|Already the ThunderBird and the FireBird have shown that the cooperation of company CEO Bill Low and Garth Powell, whose developments catapulted Audioquest's mains technology to an extremely high level, facilitated enormous progress in the speaker cable design. Here comes the top model of the three Mythical Creatures: the Dragon.
I have to start the article with a correction of the prices for the Dragon implied in the report about the FireBird. I had quoted an amount of just under 60,000 Euros for the standard length of three meters in the bi-wiring version, and that is correct. However, the price for a Dragon of two meters, as I would need it, is not only reduced – as erroneously written – by just under 10,000 euros, but by precisely 18,700 euros. But even in this case, the ratio of the necessary investment for the speakers, the Göbel Epoque Aeon Fine, and the two-meter Dragons is highly debatable. But it's not about a purchase recommendation for the Dragon in the context of my set up, but about whether one can still notice a clear sonic improvement when swapping the Dragon for the FireBird.
When looking at the technical specifications for FireBird and Dragon in the "Pricebook" – the scope of the cables listed there in different lengths and with different connectors as well as the other products certainly justify speaking of a book – one cannot discover any differences between the creatures mentioned, apart from the price and the color of the braid. Only the schematically displayed cable cross-sections reveal that the Dragon uses more conductors made of "Perfect-Surface Silver": In the full-range cable, the ZERO, six of eight conductors are made of the precious metal; in the Firebird, only four are. In the BASS cables, the ratio is six and three out of twelve, respectively. In both the Dragon and FireBird, conductors of different cross-sections are combined to achieve the desired sound, which Audioquest calls "Sonic Signature Conductors“. Of course, both the Dragons and the two FireBirds boast "zero characteristic impedance". The two BASS cables feature Audioquest's "Ground Noise Dissipation technology“. If you want to know more about this, I can only recommend the articles about the ThunderBird and the FireBird or right away Garth Powell's White Paper.
Given the Dragons' pricing, a comparison of its single-wiring variant with the bi-wiring version of the FireBirds is a natural choice. And that's why Audioquest's Mythical Creatures shipment also included two Dragon ZEROs that were not assembled for bi-wiring. However, it didn't seem to make sense to use the proprietary Lacorde Statement jumpers to connect to the bi-wiring terminals of the Goebel speakers. So I ordered a set of Audioquest Jupiter: four 20-centimeter-long bi-wiring jumpers made of Perfect-Surface Silver.
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MUTEC REF10 SE120
With the presentation of the REF10 SE120, a 10 MHz reference clock generator, MUTEC claims nothing less than the technological as well as audiophile top position within this device category for itself. Strong words – we want to see if this is followed by corresponding sonic deeds. When I read this announcement in MUTEC's press release, I was skeptical and curious at the same time. Skeptical, because I had reviewed the "normal version" of this…04.03.2021 -
iFi iDSD Diablo
iFi geht einen Pakt mit dem Teufel ein. Der neue portable Kopfhörerverstärker iDSD Diablo setzt auf eine neue Designsprache. Sind wir von iFi eher gedeckte Farben mit akzentuierter Beschriftung gewohnt, ist der Diablo knallrot. Passend, schließlich stellt er die höchste Ausbaustufe der mobilen iDSD-Reihe dar – Qualitätsstufe Rot sozusagen. Somit war ich bei der Veröffentlichung des Diablo überrascht. Nicht nur aufgrund der ungewohnten Farbwahl, sondern weil er für ein Modell der iDSD-Reihe so einiges anders…02.03.2021 -
Ansuz Acoustics PowerSwitch A2 – Part 1
This review not only deals with the Ansuz switch and its sonic effects when setting up a LAN network, but also the question of the sequence in which a home audio network has to be set up in order to gradually obtain musical enhancement. Maybe you feel the same way as I do. At some point, in addition to sourcing music in analogue or in digital form through the CD player, I started to implement…26.02.2021 
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Miyajima Laboratory PS-01
Wer schon häufiger unterschiedliche Vor- und Endverstärker kombiniert hat, wird dieses Phänomen vielleicht kennen: Bereits in der Neun-Uhr-Position des Lautstärkereglers spielt die Anlage viel zu laut und es ist kein sinnvoller Regelbereich vorhanden. Hier könnte der passive Miyajima Laboratory PS-01 die perfekte Lösung sein. Viele Endstufen, und zwar unabhängig davon, ob es sich um einen Transistor- oder um einen Röhrenverstärker handelt, verfügen über einen derart hohen Verstärkungsfaktor, dass sie eigentlich gut als Vollverstärker fungieren könnten.…23.02.2021 -
Ferrum HYPSOS - Part 1
I've been looking forward to this test for over a year. During the development of the HYPSOS hybrid power supply, the first-ever Ferrum product, I was in constant contact with the developers. I was able to test an HYPSOS with beta firmware back in September. However, the impressive listening experience didn't make the wait any easier. So, just before the turn of the year, the time has finally come. The Hifistatement editorial team received two…18.02.2021 -
Waversa WDAC 3T, Wcore 2.0, Wrouter und Wsmart – Teil 1
Wie bereits angekündigt haben Dirk Sommer und ich uns in Absprache mit Stefan Harms vom deutschen Vertrieb ATR den Test einer kompletten Waversa Digitalkette bestehend aus den Spitzengeräten DAC WDAC 3T, Server Wcore 2.0, Router/Switch Wrouter und Wsmart Hub vorgenommen. Der Gedanke einer vollständig aufeinander abgestimmten Kette im Digitalbereich vom Server über das Netzwerk bis zum Digital-Analogwandler liegt eigentlich nahe. Doch alles aus einer Hand – sprich alle Geräte von einem Hersteller – das ist…16.02.2021
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