Audioquest Cables

[highfigh]

Wow. 500% markup? WOW.

That is definitely not typical in audio and now that everyone shops online, it's not accepted by consumers. Well, as long as they have a clue. If they decide the cables they want will make a difference, no amount of valid information or attempts at using a crowbar to open their minds to the facts will matter- they'll buy what they want. I have a conscience, so I don't sell it.

 

[highfigh]

Wow, just wow. Anticables uses excellent sounding banana plugs. How do these A holes sleep?

By being really impressed with themselves. That's a whole lot of contentment.

If I had a choice, banana pugs would still be a single assembly, without loose plugs that can touch in the event that they come out of the binding posts, like the old ones from laboratories and science/electronics classes.

 

[j_garcia]

By being really impressed with themselves. That's a whole lot of contentment.

If I had a choice, banana pugs would still be a single assembly, without loose plugs that can touch in the event that they come out of the binding posts, like the old ones from laboratories and science/electronics classes.

Problem with those one piece plugs is there is no standard for binding posts. On test gear there is so that those can be used. On audio gear there is not so chances are very good they won't fit.

 

[highfigh]

Problem with those one piece plugs is there is no standard for binding posts. On test gear there is so that those can be used. On audio gear there is not so chances are very good they won't fit.

There used to be a standard until audio geeks started using them and gold plating everything in sight. I wouldn't be surprised to hear that some guru decided the old spacing was too close because it affected the sound.

Binding post cups and inserts often have the correct spacing for the one piece plugs and I have several of each. Parts Express still sells them.

 

[Strum und Drang]

hey nut, your nuts ! seriously though I've sat through the MIT demos where they can make cables sound different, so you're wrong. As for your capacitance comment, your wrong again, for in speaker cables when used in conjunction with electrostatic speakers they can have an adverse effect on one amplifier which in turn can have an adverse effect on ones speaker / amplifier interaction........ understood ??

MIT stands for "Music Interface Technologies." They put a boxy looking "interface" in the middle of their speaker wires. They are altering/adjusting/filtering the sound. If you like your speaker wires straight up, 80 proof, pure multi-strand copper that is one thing, but if you instead turn your speaker wires into a banana daiquiri it is going to taste just a tad different than Kentucky Bourbon! I like my MIT speaker wire banana daiquiris with one of those little umbrellas stuck into them (stuck into the interface).

Generally speaking, many exotic speaker wire brands are just dressing up multi strand copper wires. They may age their wires for a month or two more and put them into oak barrels before bottling them, but they still sound like copper stranded speaker wires. But there are exceptions such as MIT.

 

[rojo]

MIT stands for "Music Interface Technologies." They put a boxy looking "interface" in the middle of their speaker wires. They are altering/adjusting/filtering the sound. If you like your speaker wires straight up, 80 proof, pure multi-strand copper that is one thing, but if you instead turn your speaker wires into a banana daiquiri it is going to taste just a tad different than Kentucky Bourbon! I like my MIT speaker wire banana daiquiris with one of those little umbrellas stuck into them (stuck into the interface).

Generally speaking, many exotic speaker wire brands are just dressing up multi strand copper wires. They may age their wires for a month or two more and put them into oak barrels before bottling them, but they still sound like copper stranded speaker wires. But there are exceptions such as MIT.

Yeah I've got a boxy little filter inline in my signal cables as well. It's a miniDSP. I really wish you would stop resurrecting these snake oil threads that need to be left alone to die peacefully.

 

[mtrycrafts]

.... They are altering/adjusting/filtering the sound. ....

Well, that is to be determined. Their previous cables with those boxes at the end has patent numbers. The are supposed to affect the signals way above the audio band, line megahertz, etc.

As to the Micado comment, that experiment has been well exposed as it wasn't due to the cables but altering volume levels, etc by the operator.

The price of these audio jewelry or any others increases the sense of value. It will make them work better, a better placebo gimmick.

 

[lovinthehd]

Well, that is to be determined. Their previous cables with those boxes at the end has patent numbers. The are supposed to affect the signals way above the audio band, line megahertz, etc.

As to the Micado comment, that experiment has been well exposed as it wasn't due to the cables but altering volume levels, etc by the operator.

The price of these audio jewelry or any others increases the sense of value. It will make them work better, a better placebo gimmick.

Looked into the patents once, turned out it was just the box itself and a guy I knew from mtn biking was the designer/patent holder. He declined to comment much on what went on inside them, tho.

 

[mtrycrafts]

Looked into the patents once, turned out it was just the box itself and a guy I knew from mtn biking was the designer/patent holder. He declined to comment much on what went on inside them, tho.

Here we go:
http://www.mitcables.com/publications/articles/mit-cables-patents-more-than-any-other-cable-manufacturer.html
a list of their patents that can be searched at the patent office for exactly what they applied the patent for.
I am looking for the patent on the Ham Sandwich though so I don't infringe on it.

 

[lovinthehd]

Here we go:
http://www.mitcables.com/publications/articles/mit-cables-patents-more-than-any-other-cable-manufacturer.html
a list of their patents that can be searched at the patent office for exactly what they applied the patent for.
I am looking for the patent on the Ham Sandwich though so I don't infringe on it.

Well, the two I was thinking of are at the bottom of the list....probably the most solid of the bunch

 

[Speedskater]

The "D" patents are Design patents. These are more like copyrights, that is the look and style of the unit.

 

[lovinthehd]

The "D" patents are Design patents. These are more like copyrights, that is the look and style of the unit.

....considering what they stuff into 'em sometimes...

 

[Pogre]

....considering what they stuff into 'em sometimes...View attachment 20783 View attachment 20784

Dafuq?

 

[Strum und Drang]

....considering what they stuff into 'em sometimes...View attachment 20783 View attachment 20784

I don't know if that box actually does anything other than function as a mysterious black box. At another forum, one of its members that bought some MIT cables posted: "I found a pair of lightly used MIT Avt S3 cables in box for $160 shipped" and then reported "I am now a believer." Then other members, previously converted to exotic cables, congratulated the new convert.

A mysterious black box does something inexplicable and requires a level of faith and trust. What people believe they hear and why is up for grabs and is based upon personal experience and thus is beyond empirical evidence.

I don't need to question their cable religion. I don't need to be arguing about what that wizard behind the curtain is doing inside the interface black box.

 

[Bucknekked]

I know this is a topic that AH members love to flog, but, I just ran across an article today in a magazine called the Robb Report that made me gag. Expensive cables. Here's the URL to the Robb Report article.

ROBB REPORT: 9 Expensive Cables for Audio

I gagged, and then gagged again when I saw the MIT cables listing. Not only the price at $80,000 but the acknowledgment by the publication "The Absolute Sound (TAS)" that the MIT cables win their 2017 Editors Choice Award ! Yes my good friends, Editors Choice Award at $80,000 for a set of audio cables.

Not to be outdone in the Tournament of the Absurd, Audioquest Cables come in at $76,800 for their merely all silver stuff. The Robb Report article is a slideshow of 9 candidates for Snake Oil Company of the Year. But its mislabeled as a good idea for high end audio enthusiasts.

These companies not only exist, but they are apparently doing a brisk enough business to get reviews and awards. The Placebo Affect is powerful indeed.

 

[lovinthehd]

I'm an equal opportunity flogger, I love to flog TAS, the most ridiculous audio publication out there last I checked....and this confirms their status

 

[Mikado463]

TAS has basically become nothing more than a 'Lifestyle Rag' just like the Robb Report, Cigar Aficionado, Wine Spectator, etc.

'Buck', I understand why you gagged on that read .........crazy !!

 

[Pogre]

Some more puke worthy quotes...

"Ideally, every component in your system—including cables and interconnects—should be absolutely neutral, imposing no sonic signature of its own. Since this is never the case, you’re forced to select cables and interconnects with colorations that counteract the rest of your system’s colorations. For example, if your system is a little on the bright and analytical side, mellow-sounding interconnects and cables can take the edge off the treble and make listening to music more enjoyable. If the bass is overpowering and heavy, lean- and tight-sounding interconnects and cables can firm it up. A system lacking palpability and presence in the midrange may benefit from a forward-sounding cable."

"Some mega-priced cable is, however, worth the high cost of admission, particularly in a state-of-the-art system. It makes little sense to invest six figures in an audio system and compromise it with anything less than the best cables and interconnects. In the legitimately high-priced cable, you’re paying not just for the parts and labor cost to make the cable, but for the intellectual property garnered from decades of research into cable design."

Click

 

[j_garcia]

Some more puke worthy quotes...

"Some mega-priced cable is, however, worth the high cost of admission, particularly in a state-of-the-art system. It makes little sense to invest six figures in an audio system and compromise it with anything less than the best cables and interconnects. In the legitimately high-priced cable, you’re paying not just for the parts and labor cost to make the cable, but for the intellectual property garnered from decades of research into cable design."

Click

LOL you're paying for someone to laugh as they make that cable knowing some fool will buy it. Decades of research proves that there's one born every minute.

This was great:

"Legitimately high priced cable"

Translation:

Needlessly OVERpriced cable.

How much is that labor worth? We know how much the various components cost in bulk, so where exactly is the other $75,900 coming from?

 

[Bucknekked]

Some more puke worthy quotes...

"Ideally, every component in your system—including cables and interconnects—should be absolutely neutral, imposing no sonic signature of its own. Since this is never the case, you’re forced to select cables and interconnects with colorations that counteract the rest of your system’s colorations. For example, if your system is a little on the bright and analytical side, mellow-sounding interconnects and cables can take the edge off the treble and make listening to music more enjoyable. If the bass is overpowering and heavy, lean- and tight-sounding interconnects and cables can firm it up. A system lacking palpability and presence in the midrange may benefit from a forward-sounding cable."

"Some mega-priced cable is, however, worth the high cost of admission, particularly in a state-of-the-art system. It makes little sense to invest six figures in an audio system and compromise it with anything less than the best cables and interconnects. In the legitimately high-priced cable, you’re paying not just for the parts and labor cost to make the cable, but for the intellectual property garnered from decades of research into cable design."

Click

Pogre
I just threw up in my mouth, a little.