The sample I have was kindly donated by a member and costs US $2,300 in the 1 meter configuration.
What a kind and nice person. Leaving his old ignorant ways behind by donating the cost of this cable he could have gotten back by selling it, instead giving it to you to dissect properly. Thank you very kind person, not many folks out there willing to leave their old ways with a gesture like this.
We see that the AudioQuest Wind (red) clearly has higher mains noise. So I thought of a way to test susceptibility to mains noise by taking an AC transformer (from a desktop DAC), plugging it in and then holding it next to the cable.
See, this is why I really dislike lots of these botique companies that don't have a heavy reliance on validation. I always think they're so down the luxury design route, that they also ignore basics of utility in the first place (you know like those AMP and DAC makers with idiotic internals, zero certifications, and just overall questionable design to begin with). Companies like AudioQuest have so much hubris, they can't even be bothered properly constructing cables, and ALWAYS have to do it in a sort of way that breaks all conventions of normalcy (like why does the end-housing have to cover over the RCA ring? Just nonsense).
But to be honest, this company isn't even filled with just plainly morons, I actually think they're blatantly aware con artists. And not passively either, but actively.
This isn't the first time they've put out garbage masked as something supposedly one would assume "no expense spared".
They can't be assed adhering to basic standards (which is fine if you exceed them, but not in the opposite direction they do), and luxurious flourish that actually doesn't even make sense from a usability standpoint. Heavy as heck cables where I gotta watch out and hope my RCA connectors can widthstand the weight? Why the heck would I want that as even a moment's consideration? If this was XLR, I'd somewhat understand, I don't need this in my RCA connectors. The entire category of "luxurios RCA" doesn't even make sense for me personally. It's like seeing folks do mods to their Honda Civic to the degree the mods cost more than the car itself. Why not bite the bullet, get a sports/hyper car, and mod as much as you can after that, you're still going to get a better looking car at the end of the day..
Bossman, you said it perfectly:
What is that about? Are you going to carry this to your friend's house to show off? Or store the cable in it until the right romantic moment to pop it out to use with your system?
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I can't express how much this company tilts me.. I honestly take them to be knowing participants in something that ought be criminalized, or at least forced to drop their false advertising, and substantiate it scientifically to current existing metrics (no one is saying they have to go above and beyond that, but stop this constant lying, or claims they can never substantiate). It's like the US counterpart to Devialet or something..
