AUDIOQUEST

The founding story of Audioquest reads like that of so many successful hi-fi companies: A music lover becomes a HiFi fan, and then, out of disappointment with the state of the art, becomes a manufacturer of his own products. With the difference that, after various other episodes since 1980, company founder Bill Low concentrated on the production of high-quality cables.

This decision was based on the fundamental insight that cables can never make a system better. The maximum possible quality of a system is determined by its individual components, cables only deteriorate the signal and thus the enjoyment of music to a greater or lesser extent depending on the quality. This is why the motto of Audioquest cables has been from the very beginning: damage control. Or in the words of Bill Low: "Do No Harm!"

It all started with loudspeaker cables under the Audioquest label, but over the years numerous other products have been added. Now Audioquest offers cables for all kinds of audio and video signals, as well as USB cables and network cables.

The development of all products ultimately always follows the same pattern. Based on fundamental knowledge of cable technology, which is constantly being expanded through constant research, prototypes are created that have to prove themselves in extensive listening tests. Bill Low explicitly encourages his employees to always take unusual paths that are not covered by common theories. For example, the Californian manufacturer's USB and network cables were developed. The common opinion here was that with this digital data transfer, the cable should not have any effect on the sound. But that didn't scare them off, they simply built a few cables according to the Audioquest standard and see/hear them, the differences were even huge.

"Experience the difference" is another core statement of Audioquest. You simply have to experience for yourself what amazing sonic differences even the entry-level cables of the Pearl or Forest series can make. With the higher quality series, there is a little bit more with every step, until finally, with the use of the Dielectric Bias System (DBS) developed by Audioquest, the limits of physics are sounded out. DBS consists of a battery attached to the cable, which provides the insulation between the conductors with a constant static charge, thus minimising interaction with the actual signal. In fact, you have to hear the difference DBS makes to believe it.

The occupation with cables for digital signals gave rise to a whole new line of business a few years ago. With the small USB-DAC DragonFly the "cable company" Audioquest set new standards in this segment. Meanwhile the second generation of the series is available with the DragonFly Black and the Dragonfly Red. DragonFly Black and Dragonfly Red sound even better than their predecessor and now require so little power that they can even be used on an iPhone and are therefore now suitable for mobile music enjoyment at the highest level.

Spurred on by the great success of the DragonFly in a completely new market segment, Bill Low and the ingenious developer Skylar Gray tackled the next major project: Skylar was allowed to research, develop and realize his ideas for two years. The result was the Audioquest Nighthawk headphones, which were not only among the best in their field right from the start, but also break completely new ground in terms of environmental friendliness and manufacturing processes.

Speaker and signal cables, USB DACs, headphones ... Audioquest's thirst for research seems to know no bounds. And that's a good thing, because there are certainly still many listening experiences that the Californians can improve with their unconventional ideas. So it remains exciting - experience the difference!