I am really looking forward to hearing it now. Nothing beats low volume details. My wife will surely appreciate it more!
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Your wife will love the Dragon as your neighbors. It is hard to explain until you experience it in your room. I tried to do my own you tube videos. The room reverb spoils it. There are so many spatial cues showing up. Recording ends up reverb but in room is so much better and like live sounding. I was doing videos with and without the 3M AB 7050 HF isolator over my P20. . My mike is so poor it spoils the highs. I need a mike like Jay.
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That was a great mic/room combo that can capture all the detailed differences from cables through YouTube, amazing! But some people couldn’t hear differences in front of great setups; equally amazing!
We all hear different. We need to trust our level of discrimination of the audio band. It need’s to equate to what we hear. Thousands of years of Darwin principles make us different as does present environment.
Takes me back to hunting days of youth . Localization of a sound. Or comparison of symphony last week.
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Audioquest say that their cables for the US and other areas are made in the US and that cables for Europe are made in the Netherlands. So how come all Audioquest cables I’ve bought or seen say Made in China on the box?
That’s not very reassuring at all.
I was told my cable was being assembled in their plant in Irvine CA and had to be made. The timeframe on order until it shipped aligned with US based assembly. Likely components and box are sourced in China.
I concur that. The Dragon is hand assembled when order is in so it will take a few days before they ship it out as I was told by my dealer. Back in January when I ordered the new AQ Firebird48 HDMI, I didn’t get mine until June because “some materials” were stuck in a container ship in Asia. So AQ do their top line assembly here. But their lower lines that sell in large quantity probably are all made in China.
Silversmith Fieldium speaker cables had to shut down their production for a few months late last year. Jeff told me the first batch of conductors from China did not meet his specifications and had to be rejected. So he couldn’t even take any order back then.
My guess is many audiophile cable companies (and most non-audiophile cable companies) are doing the same thing.
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How are you getting along with Firebird48 HDMI? I ordered one Saturday.
I believe the all the speaker cables, power cables, and Niagara power conditioners are hand assembled in California. I had to wait for my Thunderbird speaker cables to be sized to 4’ and terminated with the proper connections then I was told that there is a factory burn in before they are shipped. Not sure how long the burn in was but it definitely wasn’t long enough!
I loved it! It beats my previous favorite AQ Coffee HDMI in terms of soundstage, clarity, details, well pretty much everything. Coffee was a lot better than Vodka now I use fro home theater. It is curious how will it compare to Dragon since their conductors are the same 100% Silver with the exception of ground loop; Firebird has 10% silver instead of 100%.
It does take a week to sound real good (I still heard improvement a month later) even for HDMI.
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Is AQ Coffee better than vodka?
Supposedly they have the same construction and Coffee has DBS pack, but Coffee is quite an improvement over Vodka in audio and a small improvement in video too. I am not using it now and plan to use it for a future streamer. But I may get another Firebird if turns out it is better in streamer too.
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Please allow me to offer a little more information and clarity here. The first batch of Fidelium foil came from a German firm that was the only one, worldwide, that I could find that could meet my specifications. My strong preference was to have the foil made in the US but, having some German ancestral lines in my family tree, Germany was an acceptable second choice. However, they apparently outsourced my second order and the results were, to be blunt, horrific.
Following that experience, I re-engaged with the engineering team from a promising US company and fortunately they were able to find a way to meet my exacting specs. The follow on lamination and die cutting still takes place in California. So I’m proud to report that the Fidelium cables are indeed made in the USA.
Best Regards,
Jeffrey Smith
Silversmith Audio
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Thank you for the clarification, I don’t know how I remembered it was coming from China. I must confused your cables with something else I ordered.
By the way, I really like the Fieldium speaker cables and they will be in my system for a long time.
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Thanks for your note! I’m glad that you are continuing to enjoy the cables. You probably remember correctly as I likely expressed my suspicion that the outsourced foil came from China.
Best Regards,
Jeffrey Smith
The Silversmith Audio Group
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Audioquest vodka or inakustik Exzellenz for matrix?
Inakustik!
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I like the Referenz better than Excellenz. But neither are bad.
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Okay clearing 200 hours on The Dragon High current power cord and close to 300 on HDMi Dragon. The presentation width soundstage gained about 4 feet outside each speaker. The depth perhaps six feet.
I decided to play Jazz at the Pawnshop 30th Anniversary byAnne Domnerus Group.
Limehouse Blues and I’m Confessin’ are both astounding in the clarity and Room Ambiance. The glass clinking and background discussion by the band and the crowd. So much more realism than I remember on past listening oh the xylophone or vibraphone and drums and reed instruments.
If it gets any better I’ll be calling to the waiter for the best champagne on the wine list soon.
Oh yes the tambourine on High Life! Time to break open the bubbly.
I hope the Dragon cord get better. My watt peaks are maybe two watts such an intimate experience. They sure are opening up though. But I am greedy and want more.
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