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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
gdnrbob
4,445 posts
 
I wish AQ would make an easier to understand nomenclature.
Zero?- What does it refer to?
At least the power cables are differentiated by High Power and Source, but I don't understand why they just don't say Upper Frequency and Low Frequency for their speaker cables.
I guess it is a Marketing decision.
B
And, nice to see you back ctsooner. Did you get my email earlier this month?
bob
markush
33 posts
 
Yes I believe to make a wording connection with the technologies incorporated in the power cables already. But seems there are hardly any reviews of speaker cables of folk heroes or mystical creatures in magazines so far, which is sad. 
eziggy
137 posts
 
Bob, the new AQ speaker cables have two components a treble/mid cable and a bass cable.  The treble/mid cable is called Zero and the other is called Bass.  You can use the Zero cable as a stand alone cable or combine it with Bass cable for bi-wiring.

For power the High Power is a thicker cable for high current components like amps and the Source cable is a smaller gauge meant for source component like DACs etc. 
markush
33 posts
 
Eager to get my setup upgrade consisting of Furutech Rhodium wall socket, Thunder High Current cables for Niagara 5000 and both mono amps (Devialet 440 Pro with Coax Coffee digital cable) and Robin Hood Zero/Bass bi-wiring cable. This all together should get it to another level :))
ctsooner
2,480 posts
 
I'm sure it will get to another level.  Guys, before you start to mix cables, you may want to call your dealer or AQ directly.  I had been told not to do that as they aren't designed to be used with the other models.  
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