New AQ Mythical Creature Interconnect Cables

Last Monday my dealer had a listening session of these new XLR and RCA AQ cables

He immediately phoned me (he knows I use Dragon PC while he prefers Nordost cables) to describe this experience as a revelation! Totally enthusiast for SQ changes these cables are able to provide, he said just 1 RCA pair into the system can provide a different (better) sound, clearly audible. He said (superlative again) he never tried before similar game changer cables. Due to the insane price and his attitude to sell… I need to take his emotions with a little grain of salt, of course.
I’m lucky, as soon as the importer provides him a sample of XLR Firebird and Dragon, he promised me to let me give them a try at my home on my system (a question of weeks, he said).

Anyone here already had the opportunity to try them?

On the web and official AQ site I do not find any reviews yet!

I’m very curious about.

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Seems like absolute complete madness to me, but it’s not my money.

Just remember no cable ever improved sound quality, it just made it less worse. So if your €100 cable is giving you 99.0% performance, whatever you spend, you can only buy that last 1%.

My audio dealer has never used any B/S on me, never says what he thinks of a product, and never sits in on demo sessions. All he ever says is “you might like this” or “you won’t like that” and sets up demos or lends out equipment. But then he’s not Italian.

Your guy is building up your expectation, he’s not expecting you to have a home demo and say “no”. I would tell him to call you again in 6 months when you are both less excited (him for your money, you to give it to him) and do a blind test (very easy with an interconnect cable).

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Thank you Steven, I appreciate your point of view from an ethical side. It’s applicable not only to cables in effect. Nowadays in particular due to the sufferance we are facing all around this crazy world.
Before opening my wallet I’m just curious to hear them in my home and to collect some more information, that is the reason why I started this thread.
Dragon HDMI and PC cables, in my experience, gave me more than a subtle difference.

And yes never trust in Italian sellers enthusiasm, they (we) tend to colour reality to give to our lives a better taste like wine, art and genius loci have done in our history, sometimes against science, rationality and measurements (oh no this word again in this forum!). We Italians are dreamers and passionates, that’s our nature, but this approach generated the Beauty all the rest of the world is still admiring after all these centuries.
Best wishes!

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Well said luca…
Best wishes

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Molto vero! :clinking_glasses:

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"### Zero Tech

Every cable has a characteristic impedance. This was originally derived from transmission-line theory during the times when we were laying communications lines across the Atlantic. They determined if these lines had a characteristic impedance in which the output impedance of the transmitter/amplifier was the same as the receiver, then distortion and noise significantly dropped. But how do you apply this to a speaker cable when the output stage of the amplifier can be a fraction of an ohm and the input of the speaker is typically around 4 to 8 ohms?

Garth’s approach was to remove this problem by attempting to get to what AudioQuest calls “Zero (or No) Characteristic Impedance.” To achieve this, they looked at the dielectric. By shielding the high and low conductors 100% from each other, it allows for no dielectric between the two and hence no characteristic impedance."

Really?
@rower30
Galen we need you to demystify these Mythical Creatures!

My guy Nick heard the new Dragon cables several weeks ago. I thought I posted what he said about them back then.

Yes back on 2/14. I didn’t post his reaction. He told me it was the best sound he has heard from any system at TMR. He said the once top of the line AQ Fire XLR does not come close to these new cables! Like the power cables Thunderbird is the entry level, Firebird second, and Dragon is the top. They are available for purchase.

Nick can’t sell to anyone outside the United States. So if you are seriously considering these and looking for a deal on the Mythical Creature interconnects don’t pay MSRP. My friend Nick will get you the best price!

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I’m looking forward to reading about your findings with these new interconnects!

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Arenith,

I’ve already given you everything you need to know about this topic in the tech notes, but you STILL REFUSE to read them it seems.

A shield between two coaxial cables in parallel does NOT alter the dielectric to be, “not there”. Two 75-ohm cables in parallel are HALF the impedance of one cable. Coaxial in series they are DOUBLE the impedance. If the dielectric was “gone” how could we arrange cables like this and derive the impedance? We are saying we have zero capacitance and self inductance with no impedance. Nonsense. Analog has impedance but not at all like RF, and analog does have L and C, always.

A UTP design twinaxial cable doubles the distance between signal wires so the RF impedance is TWICE the individual wires. Design each wire for 50-ohm and twist or bond them together and it is a 100-ohm UTP balanced line.

Here is the basic schematic for series parallel coaxial cable.

http://on5au.be/content/a10/trans/spcoax.html

spcoax-1

spcoax-4

CHARACTERISTIC IMPEDANCE implies a steady state L and C relationship at RF. Impedance is SQRT (L/C). The RATIO of L and C is the same over LENGTH, so the impedance is always the same no matter the length. But this ratio assumes we have reach the limiting speed of the dielectric. That happens at RF, not analog frequencies. Notice that the VP is not steady state until 1 MHz or higher in the tables below. But, L and C are pretty flat across the spectrum. At least we have that on our side.


image

Characteristic Impedance has ZERO to do with audio because the Vp of the dielectric changes with frequency, there is no “characteristic” anymore. Again, I’ve shown all the data on this to figure it all out. There are no secrets.

Matching impedance at analog is impossible as the cable impedance keeps changing. It isn’t an issue because the wavelengths are so long, even 20 KHz is many, many times longer than the cable.

And no, the concept of RF impedance was way after oceans transmission line cable. The theory wasn’t defined until way after those ocean lines by almost thirty years.

For audio, you need to do an open-short impedance at EACH frequency and the test cable length needs to be as long as you can test because the wavelength is so long. Shorter is OK, as it does show the general impedance through low frequency but do compare nearly like lengths only if you can. Impedance will RISE at low frequency as Vp drops, so the frequencies where the most power is located is at the worst “impedance” to match the speaker load. This is always the case with passive cable.

The telephone analog lines were called 600-ohm at 1 KHz, as an example. Why? That’s what the Vp provided in LONG analog lines. Look at the traces of modern cable, they are also about 600-ohm at 1 KHz.

image

Best,
Galen

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(I did read the notes, others here might have not)

Mythical Creatures demystified, no, correction, demythified. I mean they might be great cables but AQ likes to add some serious magic to their marketing.
(Well, right, they even have it in their naming scheme!)

My best power cable is AQ HC Dragon, it reveals tons of details and depth. My favorite interconnect is a pair of Iconoclast 4x4 XLR Gen 2 UPOCC, it reveals tons of details and depth. I have been holding off to get another pair because I want to see what AQ new lines of IC will offer.

Now I just ordered another pair of Iconoclast UPOCC because AQ made the decision so easy for me. Will Dragon IC sound better? Even if it does, I am not going to spend 4 to 5 times more on it considering how great the Iconoclast sounds.

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I don’t think you will regret it. Especially if you can tune the power cables Galen’s ICs send all the info. Speaker and power cables both impart the rest of the magic. Address noise and timing after that leave it to the amps. Magic happens.

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That will probably save you $5k per meter over a Dragon pair. The Thunderbird would be the closest in price to the Iconoclast.

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Even Nick can not convince me to get a mythical creature. I hope he is doing okay. He has been sick for sometime from a trip.

I’ve texted with him and he’s better now. He was out for a couple weeks and is trying to catch up. Before his trip Audioquest came to TMR and did a demo with the new IC’s and Nick said it was the first time he heard a cable get out of the way of the music. He couldn’t stop raving about the Dragon IC said its more impressive than the Dragon HDMI by far! Bold statement but if the pricing is that high it better be something very special!

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I think I would go With Al’s Stealth Holy Grail Sakra before a mythical creature IC. I am sold on Tuning Rings after playing with them. Why not get the best performance that you like since every cable reacts different with equipment.

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The Dragon PC and HDMI are doing mythical magic in my system, so is Iconoclast, and so is Stealth. I need to keep myself at a sane level. Once my daughter graduates from college I am free, but my CFO will make sure I am under control :joy:

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You already have me topped with that setup!

After reading lot of posts of Galen on this forum, I immensely respect him even if I rarely really understand his in-depth technical descriptions, due to my ignorance of course I’m a publisher not and engineer! I appreciate his integrity and his approach combining measurements with ears evaluations. So @rower30 let me really thank you for sharing with us your science, you are elevating the level of the forum.
This is the reason why I would like to try XLR Iconoclast and I would like to ask Bob to help me purchasing from Italy (ideal model for my SPP-BHK and BHK-M1200s, length on request, delivery time, try/return possibilities, invoice and taxes duties). @BobBJC feel free to send me PM it would be a pleasure to meet you. @dchang05 sometimes we had similar impressions and, if I remember well we have similar systems, which Iconoclast model do you use for which component?

At the same time AQ cables offered me the proof during last months to remarkably improve the SQ of my system, especially Dragon HC PCs for PowerPlants and amplifiers or Dragon HDMI for PST. So I confess to feel the irrefrenabile impulse to give the new Dragon/FireBird XLR a try.

Maybe the best would be to have at the same time at my home both XLRs from Iconoclast and AQ, to test them with my ears according to my personal tastes and to mix them in different components to evaluate also eventually synergies.

Very happy if anyone out there will be able to do the same comparison and share impressions on this forum.

Cables matter: yesterday arrived my new Gold Note Extra phono cable I immediately plugged it from Mediterraneo TT to SPP and wow it made me cry (disclaimer: Italian enthusiasm), really a new open soundstage with lively palpable voices just in front of me.

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I have Iconoclast XLR Gen2 UPOCC between BHK pre and M1200 now and my new one will be between DS dac and BHK pre. Two of them should really bring out the best of my system. The IC is about the most neutral and natural sounding cable I have heard, and I’m sure you’ll be happy with it!

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