Audioquest GO-4 Speaker Cable Review

[dustinyo]

Nicely put. Thank you.

Since this is your first post you get a pass. ASR is very different from every other Audio site in existence. We are a community of Engineers, Scientists and other professionals who wish to discuss and debate actual Scientific/Engineered derived data and designs that can be verified by the application of science and measurements.

We rely almost entirely on Engineering and Science. Not feelings, impressions and opinions. Science demands proof of function and performance. If you make any statements or observations, expect to be asked for measurements and/or data that supports your claims/positions. This specific Engineering based Forum model does not suit all visitors. I kindly suggest you do some homework and reading about who and what we are/do here. We’re not being rude or mean. And it’s not personal. We don’t go in for flowery words and fancy tales about how it feels to actually hear it. We want to know exactly how it works and how it measures. If you claim that there are just some things that can’t be measured. Your talking about Science Fiction and we have just not yet achieved the breakthrough knowledge to fully understand the experience. We don’t do Fiction very well here.

Welcome Aboard and please watch your step here. The nights are dark and full of terrors!

This should be what people see when they create a new account here.

 

[Deleted member 35463]

Once more, thank you Amir for showing how not to spend the dollars we earn and save and dedicate to improve the music reproduction in our systems ! Any further comments about performance with and without the 72 V battery Dielectric-Bias System? Why should the dielectric be biased, like the grid of an electronic tube? If I am not mistaken, the grid bias allows to bring the electrons cloud toward a more linear segment of the cathode emission for the range of of voltages applied to the grid. But in a SE cable? You already commented in a past review of Audioquest interconnects, but I wonder if the theory to bias a SE cable has any merit, in spite of its bad implementation in the Audioquest products.

well theoretically it makes sense to bias the dielectric and make its D field near independent from electric field between conductors, thereby minimizing dielectric effects charge from /discharge into the circuit. Practically I do not have a AQ speaker cable with DBS, but I own and use interconnects and USB cables, where disconnecting DBS is followed by quite a change in SQ, especially - believe it or not - with the USB cable (coffee), where previous sublime treble gets notably mushy, and harshness becomes more pronounced.

 

[Deleted member 35463]

This should be what people see when they create a new account here.

this is indeed a nice posting, however, the number of venerable engineers in the audio camp who let their development be also guided by listening is quite a long one. so a pure measurement based judgement necessitates proof of completeness of a set of measurements to serve the purpose of purely measurement based judgement on a device. and lets face it most devices (except perhaps bluetooth headphones?) need to work in a network of components whose interaction needs to be considered as well - well in my experience at least.

 

[amirm]

well theoretically it makes sense to bias the dielectric and make its D field near independent from electric field between conductors, thereby minimizing dielectric effects charge from /discharge into the circuit.

But where do you put the flux capacitor??? Wouldn't its charge interfere with that?

 

[amirm]

this is indeed a nice posting, however, the number of venerable engineers in the audio camp who let their development be also guided by listening is quite a long one.

No doubt. But the number that are guided by measurements is always longer since no engineer designs things without measurement. That is, if they are actually designing something as opposed to terminating a cable and selling it for a ton of money on stories and folklore....

 

[Deleted member 35463]

No doubt. But the number that are guided by measurements is always longer since no engineer designs things without measurement. That is, if they are actually designing something as opposed to terminating a cable and selling it for a ton of money on stories and folklore....

perhaps i did not phrase this clearly enough: said venerable high end audio developers say they use both, measurements and listening sessions combined during development of their devices, not either or.

 

[amirm]

perhaps i did not phrase this clearly enough: said venerable high end audio developers say they use both, measurements and listening sessions combined during development of their devices, not either or.

Well... if they did both, then you better value measurements just like they do. You seemed quite dismissive of them where your own experts are not.

 

[amirm]

so a pure measurement based judgement necessitates proof of completeness of a set of measurements to serve the purpose of purely measurement based judgement on a device.

You ask for completeness in measurements; why not address the lack of completeness of listening tests in reviews? Does said reviewer listen to same music I do? I think not. Does he have the same gear I have? Definitely not. Does he have the same room? Very doubtful. Is he the same age as I? Not likely. How about the fact that we have two dogs and he doesn't? That impacts the sound and review, no?

 

[Deleted member 35463]

But where do you put the flux capacitor??? Wouldn't its charge interfere with that?

I do not understand. what “flux cap”?
There is a battery (that will have R,L,C), there is remaining capacity of DBS ground and DBS plus pole, forming a capacitor, neither of which are connected to the cable connectors to my knowledge.
In fact once (on the USB) cable DBS is disconnected it takes ca 20min or so for the sound signature to change [actually to sattle], ie it is not an instant switch, likewise when DBS is engaged (i think that part is quicker though).

 

[amirm]

In fact once (on the USB) cable DBS is disconnected it takes ca 20min or so for the sound signature to change, ie it is not an instant switch, likewise when DBS is engaged (i think that part is quicker though).

Are the electrons waiting on Uber to get to their destination that takes 20 minutes? That's the only possibility I can think of. That, and running out of power for the flux capacitor to use their own DeLorean.

 

[Deleted member 35463]

Are the electrons waiting on Uber to get to their destination that takes 20 minutes? That's the only possibility I can think of. That, and running out of power for the flux capacitor to use their own DeLorean.

you obviously mean the Flux Compensator, right? now i get it. Funny indeed.

Am not sure it is a useful model of the processes though.. now if one doesn’t understand the inner complexity of a system, how could one claim to have a complete set of measurements to comprehensively describe SQ?

 

[BDWoody]

perhaps i did not phrase this clearly enough: said venerable high end audio developers say they use both, measurements and listening sessions combined during development of their devices, not either or.

For those designers who don't use 'listening sessions' to tune their gear, is it just luck when it turns out well? Do you believe they are hearing things that can't be measured?

This product is a money grab, pure and simple.

I always think of the J Gordon Holt interview where he identifies where he thinks the industry went off the rails:

https://www.stereophile.com/asweseeit/1107awsi/index.html#:~:text=Do you see,spreading my gospel.

"Do you see any signs of future vitality in high-end audio?

Vitality? Don't make me laugh. Audio as a hobby is dying, largely by its own hand. As far as the real world is concerned, high-end audio lost its credibility during the 1980s, when it flatly refused to submit to the kind of basic honesty controls (double-blind testing, for example) that had legitimized every other serious scientific endeavor since Pascal. [This refusal] is a source of endless derisive amusement among rational people and of perpetual embarrassment for me, because I am associated by so many people with the mess my disciples made of spreading my gospel."

 

[voodooless]

Do I believe they (obviously now those who do rely on measurements) hear something that cannot be measured? Maybe, maybe not,

If not, why can not a single one of these companies actually show measurements that proof an audible difference?

Pro high-end writers might be able to judge within an hour on all sound relevant aspects.

They can write whatever they want about any product. There is zero accountability, no products ever get a bad review. I’m pretty sure one can come up with a totally made up review in about an hour, and nobody will be the wiser. And remember: those reviewers job is to sell the products for the advertisers, not to actually do you a service.

 

[BDWoody]

Pro high-end writers might be able to judge within an hour on all sound relevant aspects.

At least people believe that. Funny how the lack of actual evidence is acceptable to many who should know better. Claims without evidence to back them up don't mean much.

To my knowledge there are still mags that still do blind tests, HifiChoice being one of them.

I haven't seen any they have done with enough rigor to be meaningful. Double blind, levels matched.

For those who do not include listening in their development process I can only cite those who actually refrain from doing so and (coincidence or not) are very successful in their job and whose products sell well.

So, Quad amps for one didn't do the job very well? Is there a 'PRaT' component that they plug in when they hear the need?

What 30deg off axis thd is acceptable at say 3-5kHz, in what price range, and in what environment?

We aren't talking about speakers or other transducers. That is a different beast.

 

[Deleted member 35463]

So, Quad amps for one didn't do the job very well? Is there a 'PRaT' component that they plug in when they hear the need?

So if I say A = 1, you conclude my words imply B!=1?
And really, Quad have developed their amps w/o any listening at all with different speakers - sry. such claim warrants proof.
not sure i understand the PRaT part.

 

[Killingbeans]

well theoretically it makes sense to bias the dielectric and make its D field near independent from electric field between conductors, thereby minimizing dielectric effects charge from /discharge into the circuit.

Sounds like a really convoluted way of saying that it indirectly lowers the capacitance of the cable? Any research showing that to be the case? And if so, why not just pick a cable with low enough capacitance to begin with?

Or is it because those field interactions supposedly cause a nonlinearity to be imposed on the signal? If so, how on earth would that even be possible?

 

[AndreaT]

I am not dismissive at all (I am a trained experimental physicist), but measurements do not completely replace listening, IIRC it was either Andrew Jones or another speaker developer who said even for xover design simulation & measurements get you only so far, then listening guided development is required for latter steps of development.

As a trained experimental physicist you could consider explaining to us, in a coherent & didactic fashion, how and why a “dielectric”, when activated, improves the final listening quality of your system. My small and pitiful knowledge of the charge and discharge of the capacitor over time tells me it does not require 20 minutes, unless the capacity is enormous and the current minuscule. It is also quite strange how a constant and arbitrarily chosen 72 V bias is improving the perception of sound and (hopefully) Music from the double bass to the piccolo. Finally, if 20 minutes it is really the time required to achieve the regimen of the AQ cable, how come it is not specified in their instruction for use? True “audiophiles” usually flock to these kind of ceremony requirements for their equipment, and AQ could truly improve its market share publicizing it.

 

[voodooless]

and yes I would have expected differences to be obvious in measurements shown here. But then again are those sensitive to the effect described?

Then what experiment would you propose to measure this effect? How would this measured property manifest in audibility?

 

[fpitas]

As a trained experimental physicist

 

[pkane]

Right... A "trained" experimental physicist that takes random anecdotal evidence over the results of a controlled experiment. Seems to me a little more "training" might be indicated here...