Audioquest Cables

[Marcus Frövén]

Hello! I som going to upgrade my signal cable from my subwoofer (svs-pb2000) from the cheapest cable att the hifi-klubben store to a more serious one. Byt where does the Line go from the cable actually improving the sound to it just being snake oil? I know that their cables with batteries is pure snake oil but which one should I get? Is their Irish Red cable enough or should I go with their Boxer one?

 

[j_garcia]

You don't need a "more serious" cable for your sub. If the sub gets sound, your cable is good already.

Audioquest is a waste of money, period. I own a number of AQ cables from days past. I have actually removed almost all of them from my system. Once I feel like getting back there to swap out the last pair, they'll go up for sale lol.

Best sub cable I have used (though I now use XLR and it is still from Bluejeans):

http://www.bluejeanscable.com/store/subwoofer/index.htm

 

[rojo]

I use KabelDirekt cables and love them. Monoprice is also nice. As long as the cable impedance isn't too high for the preamp device subwoofer output, you really can't go wrong. There's no reason to spend more than $30 U.S. on a subwoofer cable I don't think.

 

[Marcus Frövén]

Hmm, but my current cable got like no shielding at all. Shipping for bluejeans was more expensive than the cable itself. I guess I'll go find some om Amazon or eBay. Thank you for the help!

 

[rojo]

Hmm, but my current cable got like no shielding at all. Shipping for bluejeans was more expensive than the cable itself. I guess I'll go find some om Amazon or eBay. Thank you for the help!

Are you dissatisfied with the performance of your PB2000?

 

[Marcus Frövén]

No not att all. But I need a new cable because I have another system that I borrowed to my mom but I hade only one cable egen I Got My new one. So I thought I would upgrade the cables since the guys selling the cables (ofc) told me I need a much better cable for the kind of sub I got. But I was very sceptical about a cable costing 200 USD so I thought I would ask here if there was any benefit. Also the current cable is from hifi-klubbens ön brand "Argon" which is their cheapest cable which costs 25 USD and it looks like it hot No protection att all compared to looking at KabelDirekts cables. Tho I am a bit confused about my placement of the subwoofer because I have placed it in the position which it sounded the most and the best but it doesn't feeling like it plays more even across the room. It still has heavily more bass at where it is placed than anywhere else. But that is another topic.

 

[Verdinut]

Hmm, but my current cable got like no shielding at all. Shipping for bluejeans was more expensive than the cable itself. I guess I'll go find some om Amazon or eBay. Thank you for the help!

You could also verify with Monoprice which have excellent cables at decent prices.

 

[lovinthehd]

AudioQuest products are largely snake oil (the products work, but the claims and costs put them into the snake oil category); if your dealer is selling these he is selling snake oil and I'd probably ignore his recommendations in general as a result. There are other brands of high priced cabling that are largely snake oil as well (Nordost, Monster, Kimber, etc). You can't eyeball the quality of shielding by the thickness of the overall cable either. If shopping via Amazon their Mediabridge brand is fine.

 

[Marcus Frövén]

I am using their Dragonfly Red DAC and I am very hapoy with that one. I haven't tried any other so far tho. i ordered a Raspberry pi with a Hifiberry DAC pro+ and will test to see if there is any difference. But yeah I guess they got alot of snake oil. Their own brand Argon is really bad. I bought a hometheater system and the reciver has overheated twice so I hade to fix it. I gave 300 USD for the first One and then upgraded it go their 400 USD one because I thought then it should have an easier time and not overheat. But it did again and it stood in an open space playing at 70 out of a maximum och 100 att the volym knob. Now I am offtopic again but I will DO more research in the future. Thank you guys for your help

 

[rojo]

No not att all. But I need a new cable because I have another system that I borrowed to my mom but I hade only one cable egen I Got My new one. So I thought I would upgrade the cables since the guys selling the cables (ofc) told me I need a much better cable for the kind of sub I got. But I was very sceptical about a cable costing 200 USD so I thought I would ask here if there was any benefit. Also the current cable is from hifi-klubbens ön brand "Argon" which is their cheapest cable which costs 25 USD and it looks like it hot No protection att all compared to looking at KabelDirekts cables. Tho I am a bit confused about my placement of the subwoofer because I have placed it in the position which it sounded the most and the best but it doesn't feeling like it plays more even across the room. It still has heavily more bass at where it is placed than anywhere else. But that is another topic.

I worked in an electronics retail store long, long ago. Our highest profit margin product was in selling extended warranties. Our second highest, in accessories. Cables, adapters, batteries, universal remote controls, and so on. My employee discount allowed me to purchase items at store cost. Just for illustration, an $80 set of Monster Cable patch cables cost me $16. I'm sure the profit margins on Audioquest cables are similar.

Re: subwoofer placement, yeah, it's probably better to start a new thread to ask about that. This Audioquest thread makes my skin crawl a little.

 

[MR.MAGOO]

I worked in an electronics retail store long, long ago. Our highest profit margin product was in selling extended warranties. Our second highest, in accessories. Cables, adapters, batteries, universal remote controls, and so on. My employee discount allowed me to purchase items at store cost. Just for illustration, an $80 set of Monster Cable patch cables cost me $16. I'm sure the profit margins on Audioquest cables are similar.

Re: subwoofer placement, yeah, it's probably better to start a new thread to ask about that. This Audioquest thread makes my skin crawl a little.

Monster & AudioQuest seem to be more for looks IMO. If one is putting together a system to photograph for Better Homes & Gardens and StereoSnob magazines, go for it!.

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

Monster & AudioQuest seem to be more for looks IMO. If one is putting together a system to photograph for Better Homes & Gardens and StereoSnob magazines, go for it!.

Rofl!!!!!

 

[tyhjaarpa]

You should get good cabled under 50$ and there is no reason to pay more for cables, unless you want something that looks better, but sound wise they will be the same.

 

[Speedskater]

AudioQuest products are largely snake oil (the products work, but the claims and costs put them into the snake oil category); if your dealer is selling these he is selling snake oil and I'd probably ignore his recommendations in general as a result. There are other brands of high priced cabling that are largely snake oil as well (Nordost, Monster, Kimber, etc). You can't eyeball the quality of shielding by the thickness of the overall cable either..........................

I agree, these brands are snake oil and/or over priced cables.

Long RCA unbalanced interconnect cables (well over 10 feet/3 meters) need a heavy braided shield. There can be more than a 20 dB difference in background noise in unbalanced cables.

The Blue Jeans Cable LC-1 is an example of a good cable.

 

[highfigh]

I am using their Dragonfly Red DAC and I am very hapoy with that one. I haven't tried any other so far tho. i ordered a Raspberry pi with a Hifiberry DAC pro+ and will test to see if there is any difference. But yeah I guess they got alot of snake oil. Their own brand Argon is really bad. I bought a hometheater system and the reciver has overheated twice so I hade to fix it. I gave 300 USD for the first One and then upgraded it go their 400 USD one because I thought then it should have an easier time and not overheat. But it did again and it stood in an open space playing at 70 out of a maximum och 100 att the volym knob. Now I am offtopic again but I will DO more research in the future. Thank you guys for your help

An audio cable CAN NOT cause a receiver to overheat it has some kind of battery.....Oh, right...AudioQuest.

I'm very opposed to companies that promote BS and AQ is at/close to the top of the list. If the cable was pinched and the wire connected to the batteries shorted to one of the conductors in that cable (the wire used to "bias the dielectric" isn't supposed to be in contact with the conductors), I can see it causing a problem but the current from the batteries would cause the "circuit" in the little box to fail. I used quotation marks on 'circuit' because a wire that goes from a box with batteries to both ends of the cable without A) returning or B) being part of the cable at both ends ISN'T a circuit and therefore, the voltage may be present, but there's no current to create a magnetic field that could affect the cable or signal.

Can you tell I'm not a fan?

If you don't hear hum from the subwoofer, your shielding is fine. If you move the sub closer to the receiver and don't hear a difference when you connect it using a different cable, the one you're using now is fine. Don't obsess about cables- a subwoofer operates in a very narrow frequency band and if anyone (the sales person said that you need better cables) mentions 'Skin Effect', run away- they don't know what they're talking about or they're lying. Skin effect means nothing at low frequencies.

Operating a receiver at 70/100 means you need a more powerful receiver.

 

[MR.MAGOO]

our built into every cable patented "ESMS" technology; "Electricity Slides More Slippery".

 

[mtrycrafts]

I use KabelDirekt cables and love them. Monoprice is also nice. As long as the cable impedance isn't too high for the preamp device subwoofer output, you really can't go wrong. There's no reason to spend more than $30 U.S. on a subwoofer cable I don't think.

I am not sure why you would even mention cable impedance at audio frequencies. Irrelevant.

 

[mtrycrafts]

... But I was very sceptical about a cable costing 200 USD so I thought I would ask here if there was any benefit. ...

That is the best thing you could have done, ask us first.

 

[mtrycrafts]

... Just for illustration, an $80 set of Monster Cable patch cables cost me $16. ...

Wow. 500% markup? WOW.

 

[tyhjaarpa]

Wow. 500% markup? WOW.

Well its not only in audio things, I used to work in sports retail when I was studying and some of sport equipment and clothing also have 400% markup.