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
Audioquest has reached a totally new level in the world of audio cables. I have done thousands of tests with cables in over 20 years of time. And never found a brand or even cable that has so little compression as these new Audioquest cables have.

You can not even compare all the Audioquest series before with the new Folk and Mythical Creatures series. I never tested any brand that made these huge steps. Audioquest may thank God that they hired Garth.

But there is one important thing that needs to be mentioned. We see that most people have not done a lot of tests as we did in over 20 years of time. So many people buy a Zero cable and they will use bridges. This is proof of how little they all know about loudspeaker cables.

When we compare each new Audioquest Folk or Mythical Creatures series between Zero and Zero+Bass the differences could not even be bigger. In a Tru-Fi system where you will always have access to all aspects of sound, the differences are even bigger compared to the trial&error world.

The Tru-Fi world will always have a huge 3-dimensional holographic stage. Where both voices and instruments are being experienced intimate and palpable in front of you.

So what does it do when you use a Zero instead of a Zero+Bass together in the Tru-Fi world?

The answer is A LOT,

It makes the stage smaller and gives the voices and instruments a less intimate and palpable individual focus of voices and instruments.

In the Tru-Fi world, we have access to diversity in height. This means we can reveal very clear the differences between the height of voices and instruments. We call it the High-End ++ property. And what it does to the human emotion is stunning.

When you go back to only a Zero the diversity in height becomes less apparent. It is like you go back in precision.

Audioquest developed for the first time a cable only for the low frequencies and one for the mid/high frequencies. And mannnn this makes a different world.

What is the thing we like and love most in the Tru-Fi world about the Folk and Mythical Creatures series?

The fact that we can create a superior level in the end result for a lot less money. When we use a cheaper Zero+Bass version for the same money as one Zero cable then effectiveness becomes even higher.

Even the William Tell Zero+Bass outperformed the Redwood in Bi-wire easily. The Redwood uses even 30% pure silver. But the Zer0+Bass can even reveal more details in the high frequencies compared to the Redwood. I never have seen this before.

People with Tru-Fi systems spend a lot more money on Audioquest cables compared to all trial&error people. Based on the fact that we have access to all 8 aspects of sound. We will let our clients speak for themselves so you will get an idea of why they experience Audioquest cables so different compared to trial&error users.








For those who know audio and build their systems properly, they need to realize that this Tru-Fi stuff is 100% marketing.  Nearly every dealer I know will listen to tons of gear on a consistent basis to make sure they know what sounds best as a system.  

As these threads aren't trying to be commercials, all I need to say is that my WT's are so new that they aren't even close to being burned in.  I'm in amazement as I listen to them.  I've had so many top cables as I've stated and nothing is even close.  Even my wife commented this morning on how amazing these are.  I didn't tell her I installed new cables yesterday, but she noticed right away.  She started using terms like better definition, bass=deeper with more snap.  She just sat and listened with me for a spell.  I then told her what the difference was and she was amazed.  I hide all my cables with silk plants etc.., so there was no way she noticed the new ones.  

I've spoken to Garth at length about his measurements etc.., but we still need to listen to see what sounds best to us as we all hear differently.  
Since when does trial&error have a real foundation?

Tell us ctsooner what your foundation is in your choices? And how you make your decisions regarding audio

Voices and instruments sound as they sound in reality. They even have a shape and a proportion. So the perfect system would be that system that is able to reproduce how it sounded when it was recorded.

So this has nothing to do with any kind of personal nonsense. The emotion only can be found in the music. No component can create more or even extra emotion to the music.

There are only a few loudspeakers, components and even cables that can reveal all aspects of sound. But........most are not able to reveal all those different aspects of sound. This has 100% nothing to do with personal taste. No human being will prefer and choose a system that is incomplete compared to any system that is able to reveal all the aspects of sound. Your emotion will always overrule any incomplete audio system compared to the one that can let you perceive all the different aspects of sound.

Tru-Fi means True Fidelity. And has no commercial purpose or meaning. It stands for all the different aspects/properties sound owns. This has nothing to do with any kind of personal taste. We are just simply talking about facts. Sound and stage can show us all the different aspects the music possesses.

This is why we invite Audioquest. To show and proof that the way they make decisions for their demo systems is incomplete regarding the aspects of sound. We can easily proof by sound and stage which ones are missing.

Tru-Fi systems are so much more accurate, that it even becomes easy for all people to hear and perceive what those different aspects are of music and sound.

When you add those aspects of sound which are missing to an audio system, we can even show that all Audioquest cables become a lot more effective. This is why all Tru-Fi owners think a lot different about Audioquest cables. So we will let them speak what those differences are......




Talking about facts. Women have a better-developed hearing compared to men. But..........men have a lot more interest in audio equipment. In all those years I was often amazed at how good some women could hear and name all the differences of sound during a shootout.


I have my Sopra 2's hooked up with William Tell Zero cables. I am very happy with the combination. I'm sure that my McIntosh C47 preamp and MC462 amp have something to do with the sound quality as well.