Audioquest Cheetah vs Audioquest Anaconda

It just turns out that I have been comparing these two cables over the last couple of weeks. I am planning to write a review, but will give you a summary here since you asked.

My current system is fully balanced and has the Anacondas between the CD and pre and between the pre and amp. I am using the Volcano with 48v DBS on the speakers. The Anacondas are copper (w/o DBS) and the Cheetah is silver (w DBS) and I was curious about the differences. I only had one pair of the Cheetahs so I tested them between the CD and pre.

The bottom line is you could be happy with either and, yes, there are some differences. The Anaconda is bold in the mids, has great bass and very articulate highs. The Cheetah has great bass, more moderate mids, and slightly less articulate highs (there was no sense of tizzyness in the highs that some report with silver). The Cheetah may actually be the more natural cable, but I agree with Bigtee that it sounds flatter and not nearly as exciting and involving. Nevertheless, the differences are not huge, and it took several hours of listening to both to pin them down.

My conclusion is I will stay with the Anacondas. However, I believe the Cheetah is still quite good and has the benefit of the DBS, which I have found to work effectively and as advertized on the Volcanos. Next, I want to try the Sky as it may in fact be a significant jump up.

I hope this helps...

@monicajack2122

Old thread, dude! That said I’m literally listening to my headphone desktop rig right now with a 0.75m Audioquest Cheetah XLR. I agree it’s got a bit of an austere sound to it, perhaps slightly lean - certainly compared to the upscale AQ silvers, like Sky and Fire (which are flat out better cables). And I also have a Panther 3m XLR that is really extremely close to the much shorter Cheetahs, and perhaps a little sweeter in tone. In fact I might swap them in again. The Panther is the better "budget" cable these days.

That said the Cheetah is still quite a competent cable, and I enjoy the use I’ve gotten out of them over the years. And it's handy to keep in the 'ol audiophile toolkit :)