AudioQuest 1394-1 (4 To 6 Pin) 2M black/blue firewire cable

AudioQuest: Invest in the best

You're looking for an IEEE1394 cable for its high-speed, real-time digital signal transmission. But you want a high-quality cable—and there's a plethora to choose from—so what could possibly make AudioQuest cables that much more superior? Well, let me tell you. These cables are babied. They're coddled. Each cable's hand is held from its conception in Bill Low's head until it is carefully swaddled in product packaging and shipped off to your home.

Silver: The superior conductor

AudioQuest's mission is to provide a cable for every audio/video need as well as a price for every pocketbook, without sacrificing one iota of performance quality. And they've certainly achieved high-performance status with the 13941. The 13941 also utilizes an even larger, 26-AW gauge conductor to reduce distortion even further, and the solid, high-density polyethylene insulator insures critical geometry stability. The 13941 has twice the content of silver (2.5-percent) as the 1394G, which basically means that AudioQuest took the path of least resistance and paved it. What's the difference between silver-plated copper and pure copper? Well, let's take a step back and explain that pure silver is the very best performing material for audio, video or digital, but it's very expensive. So the engineers came up with a more cost-effective solution—silver-plated copper. Don't make assumptions though: high-quality silver-plated copper, when used in video, RF or digital applications, becomes an extraordinary value, out-performing even the highest grades of pure copper.

Putting an end to frequency interference—times two

There is a whole category of energy referred to as RFI (Radio Frequency Interference). When RFI gets into your equipment it compromises the circuit's performance, and therefore compromises the sound or picture quality. AudioQuest puts end to RF interference by placing not just one, but two, RF stoppers on the 13941 cable. The RF stoppers reduces RFI in the cable by disrupting the radio frequency components of the magnetic field outside of the cable. For a current to travel within a cable, there must be an associated magnetic field on the outside. By altering the magnetic field, an RF stopper is able to filter the current inside the cable even though nothing has been inserted into the cable. This means no extra connections or electronic parts with their own distortion problems.

Damage control—let's compare apples. . .

It's important to know that an audio or video signal cannot be improved upon—it's as good as it's going to get once it leaves your amp, DVD player, whatever component you're running. So why bother with a high-end cable? Simple: the signal can't be improved, but it can be damaged. Significantly. A lesser-quality cable leaves your signal wide-open to instabilities. A lesser-quality cable is constructed of bundled, twisted strands of conductive material—up to 200 to 2000 strands per bundle. And as the signal wants to travel the path of least resistance (down the outside of the bundle), all those twisted strands inhibit the signal. They draw the signal from the outside of the bundle to the inside, where it fights to get back to the outside again. What's the result? Distortion. Lost data. Poor sound quality.

. . .to oranges

AudioQuest, on the other hand, engineers their cables with the highest quality, perfectly gauged solid-core, copper and silver conductors. And each conductor strand is slowly and precisely loomed, not twisted, into the final cable bundle—and it's important to note that the maximum amount of strands AudioQuest has used in their longest cable, for flexibility requirements, is 32 (that's a few less than 200, and a lot less than 2000). Once they have constructed the conductor, AudioQuest wraps it in the dielectric (a fancy word for the insulating material) to keep the cable at peak performance levels at all times by absorbing as little energy as possible in order to avoid the reintroduction of energy (distortion) back into the conductor.

AudioQuest makes sure you're headed in the right direction

Cables, from hardware store electrical cable to the finest pure silver cables, have a direction—much like wood has a grain. It has to do with molecular structure, which we won't get into. What you should know though is that a cable sounds much better when the signal is traveling in the proper direction. AudioQuest audio cables are marked for direction, so you don't have to figure it out.

The bottom line

What AudioQuest is doing is engineering cables with conductors that have all the proper attributes, for decreased distortion. They've arranged the conductors so the signal travels down a straight path, for decreased distortion. They've wrapped the conductor metal in a non-conductive material, to decrease distortion. The result is an astonishingly pure, very stable signal. Starting to make sense? AudioQuest loathes distortion. You'll love AudioQuest.