The dissection of AQ house sound

Back then, 13 years ago, a little boy was smitten by the fascinating world of home theater. Before long, he discovered the brand AudioQuest, a brand very well known amongst the home theater fanatics. Fast forward to present day, the boy has shifted his fascination from home theater to pure 2-channel stereo. And yet, the interest in AudioQuest is still fanning until today.

To be honest, I have never used AQ cables in my home theater until 2 years ago. And this is not even until I have started using them in my 2-channel stereo. I still remembered when one of my friends bought the AQ Type 4 ten years ago and how he raved on its fast and bold characteristics. I could only imagine as it was pricey for me as a student back then.

One day, opportunity knocked on my door and I bought a pair of AQ Python. I was awed by its bold and forceful presentation. It was honest and offered the best extension I had heard since I started in this hobby. In fact, Python was my first serious cable. I had tried many equally priced cables, and Python was the most direct one.

Months later, I replaced the Python with AQ’s latest offering, the DBS Panther. Back then, my priority was mainly chasing that better resolution. And AQ just fit the bill best. Again, with Panther, I was again awed by its sheer bandwidth, the highs came unrestrained and the bass did sink low. The improvements in detail retrieval were equally distributed in the highs, mids and lows.

It was not after I have tried the Anaconda of the older series that I realized the trend AQ was trying to improve. The series prior to DBS, AQ was trying their best to achieve unsurpassed bandwidth to give the best details, transients and speed. When I first hooked up Anaconda, I was blown away by its liveliness, it was a cable full of energy.

I had to pull my speakers further apart to contain that bold sound. Music was injected with ‘life’ playing thru Anaconda. There was the extra ‘zing’ quality that brings the best excitement from the presentation. Listen to any live recording thru Anaconda and you would not fail to experience the most robust drum actions! Hi hats hitting was rendered with weight and force, kick drum was deep and full bodied, vocal got a larger than life presentation.

The Anaconda captured the most expansive soundstage, vividly matching a real life performance. If you found them shouty, then it might be the room was too ‘hard’ for them, or you were having too much details from other rigs. But those are not our topic today.

The experience of going from Anaconda to DBS Cheetah was very much similar to going from Python to DBS Panther. This is the next phase of transformation for AQ sound. Upon replacing the previous series with the new DBS series, you’ll notice the lowered noise floor and smaller presentation.

What next when you have had the least compromise from the conductors? For AQ, they improved upon the insulators by charging them. In effect, we got the new AQ sound that was never before so quiet with the noise floor. What about the smaller presentation then?

When you got less noise, you would get less fuzzy outlines. When the outline was sharp, the imaging emerged as more defined and better delineated, hence, the ‘smaller’ presentation. AQ is definitely striving for refinement and poise now!

But do be careful with Cheetah as it was very potent and might trigger the upgrade chain effect. Unlike Stealth and Stage III, there was no twisting in the silver conductors. They were straight and direct. Hence, similarly, the sound was fast, taut and energized!

It had the tendency of veering towards overly preserving the transient attacks rather than sustaining longer for that bodily bloom. In this department, I would say the Anaconda fared better, balancing transient attacks and bloom. However, the bass of Anaconda had got the tendency of sounding flabby when compared to Cheetah’s.

You could try Cheetah to bring your sound faster by a notch or two, and yet retaining that refinement. If you think your sound is dry and thin, do yourself a favor by trying out Anaconda.

For me, the Sky is still the limit!