Audioquest background
When Bill Low created AudioQuest in 1980 it was really just a small variation of the audio activities he had started in 1972. The evolution of AudioQuest cables has taken place over the entire life of the company, however several of the most important basic design criteria were established very near the beginning. These basic priorities were established as a result of empirical experience and not by abstract theorizing.
For example, the significance of the relationship between multiple conductors, one of the foundations of AudioQuest design, was learned thanks to an accidental experiment. In 1980 a sub-woofer manufacturer asked Bill to make a heavier cable for use with his woofer. He suggested spiraling four conductors together instead of the normal two as a way to increase the cross sectional area. Bill made this cable … and he listened. The performance was much better than he expected and Bill learned that this four-conductor geometry significantly outperformed the same four conductors run as two twisted pairs. Further experimentation revealed the benefits of other variations. By the fall of 1980, Bill was setting new standards with a six conductor cable known as LiveWire Litz Green. Today, almost every AQ speaker cable uses four or more conductors in an optimized arrangement.
Around the same time Bill had an awkward but educational experience when a speaker manufacturer invited him to do a demonstration. The manufacturer was using ten feet of a brand-name audio cable. Bill hooked-up a twenty-five foot pair of his “original recipe” cable, everyone was very impressed with the much better sound. Wanting to make an even bigger impression, Bill went out to his car and came back with a ten-foot pair of his cable. Knowing that with speaker cables “shorter is better,” Bill justifiably expected even better performance.
Much to everyone’s surprise, the ten foot pair did not sound as good as the twenty-five foot pair (though still much better than the other brand). The two AudioQuest cables had exactly the same internal construction and both had the same thickness of clear PVC jacket. The only difference in construction was the hardness of the PVC jacket. The newer ten-foot pair used a softer jacket in order to be more “consumer friendly.” This unintended experiment proved the significance of mechanical stability … an important priority in every AudioQuest cable that followed.
AudioQuest has been the largest cable supplier to the high-end specialist market for many years. AudioQuest is sold in several hundred outlets in the US and in over sixty countries. Bill is especially pleased that this success has been possible despite his insistence that the foundation of the company, and the foundation of AudioQuest marketing, must be the performance of the product. In the audio world, many professionals have learned that it is not always convenient to listen to the products they sell … they might learn something they don’t want to know! Bill has always understood the challenge of basing the existence of AudioQuest on the performance of the product. However, to Bill, this is the only reasonable way to do business and the only acceptable way to combine his passion for music (and all things high performance), with his need to make a living.
To find out more, please visit Audioquest website
