Thread: Audioquest Mythical Creatures Analog Interconnects

The MusicDirect catalog has images & pricing I can't find elsewhere. They look fancy, but VERY expensive - especially if you need XLR
The Fire was a really great silver IC at its price point (especially XLR, now) - is it now discontinued?

Looks like 2 "cores" for RCA nd 3 for XLR - man those connectors must be massive:

We ordered a full loom of Dragon for our AQ room.

We have full dragon in the AQ room, full Odin 2 in the Nordost room and full Omega/Sigma (soon to be all Omega) in the Shunyata room. We ain’t messing about!


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Originally Posted by mdp632

Wow!

I know this an Audioquest thread but, did you just spill the beans on the Omega speaker cables and interconnects?

Btw, I remember when you carried MIT but, at the time, not Soulution.

MIT Cables + Soulution + Magico is crazy good.

So linear and just so "Right" when I heard it years ago. Loved this combo and I think Magico uses MIT (and others) cables in their factory listening room.

I'm sure the latest from Shunyata and others is amazing too.

Can't wait to read more.

AGREED! But here’s the issue: MIT has disappeared. Our sales rep is gone (quit?) and we haven’t heard a peep in months. Not a word.


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If it were me, and I wanted AudioQuest solid Perfect Surface Silver interconnects, I would pick up some discounted WEL Signature because the Dragon interconnects are going to have stratospheric pricing.

Ken

We have a full Dragon system in the store now. The Dragon IC’s are incredible sounding and quite unique looking.






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Hi Mike,

I have no doubt the Dragons are the best AudioQuest interconnects yet but what is the MSRP?

Ken

I've got two sets of Firebird here...RCA and XLR; they arrived the other day and I've been letting them settle for 48 hours as they just came off the logisitics truck. I listened to the RCAs last night for a bit. They have quite good inner detail, and a large and expansive presentation. While the images in the soundstage were large and expansive, it seemed that the "edges" of the vocal and instrumental images were a bit soft and "blurred" and "fuzzy", in the way that the "outline" of a person or object are slightly blurred in a photograph that is not perfectly focussed and sharp all the way to the edge of the subject. They're also slightly hot on the very top end, and there might be a bit of a wonky noise component layered on top of the presentation, but that may be due to them not having fully settled yet...so the jury is still out on that. Overall, they seem really nice, but with a coupla "niggles" at this point in time.

It's very early days yet, so we'll see how they do over time. Need to get a hundred hours or so on them....

I'll post some pics, and I'll keep you guys posted with respect how they do with more hours on them...

Originally Posted by mdp632

The question I have is, at these prices, Are the AQ made in China? Whereas many of their US based competitors are building their flagship cables in the US.

Just in the interests of accuracy here, "Quality" is not the result of where something is manufactured, only how. It's not constrained by geographical boundaries, it essentially comes down to two things: mediation of the product transfer function and Process Capability, measured as Cp/Cpk. Both of these can be evaluated with statistical rigor.

Stephen Mejias sent me the pricing when arranging for me to demo the cables:

ThunderBird
US Retail: $2,900/1m (RCA); $3,900/1m (XLR)

FireBird
US Retail: $5,500/1m (RCA); $6,900/1m (XLR)

Dragon
US Retail: $9,500/1m (RCA); $11,900/1m (XLR)

The 1.5M length pairs of Firebird I have here are: $6750/pr (RCA) and $8650 (XLR)

Originally Posted by Alpinist

If it were me, and I wanted AudioQuest solid Perfect Surface Silver interconnects, I would pick up some discounted WEL Signature because the Dragon interconnects are going to have stratospheric pricing.

Ken

Agreed - the price of PSS silver keeps going up significantly with each new line
Even the existing Fire is now 3,750 for a PSS 1m, and not long ago this was 3,000! As bad as inflation is, the PSS seems to outpace it. And even the top PSC+ cables now can go beyond what PSS pricing was a couple generations ago.

So I just have to brag on my new-to-me Everest double biwire, well over 2 POUNDS of PSS silver in these 6 AWG 8 foot cables. They're missing all the great new tech in the new Zero cables for sure, but my Tannoys just LOVE the ludicrous amount of PSS silver in a full biwire.

Here's a pic of the Firebird XLRs. Having three individually insulated and sheathed cables is a bit odd and makes the dressing of the cables a bit "bulkier"...

Originally Posted by Puma Cat

I've got two sets of Firebird here...RCA and XLR; they arrived the other day and I've been letting them settle for 48 hours as they just came off the logisitics truck. I listened to the RCAs last night for a bit. They have quite good inner detail, and a large and expansive presentation. While the images in the soundstage were large and expansive, it seemed that the "edges" of the vocal and instrumental images were a bit soft and "blurred" and "fuzzy", in the way that the "outline" of a person or object are slightly blurred in a photograph that is not perfectly focussed and sharp all the way to the edge of the subject. They're also slightly hot on the very top end, and there might be a bit of a wonky noise component layered on top of the presentation, but that may be due to them not having fully settled yet...so the jury is still out on that. Overall, they seem really nice, but with a coupla "niggles" at this point in time.

It's very early days yet, so we'll see how they do over time. Need to get a hundred hours or so on them....

I'll post some pics, and I'll keep you guys posted with respect how they do with more hours on them...

Let me guess, the Shunyata blow these out of the water.

Originally Posted by MPW

Let me guess, the Shunyata blow these out of the water.

It's way too early to do any accurate comparisons or form any conclusions. From the get-go, they're quite nice, no question. They have very good detail and a large, immersive soundstage. "Inner detail" is also very good. Just want to give them a chance to settle and run in...they just came off the logistics truck the day before yesterday and shipping cables really vibrates them a lot. It generally takes about 72 hours for a cable to fully settle. I've got them stably dressed and resting on DF-SS Minis so they can settle nicely without being moved or jostled or influenced by vibration or static electricity fields. I have them for 3 months for evaluation, so they'll have time to settle and run-in fully. I also have a pair of Firebird balanced ICs, so I can try those with the Constellation Inspiration integrated as I've heard the Constellation sounds even better when run with balanced cables.

When you're getting rid of your Shunyata let me know

Originally Posted by jmusica

When you're getting rid of your Shunyata let me know

Ha, not likely Jon, as I purchased my full set of Alpha V2 interconnects (ICs) and my pair of Alpha V2 speaker cables just in Q4 of last year...LOL. And, they're pretty darn nice. I may purchase a pair of the new Venom-X interconnects, though, to compare to the Alpha V2s ICs, so, we'll see.

I'll let ya know, though, if things should change...cheers.

Originally Posted by Puma Cat

Stephen Mejias sent me the pricing when arranging for me to demo the cables:

ThunderBird
US Retail: $2,900/1m (RCA); $3,900/1m (XLR)

FireBird
US Retail: $5,500/1m (RCA); $6,900/1m (XLR)

Dragon
US Retail: $9,500/1m (RCA); $11,900/1m (XLR)

The 1.5M length pairs of Firebird I have here are: $6750/pr (RCA) and $8650 (XLR)

WEL Signature MSRP is $8,500 for 1.0 meter XLR.

Ken

Listening to Yeol Eum Son playing Mozart solo piano on the Firebirds, and they're quite nice, quite pleasant to listen to. That "wonky" noise component seems to have abated so it's likely it was some residual triboeletric noise from just having been shipped. The upper highs are smoothing out nicely as well.



So far, quite a nice IC to listen to....

Originally Posted by luca.pelliccioli

Thank you for share your first impression. I’m very curious to understand the difference between Firebird and Dragon XLR. My purpose is to use them for Preamp (PS Audio BHK Signature) and Amplifiers (PS Audio M1200 mono) connection and for Phono Preamp (PS Audio Stellar Phono) and Preamp.
All my system is already full loom Dragon as for power cords, so I love this brand so much.
Awaiting more thoughts as soon as you can, very appreciate your opinion about how these cables sound.

You should ask Mike these questions. He is a dealer for AQ and has much more experience with AQ cables.

Originally Posted by luca.pelliccioli

Thank you, sorry I’m new here. Hope @Mike can help me with some comments.

We’ve been listening for a few days and they have the same incredible transparency as the dragon power cables. You’ll love them.


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Originally Posted by Mike

We’ve been listening for a few days and they have the same incredible transparency as the dragon power cables. You’ll love them.


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The Dragon Source power cords were a game changer on my Select II DAC. I tried a bunch of high end power cords before them and nothing else was even in the same ballpark. I would consider trying Dragon interconnects except that my AudioQuest Wild Blue Yonder solid Perfect Surface Silver interconnects already sound so amazing.

Ken