AQ Black Thunder Sub Cables
PS Audio Plus Power Cords
Magnum Dynalab ST-2 FM Antenna
Sanus Cherry wood Speak Stands
Adona AV45CS3 / 3 Tier Rack (Black /Gold)
:cool: -
Arggghhhhh! I'll never be done until I'm broke. Damn you!
Being broke can sometimes be a good thing. It is the only sure cure for audio upgradeitis.;)Proud and loyal citizen of the Digital Domain and Solid State Country! -
DarqueKnight wrote: »Being broke can sometimes be a good thing. It is the only sure cure for audio upgradeitis.;)
I can second that. It is the ONLY cure but it's temporary. I hope.Sharp Elite 70
Anthem D2V 3D
Parasound 5250
Parasound HCA 1000 A
Parasound HCA 1000
Oppo BDP 95
Von Schweikert VR4 Jr R/L Fronts
Von Schweikert LCR 4 Center
Totem Mask Surrounds X4
Hsu ULS-15 Quad Drive Subwoofers
Sony PS3
Squeezebox Touch
Polk Atrium 7s on the patio just to keep my foot in the door. -
.......maybe you should do this for a living !!
That would take all the fun away........Have you ever done a shootout between AQ and MIT ?
Not yet.Proud and loyal citizen of the Digital Domain and Solid State Country! -
Cary SLP-98L F1 DC Pre Amp (Jag Blue)
Parasound HCA-3500
Cary Audio V12 amp (Jag Red)
Polk Audio Xm Reciever (Autographed by THE MAN Himself) :cool:
Magnum Dynalab MD-102 Analog Tuna
Jolida JD-100 CDP
Polk Audio LSi9 Speaks (ebony)
SVS PC-Ultra Sub
AQ Bedrock Speaker Cables (Bi-Wired)
MIT Shotgun S1 I/C`s
AQ Black Thunder Sub Cables
PS Audio Plus Power Cords
Magnum Dynalab ST-2 FM Antenna
Sanus Cherry wood Speak Stands
Adona AV45CS3 / 3 Tier Rack (Black /Gold)
:cool: -
-
Yeah, that was odd, to say the least.Check your lips at the door woman. Shake your hips like battleships. Yeah, all the white girls trip when I sing at Sunday service.
