Speaker Cables

[audio_engr]

Anyone tried Audioquest OAK or REDWOOD speaker cables (from their Tree series) in their system ?

Hi audio_engr, you seem to have a love of Audioquest cables similar to me! I would probably have Audioquest power cables if they made them with an Australian plug! I have the OAK single from my 440pro to B&W 802 D2s, I did compare with other speaker cables when I demo'ed for my 400 purchase (later upgraded to 440pro) including REDWOOD. The in store demo was done with B&W 800's BTW?. I preferred the Oak, because they sounded more natural to me, I guess that's why I am a fan of Audioquest cables, they are well constructed, look good and most importantly they convey the sound signal honestly and naturally, they don't add or subtract anything from output to input of components and speakers. This of course is just my opinion and how they sound to my ears with the limited comparisons I did at the store. I haven't done any intensive listening or A B comparisons with other speaker cables In my setup in my room. My setup sounds fantastic, I just enjoy listening to my music without thinking wether it could or would sound better with different cables. I did a bit of googling on your current speaker cables, they seem to get good reviews. I am not sure what length speaker cables you would need, but the OAK is not cheap. I'm interested wether you have considered the upgrade from 400 to 440pro, this was a huge improvement in SQ in my setup. I would suspect the cost of OAK cables would be similar to the cost to upgrade (at least that would be the case here in Aust) maybe upgrade to 440pro is worth considering ahead of speaker cable upgrade. that is of course if and when Devialet resume the upgrade program. Anyway, hopefully something for you to think about, love your set up BTW, always enjoy reading your posts with your setup being similar to mine. Craig

Hi Craig :
Thank you so much for explicitly mentioning the details. I appreciate it !!    

I live in Sierra Leone (West Africa) & had been here since early 2016. I am scheduled to move off to another Duty station by the end of this year .. I work with the UN (United Nations) & we move country to country every cpl of years. Due to the nature of my work & the fact that we are moving country to country sometimes continents, I chose to go the Devialet way as they offer worldwide voltage. I had been using B&W 802s since they launched the Matrix 800-series in 1988 but lost my pair in a devastating earthquake in Nepal in 2015. I lost my entire audio gear (Metronome Kalista CD transport / Accuphase DC-101 DAC), FM Acoustics 255 MK2 pre, EAR 519 MK2 tube monoblocks, B&W Matrix 802 S2. 

When I bought my 802 D3 + D400 from Frankfurt, Germany in early 2016, I paid a massive amount for Air shipment as I had no option. Unfortunately, Sierra Leone is a back and beyond place and the ONLY safe air shipment format that functions here is DHL. Even UPS, FedEx or anyone else don't even exist. Due to this reason, unfortunately I couldn't avail the Devialet Upgrade program to go from 400 - - > 440 Pro. 

I had a long chat with Audioquest yesterday on the subject of OAK vs. REDWOOD. They explained that both models are midline their Tree-series yet the differences (though seem marginal) is quite a lot as Redwood of its 16 conductors have 6 that are pure solid silver. The Oak is entirely pure solid copper. Audioquest engineers explained that since I have a loudspeaker that has extended LF & also HF - due to the diamond tweeter, I would be able to take advantage of their Redwood due to the way its conductors are grouped. See the picture below :

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The B&Ws ought to be biwired to get the best out of them and using Single Biwire of AQ, in the Redwood they would group as above. AQ went on to say that their silver does not sound harsh at all - in fact is neutral and helps to remove a veil to get a better look at the soundstage. Plus the diamond tweeter getting silver along with the midrange (Kevlar for you & Continuum in my case) will benefit from the silver too. 

However, the cost differential is 1 : 3 (approx.) between the Oak & Redwood ... they explained that it would be similar to using the AQ Carbon and then jumping to the Diamond. 

My length is 8.0 Feet so Oak is US$ 3,000 vs. US$ 9,000 for the Redwood (approx). Indeed - US$ 9k is steep esp. when I see an Used redwood going for US$ 4k but then - I would have to send it back to AQ factory, turn it to SBW from FR, re-terminate with all bananas ... 

dunno ... what I should do ... esp. since my Master to Companion Link cable that's the Diamond is currently sitting with AQ as they try to contact Devialet and work out how they could build a 110 ohms Diamond cable with RCA - XLR termination and not have the DBS interfere ... 

Cheers !!  /  - Arup