Audioquest vs. Others

🤔 hmmm..
I’m surprised no one yet praising the virtues of the proprietary AQ battery pack cables??

Sorry but this is really a very typically intellectually lazy thread. The op wants everyone’s opinion without them doing any real listening. Then you get the egos, I used SR 99’s and Glorious brand they all sounded better than AQ blah blah blah. Here’s the whole nut OP. Cables will all sound different because your room, gear, and hearing are unique. Everything else is opinions.

AQ makes great interconnects, only complaint I have is how high the cost is going for their higher cables (unless getting used).

The higher up you go the more transparent the cable gets.  As ricred1 mentioned this is all system dependent.  Transparency does not necessarily mean a good thing.  Other than their Niagara/Wind cables, AQ silver is fairly balanced, not bright.  I would actually categorize the Fire interconnects as being on the warmer side.

All AQ cables have a similar sound characteristic, going from copper to silver adds to the resolution in the mid-to-upper end.  I recently did a test between AQ Earth, older Niagra, Fire, and WEL.  They all have similar sound signature, but emphasize different aspects of frequency range.  With the WEL the balance of resolution, depth, and bass is amazing.  This means it does not hide anything, so if your system is balanced then it may sound amazing (though it is still room and preference dependent).  Not a good choice if you tend to balance the sound in your system via cables vs. changing components.

I would definitely try to demo some AQ interconnects.  Depending on budget I would try out Earth or Fire.

All AQ cables have a similar sound characteristic

on a system that is either low resolution or impervious to cables.

On systems that resolve well, especially in the time domain, AQ cables are all over the sonic map.

 Hi Jrpnde,

For you reference - Interconnects brands I have had/ auditioned in my system,($750 - $8,000)   Analysis Plus, Audio Quest, Aural Symphonic, Kimber Kables, MIT, Nordost , Stage 3 Concepts, Synergistic Research, Tempo Electric, Thales, Transparent, and WyWires.  

This is the Brand I liked best. The Brand while under the radar are highly well regarded. As for Direct Comparisons, IMHO these cables bested or were just as good as brands that list for 2-3 X the price.

THALES ($2,200)
http://www.tonarm.ch/en/products/accessoires

These cables accurately reveal a rich, musical, transparent, enormously detailed sound stage that is all together silent and  essentially disappear into the sound system. 

Thales uses micro conductors 1/10th the size of others. Each conductor is made of ten ultra-thin, Pure copper wires, pairwise twisted and caste into nylon.  

The fact that they are copper and not silver is an added bonus as you get the warmth of copper with all the resolving power of silver. 

I am sitting on 2 pairs, like new, of RCA if interested. Reason - I got 2 pairs of XLR. They will most likely be the last cables I invest in, barring some sort of catastrophe.