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Audioquest Firebird Zero

I've tried several speaker cables over the past year; Shunyata Alpha and Sigma, Wireworld Silver Eclipse series 7, Audioquest Oak and Redwood, Audience Au24 SX, and I own Clarus Crimson speaker cables. I prefer the Clarus over all of the aforementioned speaker cables. I've had the Audioquest Firebird Zero speaker cables on loan for three days. My initial thoughts were everything is a little clearer through them compared to my Clarus Crimson. Not a night and day difference, but definitely clearer. The Clarus are slightly more 3-dimensional to my ears. My wife on the other hand just keeps saying the AQ sounds sharper, clearer, there are less impurities in the music. I'm not sure what she means by impurities, but she keeps repeating it. Maybe she means a darker background? My plan was to have a home audition of the Thunderbird Zero speaker cables, but they had banana plugs on the amplifier end and I can't use them. I took the Firebirds with the logic that if I can't hear a difference between them and my current cables I didn't need to have a home audition of the Thunderbirds. $14K for an eight foot pair of speaker cables is freaking crazy and sad! It would be easy for me to dismiss it  because there isn't a night and day difference, but once you hear the difference it's very hard to ignore. Financially I just can't justify spending $14K on speaker cables and hope to hear the AQ Thunderbirds sometime next week. Once again I'm reminded that absolutely everything makes a difference. For those that can easily afford $14K, $20K or more speaker cables I understand, because cables can be equivalent to a component change. Does it ever end?
ricred1

Showing 2 responses by earthtones

earthtones
104 posts
 
I compared WT Copper Zero vs Silver Zero biwired in my Vandersteen setup over the course of a few weeks. I kept returning to the Coppers because they seemed a little smoother and the Silvers I thought had a slight edge to them. However, I’m absolutely convinced that they were simply revealing an upstream problem, in the case harshness in my preamp. When I swapped in a better preamp, that harshness went away and I gained with superior resolution in the Silvers. So I believe your system quality should be commensurate for best results.
earthtones
104 posts
 
@ctsooner I’m using the M5-HPA’s with 5A Carbons. The preamp is the mighty new ARC Ref 6SE. But at the time I was evaluating the WTs, I was borrowing Johnny’s Ref 6. I had been so satisfied with the PS Audio BHK Signature preamp. It’s checks off so many of the boxes - no added feedback, simple tube input stage, great value for the money. But whether it’s the mosfet output stage or the capacitors that are holding it back, it just sounds flat and saccharine compared to the ARC. It took the better cables to highlight the problem. The new ARC is sublime. I told RV how much I love it and he said he’s heard great things about it. The $64K question now is, is he going to roll out that rumored preamp he’s supposedly been working on? He set the bar incredibly high with the M5-HPAs.
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