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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
markush
31 posts
 
I am using a Devialet 440 Pro on a B&W 803 D3 with Roon (MQA, lossless formats). So a high resolving setup. And it’s really incredible to see what impact the different loud speaker cables can have on the sound.
eziggy
137 posts
 
I had the Thunderbird Zero cables and before than Oak and Mont Blanc.  The new cables are in a different league in terms of transparency and resolution.  Of course this is all system dependent and personal preference whether you would like it.

One thing that I noticed was that the Thunderbird Zero cables have less copper than Oak but cost more.  It also seems they keep raising prices every year.
ctsooner
2,480 posts
 
Sorry I missed all the posts. Someone asked about William Tell zero with bass vs Castle Rock. I owned Castle Rock and installed the WT zero/bass.  It was a HUGE difference.  It was as though I bought a new amp and preamp that were a few rungs up the ladder.  It's transformative in my system.  Even during burn in, I could tell what it was.  They kept getting better all the way up to nearly 1000 hours.  I played them for 24/7 to get to the best they could sound as quickly as possibly.  I was gone for a week and let them run.  My buddy was looking after the dogs, so if there were problems, he's have shut it down.  

You can't even compare the older line of speaker cables to what Garth has put out here.  He's working on the interconnects, but they won't have nearly the difference as the cords and speaker cables have.  I run all Hurricane with WT zero/bass and a balanced WEL interconnect from DAC to integrated.  I was told not to sell the WEL for the new interconnects just yet.  I'll have to see how the WEL stands up vs the new ones.  

AQ is a great company.  I can't wait to see what Bill has in store for Golden Ear speakers.  
markush
31 posts
 
Robin Hood should be really close to William Tell - eager to get them. 
ctsooner
2,480 posts
 
mark, to my ears it wasn't close at all.  I think with AQ the steps are larger between products than with other cable companies I audition.  The Robin Hood are CRAZY CRAZY good and to me, the best value in their high end speaker cables.  I just felt in my system, the Tell's were well worth the upgrade from the Hoods, but if I had the Hoods, I wouldn't even think about an upgrade.  I forget the price difference, but it's not small if I recall.  Garth just gets it.  
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