Stereophile doubles down on the snake oil!

[Sal1950]

A cornered rat may act desperately (as last resort)

OH MY, I hope you didn't film that at your house ???

 

[kemmler3D]

More like $50 or even less.

I wouldn't be surprised if it actually cost AQ in the low 3 figures per meter of cable... even though they don't do anything to the sound, they do incorporate a lot of high-quality raw materials, and I assume they are low-volume hand-built, so higher unit costs again.

 

[Audiofire]

I hope you didn't film that at your house ???

I suppose it was filmed in New York (judging by size)

 

[teched58]

.

Mea culpa.

Uli Der Fehlerteufel

You're not wrong.

 

[Holmz]

I wouldn't be surprised if it actually cost AQ in the low 3 figures per meter of cable... even though they don't do anything to the sound, they do incorporate a lot of high-quality raw materials, and I assume they are low-volume hand-built, so higher unit costs again.

I would be surprised…

 

[kemmler3D]

I would be surprised…

It really depends on how much inventory they carry and place at dealers / distributors at any one time, what their margins are, and whether they do any serious cost control.

Or let me put it this way, at $10K+ per meter, their biggest cost relative to retail is always going to be dealer margin. Their margins don't swing that much if the cord costs $50 or $500 per meter to build. So the incentive to reduce cost is smaller than it is with most manufacturers. As such, they could be manufacturing in really inefficient ways and still make good money.

It's hard to say if the volumes are high enough and whether the owners care enough to pursue cost reduction. That costs money in its own way, since you have to pay for bigger production runs, sink more cash into inventory, sometimes even take out loans to cover it, risk loss of inventory at different points in the chain, etc.

You could definitely spend $100+ to put together a length of AQ cable, I'm basically wondering if they bother figuring out how to pay less.

 

[Holmz]

It really depends on how much inventory they carry and place at dealers / distributors at any one time, what their margins are, and whether they do any serious cost control.

Or let me put it this way, at $10K+ per meter, their biggest expense is always going to be dealer margin. Their margins don't swing that much if the cord costs $50 or $500 per meter to build. So the incentive to reduce cost is smaller than it is with most manufacturers. As such, they could be manufacturing in really inefficient ways and still make good money.

It's hard to say if the volumes are high enough and whether the owners care enough to pursue cost reduction. That costs money in its own way, since you have to pay for bigger production runs, sink more cash into inventory, sometimes even take out loans to cover it, risk loss of inventory at different points in the chain, etc.

You could definitely spend $100+ to put together a length of AQ cable, I'm basically wondering if they bother figuring out how to pay less.

We’ll likely never know, but if they are not using 3rd party connectors, then the basic ingredients are likely less than labour, marketing etc.
But then again, I know nothing of cable industry.

They have a strong following.

Whether or not it is snake oil, I am also not sure.
I have not seen a lot of plots etc., that would lead me to believe that they work as described… so while “I want to believe”, I am having a hard time doing so.

This podcast is pretty good IMHO. And a riot of one appreciates dry humour.

HiFi cable guru debunks cable myths and delves into the complex world of cable quality.

Podcast Episode · Not An Audiophile · 19/12/2024 · 1h 11m

podcasts.apple.com

 

[Curvature]

It's sad because the writer is an intelligent person. I've read his book, which is a little dated in its perspectives, but otherwise fine as far as I can remember. This article, though, is convenient, to say the least. Convenient for making money. There have been a more than a few intelligent engineers who write stupid things because they do not understand how hearing works, only how the devices in front of them do.

There’s a whole top of page article on why cables matter: https://www.stereophile.com/content/colloms-cables

It’s worth a read just to witness the mental gymnastics at play.

 

[kemmler3D]

We’ll likely never know, but if they are not using 3rd party connectors, then the basic ingredients are likely less than labour, marketing etc.
But then again, I know nothing of cable industry.

I can only speak to mainstream or low-end cables, but you do need to pay extra (mostly for labor) in the construction of high-quality cables.

I've also been writing as if AQ sources their cables from overseas for cost reasons. I just checked and it looks like they actually produce (or at least finish) at least some stuff, maybe everything themselves, in the US. Stereophile did a factory tour, and we can glean some clues as to their margins from that.

From the look of it, my guess is the cables are woven / jacketed in China, then terminated in the US, made to order. Their warehouse looks a lot bigger than the work areas, lots of pallets of stuff that was clearly not made on-site, so I am revising my POV on this, the cables probably do cost relatively little to make in terms of materials. I think $5/meter would be low but >$100/meter is high, maybe if you include all costs excluding overhead.

 

[SIY]

This podcast is pretty good IMHO.

When he started talking about purified copper sounding better, I tapped out.

 

[Sal1950]

When he started talking about purified copper sounding better, I tapped out.

But then maybe it won't turn green inside the insulation the way much early Monster speaker cable did??? LOL

 

[Holmz]

But then maybe it won't turn green inside the insulation the way much early Monster speaker cable did??? LOL

That is a special feature to mirror people being green with envy.

 

[Leporello]

A Net Win: Nordost Improves its Ethernet Switch

The big news in Nordost land was twofold. First, the company has upgraded its entire entry-level Leif line to the new Leif 3 series. The latest offerings, presented by PR representative Meredith Gabor, include Blue Heaven 3 digital interconnects, Ethernet and USB 2.0 cables, and (soon) a White...

www.stereophile.com

No surprise: the QNet7 delivered tighter bass, more depth, more transparency, and a smoother top than a standard TP-Link switch.

What, no inky blacks?

 

[Palmer]

Just as I replaced all the cabling, more harsh news:

Fezz Equinox D/A processor

It wasn't long ago that bottom-shelf DACs had this dry, gray, punchy, grainy sound, emerging from a weird mechanical clarity. Their sound reminded me of cheap whisky. The ones that didn't sound like $1 shots replaced the dry grain with some blurry gel. No vitality. No subtle contrasts. No...

www.stereophile.com

 

[kyuu]

Just as I replaced all the cabling, more harsh news:

Fezz Equinox D/A processor

It wasn't long ago that bottom-shelf DACs had this dry, gray, punchy, grainy sound, emerging from a weird mechanical clarity. Their sound reminded me of cheap whisky. The ones that didn't sound like $1 shots replaced the dry grain with some blurry gel. No vitality. No subtle contrasts. No...

www.stereophile.com

Good god. Reading just the first two paragraphs of that was torture.

 

[levimax]

Good god. Reading just the first two paragraphs of that was torture.

For some reason I read the whole thing and was stunned by the amount of non-stop nonsense which apparently passes for subjective reviews. Only one sentence in the entire review made any sense to me and it was the last one in the "measurements" section.

I found the measured performance of the Fezz Equinox disappointing.—John Atkinson

 

[Palmer]

Good god. Reading just the first two paragraphs of that was torture.

Could not read it all, too much... I'd have to throw out all my digital equipment, Topping; Focusrite - heck, Alesis; Oberheim and so on...

 

[ivayvr]

Just as I replaced all the cabling, more harsh news:

Fezz Equinox D/A processor

It wasn't long ago that bottom-shelf DACs had this dry, gray, punchy, grainy sound, emerging from a weird mechanical clarity. Their sound reminded me of cheap whisky. The ones that didn't sound like $1 shots replaced the dry grain with some blurry gel. No vitality. No subtle contrasts. No...

www.stereophile.com

Just by reading only the quote in your posting, I immediately recognized the author! Only our Herbie could have written something like that.
By his own admission, in numerous articles, he knows his substances and I suspect that is driving his imagination to go wild!
He also writes about cables and if I remember correctly, he is also distributing/selling some cables. Take the second part of the statement with a grain of salt, it may be not current, at my age, memories are fading rapidly....

 

[MattHooper]

Just by reading only the quote in your posting, I immediately recognized the author! Only our Herbie could have written something like that.
By his own admission, in numerous articles, he knows his substances and I suspect that is driving his imagination to go wild!
He also writes about cables and if I remember correctly, he is also distributing/selling some cables. Take the second part of the statement with a grain of salt, it may be not current, at my age, memories are fading rapidly....

Not a fan of the DAC and cable stuff myself, but I do enjoy Herbie’s speaker reviews !

 

[kemmler3D]

Using those dCS converters convinced me that, in contrast to analog masters, where someone can just play back the tape, no one really knows, or can show me, what's actually in a digital file. But that doesn't stop me from wondering, what should this CD sound like? What did the producers hear? Followed by, how can I know when a DAC is telling the truth?

What on earth? It's trivial to visualize digital audio today, vastly beyond what you can do with tape. High res spectrograms are literally free, but somehow we know more about tape? What? nobody knows what's in a digital audio file? I could (and have) draw waveforms by hand with pretty predictable outcomes... It's not that complicated... And I'm nobody in particular, so maybe that's what he meant?

This guy is truly in the "audio is unknowable magic" camp...

He belongs on ASR for sure... Audio Shamanism and Religion.