• WANTED: Happy members who like to discuss audio and other topics related to our interest. Desire to learn and share knowledge of science required. There are many reviews of audio hardware and expert members to help answer your questions. Click here to have your audio equipment measured for free!

AudioQuest Wind High-end Cable Review

Lambda

Major Contributor
Joined
Mar 22, 2020
Messages
1,785
Likes
1,519
People like you will complain why not higher, why not 2k or 600 Ohm.
No propel like me know it dose not relay meter as a long as it is sufficiently high and specified.

It is not a common mode choke. A common mode choke filters signal lines (in common mode).
A ferrite only increases the impedance on the outside of the cable and does do anythingt to the signal inside the shield.
Now im sure we are not talking about the sam thing, and you are wrong.
Screenshot_2021-02-14_21-10-25.png
How many turns till a ferrite bead magicly and suddenly turns into a coke :facepalm:
Actually its quite a common methode for HAMs to make "BALUNs"
https://www.nonstopsystems.com/radio/frank_radio_baluns.htm

round number... i don't care as long as its specified and a view orders of magnitude bigger then all the other things we try to measure.


when using a 1k source what load should be used ?
not so Important but would nice to be specified.

Why not just measure capacitance per meter and you can calculate the FR at any source resistance you want
With an high source impedance you can accually calculate the capacitance per cable by Looking at the corner frequency in the FR
But i'm also fine with your suggestion.


Only FR bit also distortion
Why would there be an need to?

Test with and without magnetic or electric fields at which strength and why at a particular strength ?
:rolleyes:
All the measurement can be done Independently....

That's the problem with 'adding' additional measurements.
On, can just ignore that noise rejection is intresting porperty of a cable and that its dependent on its resistance
or that capacitance can meter.
But then the test is not very conclusive.

If the test is that way that a wet string (or realy) bad cable can pass the test without an notice
but the bad cable would cause practical problems then the test is not very revealing?

Maybe interesting as Emission test for VW ;)

Just write a proposal with tests for Amir.
Why not discuss it here in public first? so people can have an actual discussion about whats sensible and contribute there ideas.

amir just connect a 1V trafo across the screen
Don’t know if this is an actual proposal of idea?
Its not very practical to implement since the current would be undefined and limited by the cable resistance.
I don't think its a sirius suggestion (correct me if i'm mistaken) so i will not take the time explain why that's not a good ideal.

what would this tell you
Between cables comparable noise rejection.
Why not inject the proper way and calibrated using a clamp
because its not easy and not needed to compere cables. but if you/amir want to go trough the extra trouble.
I don't see an huge benefit an absolute numbers, relative is fine to me.

What would this test show you ?
Common mode current picup/rejection over frequency.

Why not inject common mode currents with a clamp ? At least then it is done the proper way and controlled ?
It's more easy to do and control but it should give the same result.
if it dose, of this method's is sufficient

What would be a real world situation
Commen mode current... you know "ground loops":p

Would the short also have to be replaced with say 50 Ohm, or your 1k ?
No, that's not need and would not give new information that can't be calculated.

Why do any non calibrated and not controlled 'McGyver' tests.
Because its cheaper and Possible to draw conclusion from non standards tests.

To remind you the only test able to show a difference between the cables was a McGyver test ;)
 

solderdude

Grand Contributor
Joined
Jul 21, 2018
Messages
15,891
Likes
35,912
Location
The Neitherlands
Now im sure we are not talking about the sam thing, and you are wrong.

I must be because you are telling me I am.

Now I am really sure you are just trolling.
Your lack of knowledge in this field is showing a bit too much.

When you know this all so well why don't you do the measurements you feel are lacking, so Amir can draw a more informed conclusion.
You seem to know how and know all the tricks and McGyvers.
I assume you are very experienced in this field and will show us your tests on various cables and make a nice article about it... for free.
I am sure you will tell us this cable is not worth the money and that it does not seem to sound any better than your run of the mill, and not freebee, interlink cable.

Looking forward to a good read of your peer reviewed article.
 
Last edited:

Lambda

Major Contributor
Joined
Mar 22, 2020
Messages
1,785
Likes
1,519
Your lack of knowledge in this field is showing a bit too much.
Said the one claiming:
"ferrite only works on RF"
And
It is not a common mode choke. A common mode choke filters signal lines (in common mode).

The current-compensated choke or common mode choke (CMC for short) has several identical windings through which the working current flows in opposite directions, so that their magnetic fields cancel each other out in the core of the choke. CMCs are often used to attenuate interference emissions. Such interference currents usually occur in the same direction in the forward and return lines (common mode). The current-compensated choke forms a very high inductance for this common-mode interference, since these interference currents do not compensate each other in it. Current-compensated chokes are often found at the inputs and outputs of switched-mode power supplies and in line filters.

A particularly simple form of current-compensated chokes are toroidal cores pushed onto cables or so-called hinged ferrites

It is not a common mode choke. A common mode choke filters signal lines (in common mode).

Looks like your wrong or I'm
(and the Wikipedia)
and this https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/231563/understanding-ferrite-chokes

and also this
The ferrite core acts as a one-turn common-mode choke, and can be effective in reducing the conducted and/or radiated emission from the cable, as well as suppressing high-frequency pick-up in the cable.
 

Lambda

Major Contributor
Joined
Mar 22, 2020
Messages
1,785
Likes
1,519
Fifteen seconds with the inductance equation will convince you that ferrite beads and donuts are for RF, i.e., “high-frequency.”

To quote myself

A ferrit bead adds like 4-8µH of inductance. if the cable is passed trough once.
Thats like 0.002Ohm at 60hz or
I think we can both agree that this is insignificantly small Compared to the cable resistance (maybe 0.2Ohm for high end cable?)
If we use 2 of then on both ends at 20kHz its ~2ohm.
so at this frequency its increasing the loop impedance by a factor of 10 and potentially decreasing current by the same factor.

At 200khz-1Mhz this feritte becomes more lossy and adds even more resistance in the order of 50-100Ohm.

TL;DR Yes you can say they are only effective at RF

I Have done the measurements before and i have done the Fifteen seconds with the inductance equation. (exact values don't' relay mater at this point)
I never denial its common mode Impedance is lower at low frequency's i even gave some examples and called it "insignificantly small"

Nevertheless it is common mode choke and it choke common modes.

It is not a common mode choke. A common mode choke filters signal lines (in common mode).
It's doing exactly this. (to some extend) the heiger the frequany the better. which is true for alle (ideal) common mode chokes.

A ferrite only increases the impedance on the outside of the cable and does do anything to the signal inside the shield.

And this is also what the (ideal) common mode choke dose by definition:
it only increases the common mode while not changing the differential mode Impedance i.e. the signal impedance.
 

noiseangel

Active Member
Joined
Sep 24, 2020
Messages
296
Likes
463
Location
Perth, Western Australia
"One physical test is worth a thousand expert opinions". Amir has done the test. That satisfies me.
 

JSmith

Master Contributor
Joined
Feb 8, 2021
Messages
5,153
Likes
13,214
Location
Algol Perseus
Hopefully this put the wind up Audioquest... or at least gave them some anyway. :cool:

I have no time for companies like this that build rubbish products and sell them at a massive markup whilst pretending to be the bastion for the audiophile.

Would love to see Wireworld's arse handed to them too.



JSmith
 

DonH56

Master Contributor
Technical Expert
Forum Donor
Joined
Mar 15, 2016
Messages
7,835
Likes
16,497
Location
Monument, CO
I said before ethics and morals are why I am about 141 years away from retirement...
 

Angsty

Major Contributor
Forum Donor
Joined
Apr 11, 2020
Messages
1,862
Likes
2,215
Location
North Carolina, U.S.

mansr

Major Contributor
Joined
Oct 5, 2018
Messages
4,685
Likes
10,700
Location
Hampshire
"Save wear and tear on your equipment with our cable break-in service. ... Each hour on our breakin machine equals one hour of normal listening in your system. " :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:
"The Electric Monk was a labour-saving device, like a dishwasher or a video recorder. Dishwashers washed tedious dishes for you, thus saving you the bother of washing them yourself, video recorders watched tedious television for you, thus saving you the bother of looking at it yourself; Electric Monks believed things for you, thus saving you what was becoming an increasingly onerous task, that of believing all the things the world expected you to believe." -- Douglas Adams, Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency
 

tpaxadpom

Member
Joined
Feb 27, 2019
Messages
48
Likes
29
This free cable is likely coaxial 75 Ohm cable. I never seen those included for free with DVT players. You must be really lucky. I would love to see multitone measurements of both cables and freebie twisted pair.
 

Jram

New Member
Joined
Dec 30, 2019
Messages
2
Likes
0
Extremely high price is a dead giveaway when it comes to the snake oil status of a product. How can anyone sane think that a product which costs less than $50 to make in materials and labour can justify this price? There is no proprietary engineering or secret know-how at play here. It is really shameful that a large company blatantly misrepresents their products like this and targets vulnerable enthusiasts.
The only use for a product like this is to serve as an EMI/RFI detector in phono preamplifiers where high gain amplification is the norm.
There is a method to the madness in the pricing. It is so out of the ballpark (like $500 canapes) of anyone who thinks about value/performance that these are purchased primarily by those for whom it is just folded into the price of a ultra-high-end (read very high price) system and never noticed. Nor are such people likely to complain publicly about how their $2k cables don't sound any different.

If priced at $200 or so level some more-money-than-sense "audiophiles" may actually buy this with their $15k amp and create a lot of bad publicity that they "don't do anything different".

Given some recent events, there might even be a money laundering scheme going on with these things with oligarch money, who the heck knows...
The more expensive they are the less chance someone will actually cut it up to investigate it. Objective technical tests like this likely to dismissed by AQ as having no correlation to ‘how it sounds’ so it’s in the realm of subjectivity, meaning the benefits of these high price cables are all imagined, snake oil.
 

Jram

New Member
Joined
Dec 30, 2019
Messages
2
Likes
0
Is there a single Audioquest product that is both a) not overpriced and b) not snake oil or mediocre at best?
Their Berylium Copper banana plugs seem ok at $50 for 8. That’s about it. If anyone has a better recommendation I’m looking for some
 

Iglo

Member
Forum Donor
Joined
Aug 20, 2020
Messages
90
Likes
91
Interesting topic... I personally have very high standards for my cables. For starters, they should be long enough and then I pick the cheapest with decent build quality and ability to split left from right (no pesky connections between left/right). Never failed me and now backed-up by science ;)

take a look at KabelDirekt
 

ahofer

Major Contributor
Forum Donor
Joined
Jun 3, 2019
Messages
4,952
Likes
8,698
Location
New York City
The more expensive they are the less chance someone will actually cut it up to investigate it. Objective technical tests like this likely to dismissed by AQ as having no correlation to ‘how it sounds’ so it’s in the realm of subjectivity, meaning the benefits of these high price cables are all imagined, snake oil.

Notice that it’s mostly cheaper stuff that gets reviewed and tested here? It would be trivially easy to set up a blind cable comparison, but nobody interested in doing so wants to go anywhere near paying for it, and the folks who have them are generally petrified to loan them. Price it to low and people like us might spring to test them and embarass everyone.
 
Top Bottom