[Whazzzup]

Aq fire is scrumptious, here’s my thread from years ago. Not sure if they make fire anymore. Not cheap tho.

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/audio-quest-fire-xlr-interconnects.884708/

 

[F208Frank]

Thanks man. I have the pegasus XLR and will try compare to the Fire and report back. the Fire seems to have been discontinued as I can't see it on the AQ website anymore. not sure if the pegasus is the replacement.



Yep! have trialed hqp5 a few times and quite like pcm sinc MGa LNS15 as well as gauss xla. as mentioned above, always went back to aes, but I think this might change with the AQ hdmi. will give it a go and see if it's worth the coin for hqp5!

Fire was discontinued literally months after I bought it. They retail for a whopping 3750. It's arguably more well known than the new version since it's been around longer.

 

[unicore]

I'm changing my current speaker cables, I'm looking at Tellurium Q Ultra Black II (new) and Audience AU24 SX (used - pretty good condition). I'd appreciate some words and suggestions if someone had a chance to listen them.

 

[Roasty]

I'm changing my current speaker cables, I'm looking at Tellurium Q Ultra Black II (new) and Audience AU24 SX (used - pretty good condition). I'd appreciate some words and suggestions if someone had a chance to listen them.

what are you using at present? I had the TQ Ultra Black II for a couple of months and traded them up for Black Diamonds.

I went from Canare speaker cables to the TQ UB II and I found the low end and mids were better, but at the top end nothing much changed. going to Black Diamond felt like adding a W curve EQ from the UBII. BD feels very full sounding, alive and dynamic. I have friends who use the Silver Diamond cables and they mention its a bit cleaner, slightly thinner but more reference sounding. I decided to stick with the black range.

I haven't tried any Audience cables tho.

 

[unicore]

what are you using at present? I had the TQ Ultra Black II for a couple of months and traded them up for Black Diamonds.

I went from Canare speaker cables to the TQ UB II and I found the low end and mids were better, but at the top end nothing much changed. going to Black Diamond felt like adding a W curve EQ from the UBII. BD feels very full sounding, alive and dynamic. I have friends who use the Silver Diamond cables and they mention its a bit cleaner, slightly thinner but more reference sounding. I decided to stick with the black range.

I haven't tried any Audience cables tho.

Thank you for the useful informations. At the moment I'm using QED Reference XT40i (2x5m), I'm also changing the speaker position so they will be too long, looking to sell and replace then with shorter ones.

 

[vert]

Overall Ranking

1. Muon2
2. TWL Passion
3. Pink Faun Interlink
4. FTA Callisto
5. Sablon 2020
6. Mad Scientist Black Magic Ultra
7. Tellurium Q Silver Diamond
8. Mad Scientist Black Magic non Ultra
9. Phasure Lush^3
10. Phasure Lush^2
11. WireWorld Platinum Starlight 7
12. Atlas Mavros
13. AQ Carbon

Take from this post what you will. Just my thoughts and 2 cents. Non cable believers feel free to ignore and carry on with your lives.

TotalDAC Gigafilter USB is the one.

The magic box is filtering out the digital nasties.

 

[vert]

I've tried many ethernet cables, and the most beautiful sounding is Fidata.

You'll need an audiophile network switch or Gigafoil to eliminate the noise, otherwise you will hear it if this cable is connecting your streamer to your router.

 

[carbonF1]

i bought a few AudioQuest cables from @F208Frank recently. Diamond aes/ebu, Fire xlr and Dragon hdmi. haven't tried the aes or xlr, but did get round to inserting the Dragon hdmi between the wavelight server and dac.

The Dragon hdmi is very impressive.

I almost never use i2s nowadays, always preferring the aes/ebu connection. I only use i2s when dabbling with hqplayer, but ultimately always go back to redbook and aes for a more dynamic, musical, and fuller sound.

Dragon hdmi between wavelight server and dac is really nice. without upsampling, I already get a fuller stronger low end with a bit of bloom, audibly more low end extension/subbass, and slightly pronounced midrange. with the wavelight server upsampling pcm to the dac, I get all of the above plus seemingly better central imaging, a bit more spaciousness up top. with some music, elements that are slightly off center seem easier to pick out and hear, less gelled to the centre.

It's pretty easy to compare the connections as both cables can be hooked up simultaneously and the change can be done easily via the rockna app.

The hdmi + upsampling is giving the aes connection a run for it's money. I like the Dragon a lot and have already sold my Tubulus Concentus V2. downside is the AQ cable is quite stiff and rather hard to route, and of course the cost. never thought I'd go back to i2s, and am now considering paying for hqplayer5 to test out some of the newer filters.

Good to read you were able to get a Dragon48! It really is something... cheers

Different note - anyone notice the new Theta and Gamma cables from Shunyata? They replace the Delta and Venom/Venom-X cables. The claim to fame for these is the PMZ process being brought to the new product line.

More info here: https://www.whatsbestforum.com/thre...-of-the-previous-generation.38397/post-952692

Brochure Links (PDF):
Theta
Gamma

 

[RobertSM]

Good to read you were able to get a Dragon48! It really is something... cheers

Different note - anyone notice the new Theta and Gamma cables from Shunyata? They replace the Delta and Venom/Venom-X cables. The claim to fame for these is the PMZ process being brought to the new product line.

More info here: https://www.whatsbestforum.com/thre...-of-the-previous-generation.38397/post-952692

Brochure Links (PDF):
Theta
Gamma

Yes! When I spoke to Scott from Shunyata in January he spoke of the Theta line. He wasn't able to share much but did say the testing proved to better the Delta line it was replacing and I think it said it was also quieter.

 

[ThanatosVI]

Yes! When I spoke to Scott from Shunyata in January he spoke of the Theta line. He wasn't able to share much but did say the testing proved to better the Delta line it was replacing and I think it said it was also quieter.

I wish they'd send @Roasty a bunch of the new cables to test against his others.

 

[BlakeT]

I'm set on USB cables, but thought I'd copy and paste a review of a very high performing, inexpensive USB cable, in case someone is in the market. The review is from a non-professional user, but someone that is exceptionally knowledgeable and has a true, state-of-the-art, cost no object system, that I trust.

"Reading the forum in last several weeks/months it seems to me that USB type of connection is somewhat becoming or it already is a second tier connection type where more and more users are choosing good old spdif or eas/ebu (me also using spdif often) while other with the units capable of i2s are pushing for the crystal clear signal via this one. I won't even mention XDMI of the Taiko/Lampi latest developments. Still some still use good old USB hence its worth to explore viable options in this domain.
After living for years with FTA Callisto and Sinope I've sized the opportunity when I was receiving back my units from Edisoncreation to order his reference USB cable. Not to write about the spec I'll just do copy/paste of the specification and basic info from the website which is located here: https://ediscreation.com/product/reference-silver-usb-cable/
Specifications:
- Perfectly Polished 5N Sterling Silver Cores: The cable features impeccably polished 5N sterling silver cores, offering superior conductivity and signal purity.
- Independent Insulation: The cable is designed with independent insulation material that effectively reduces crosstalk, ensuring clear and uninterrupted sound.
- Special Spinning Shield Construction: This advanced design feature further enhances signal clarity and reduces interference.
- Special Isolated 5V Shield Construction: This feature effectively isolates the voltage, reducing any possible interference and enhancing audio quality.
- Carbon Isolation Technology: This advanced technology further minimizes interference, ensuring a flawless signal path for your audio.
- Custom-Made EMI Block: A specially designed EMI Block reduces electromagnetic interference, ensuring pristine and uninterrupted audio transmission.

Look and feel:
Cable is packed in a very very neat box which gives immediate feel of the premium product. Cable as such is as well looking impeccable and you can see attention to details in the production. It is very flexible which in my book is a huge plus.

Sonics:
Break in with the standard ups and downs lasted for good 100+ hours which I expected and was advised by Edison about it I did not pay too much attention to overall presentation but the cable sounded good/great from the get to.
Now as I've been using it for the last good two months I can with confidence say that this particular cable is ticking my USB cable boxes by any means and definitely is a keeper. It is extremely fast, reveling and detailed but not on the fatiguing side but rather in a pleasant and musically engaging way. Nothing is popping out of the picture where it should not, vocals & mids are seductive and in the "room" somehow. I always like to mention "extensions" and this cable is excelling in this regard. Bass is deep and firm while high frequencies and super nicely extended while tonally it is also spot on.
Actually if I roll back the film a bit in my head - it brought me back to the beginning of my story - I'm again daily using USB connection which i scrapped for the slight superiority of the spdif one.

Price:
I'm ashamed to mention it, as someone or even many, will say that this price point has nothing to do with "reference" product, being used to pay in numbers with close to, or with minimum three zeros after the first number.
Well this particular one starts for a change with zero followed by dot and number 4 and k (0.4k). Yes - its a real deal in this insane audio price matrix we live in. If you have a need for this type of connecting cable make sure you give it a try!
King is dead long live the king! Pure bingo by Edison"

 

[Whazzzup]

wow my USB has gone up in price significantly since I purchased The chord company sarum T digital super aray usb. Just sayin hadn't looked in 7 years

 

[RobertSM]

I wish they'd send @Roasty a bunch of the new cables to test against his others.

Yes @Roasty keeps the thread fun and interesting.

 

[Roasty]

u guys give me way too much credit lol
but those new cables do look interesting. and we all know @RobertSM is the resident shunyata expert!

Good to read you were able to get a Dragon48! It really is something... cheers

it really is! was hesitant to get another hdmi as I thought aes/ebu was always my preferred connection. have only tried it between wavelight server and dac, but when I have some time I'll try hook it up between wavedream net and signature balanced dac and report back how that goes.

on a side note, I took a plunge and ordered a set of LessLoss C-Marc entropic rca interconnects. tbh I'm no longer so keen on purchasing gear which I know I'll have trouble selling off in my local buy/sell app, but decided to give this one a go anyways.

I put it into my system between wavelight dac and Zähl HM1 and was rather disappointed.. it did sound etchy and bright + overall thin sounding. felt like there was a bass cutoff shelf and I was missing oomph and punch from songs that I know have it. seriously thought I did a crap purchase.

fast forward a couple of weeks and it's now a permanent fixture. low end has filled in and top end has settled down. I can't seem to find a fault during my listening sessions and am thoroughly enjoying the music. when I hook up the AQ Fire XLR in tandem from the dac to amp and use the A/B function on the Zähl to quickly swap between rca and xlr, the only thing that is different is the Fire xlr has more space and blackness in the music, and just a bit more prominent midrange.

The LessLoss is a overall a very nice rca interconnect. very flexible cable that is super easy to route. likely the softest set of cables I've had. the plug housing is made of nicely stained wood that feels premium. price wise it costs a fair bit so unfortunately there's that.. am considering trying their xlr interconnects in the future, but I already have an excess of cables and really need to thin down the herd.

was just thinking it would be nice to have a dac with dual xlr out so I can do quick a/b switches for my xlr cables. the only dac I owned which had dual xlr out was the Okto dac8 Stereo, but I sold it soon after getting it as it reminded me too much of Benchmark DAC3b ie a bit too neutral for my tastes.

 

[BlakeT]

WRT LessLoss, and apologies, as this is a speaker-focused product, but I tried out the LessLoss Firewall for Loudspeakers. The sonic change was noticeable, a much fuller sound, more body to the instruments. Ultimately, it didn't work out for me, but my sense is, the response from users was rather favorable. I know Boenicke was incorporating these firewall devices into certain speaker models as an upcharge.