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Audioquest SKY Interconnects

I see on eBay what I believe are copies of the AQ Sky interconnects for around $150-$200 used USD being sold out of China.  Does anyone have any experience with these cables?  Are they worth a try or would I be wasting my time?  The reason I am asking is that I would be probably using them in Vandersteen MP filters that I build for my Vanderteen speakers which allows me to use higher grade parts in the filters copies.  Previously I used AQ Diamonback ICs with great success but I sold those when I sold my Vandersteen model 5s.

Thanks for your input/advice.     
bigkidz
kijanki's avatar
kijanki
4,428 posts
 
Long time ago AQ moved production to China and renamed ICs to stay competitive.  Python became King Cobra, Viper became Diamondback etc.  I had both, Viper and King Cobra.  I decided to upgrade and considered Sky.  It was too expensive and I went for Acoustic Zen Absolute instead ($650  0.5m XLR used).
I wouldn't buy any cable from ebay (unless it comes from well known store), especially cheap Chinese copy.  You get what you paid for.
bigkidz OP
3,381 posts
 
@kijanki - the seller said the cables re used and are AQ not copies.  But how do I make sure?  I did try the King Cobra model many months back but they just did not sound good, not open and dark sounding.  The only interest I have in the Sky is that the Vandersteen MP filters use them and I want to make another MP filter copy.  The filters only use one half of the IC or I can just make them with RCA in/out and try any interconnect if I want to.  Any more thoughts?
audioconnection
1,271 posts
 
Yes Just tell the guy that you will take them but you need to
  send the to AQ to verify authenticity.
 Hope you don't get screwed sure sounds fishy for 200 bucks. Best JohnnyR
kijanki's avatar
kijanki
4,428 posts
 
@bigkidz  You said:
I see on eBay what I believe are copies of the AQ Sky interconnects
King Cobra is pretty much the same in character as Diamonback (Viper), but a little more refined (smoother).  It is very neutral, open sounding with nice treble extension.  In comparison Acoustic Zen Absolute is little "faster" with darker background (and more refined).  Absolute is made of zero-crystal pure silver with oversized hollow core foam Teflon insulation.  It results in extremely small capacitance and inductance (6pF/ft, 0.02uH/ft).  It would be pretty easy to make plain cable that just looks the same and sell it on ebay.  Last year I bought pretty nice Hakko soldering iron with station.  There are identical irons on ebay, for much less.  The only difference is slightly different mark on the bottom.  They are cheap Chinese illegal copies.  If they copy $100 soldering iron, wouldn't they copy $2000 cable?  AZ Absolute Silver runs at about $900 used.  It is almost 50% of the new pair.  Sky, at the price you mentioned is 10%
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