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REVIEW: AudioQuest Colorado Cable

Model:	Colorado
Category:	Cable
Suggested Retail Price:	$899/meter
Description:	72V DBS Analog Interconnect
Manufacturer URL:	AudioQuest

Review by readargos on July 09, 2015 at 14:42:41 IP Address: 173.15.7.145

Add Your Review for the Colorado

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What, in the high end, courts more controversy than cables? Particularly in today's market, where cable prices have quadrupled, quintupled, or more in the past decade? You can spend more on cable, but do you always get more? Or is it a matter of horses for courses? Can a cheaper interconnect sound better in the right system context? In my case, yes, so let's get on to courting that controversy.

On first installing Colorado, I was expecting a big improvement over Columbia. Imagine my surprise when it sounded more like Cardas Quadlink than AudioQuest Columbia! I resisted immediate direct comparisons, allowing some time on the cable box for break-in, and to ensure the DBS system was fully up to speed. Word is, if the DBS cables are fresh stock at the dealer, the system may not have had adequate time to "form the dielectric".

Columbia started out bright and filled in with play. Colorado started out a little dark, and opened up (yet became smoother) with break in, but the change was subtler.

Columbia is the brightest/leanest of the three. For this reason, it tends to sound more open and detailed than either Colorado or Quadlink. Similarly, both Colorado and Quadlink have a fuller response with bigger bass. This warmer sound emphasizes different types of detail, particularly venue size and depth, while obscuring others.

Colorado is bigger and more forward than even Quadlink. This was unexpected, because my experience suggested a more laid back presentation from AudioQuest as a brand. The bass response between Quadlink and Colorado is very close. Quadlink goes deeper with greater coherency. Depending on the recording, Colorado's bass sometimes sounds tighter and better defined, but other times powerful, yet inarticulate.

Cardas is still the best at carving out palpable space. Although you can hear a larger space and more easily discern depth through Colorado, you can feel the space better with Quadlink. Quadlink put you in a palpable space, then populate the space with instruments -- a you-are-there perspective. With Colorado, the focus seems to be on the instruments, with an aural, but less palpable, space -- a they-are-here perspective. The Quadlink is very tactile, so you feel the decay of an orchestra much as you do in life. I found Columbia, as well, to have more palpable decay.

Colorado has better detail of the instrument, but Quadlink has better resolution of the human effort behind the playing. This last, which I call touch, I think is a significant factor distinguishing between live and recorded sound, between conventional high fidelity, and those systems make the magic happen. It is why many gravitate toward glass and vinyl. It is why some audio systems have a soul, while others simply make noise. With Colorado, it is as though you hear detail, but with Cardas, you hear nuance. Although I'm sure it will push some audiophiles' buttons, I found Colorado's portrayal of details like the mechanics of saxophone keys, or the intakes of breath of winds and brass players, to be too on the nose. You don't go to see a world class violinist, for example, because of the instrumental detail with close seating, but because of the nuance she brings to the playing and the interpretation. Which is more important to your listening priorities will determine your choice between Colorado and Quadlink.

Those who criticize Cardas as sounding dark or slow should compare any Cardas interconnect to the Colorado. If Quadlink is dark and slow, Colorado is also dark and slow. If Cardas blunt leading edges and round transients; if Cardas are fuller sounding than strictly realistic; then Colorado are all these things, as well.

Columbia is a different creature. It doesn't have *as much* touch or palpable decay as Quadlink, but it has a good measure. It doesn't have *as much* instrumental detail as Colorado, but it has a good measure, *plus* greater instrumental palpability. Colorado is quieter and what is considered more transparent than Columbia, but something goes missing with the air of transparency, or gets sucked into the black hole of background silence. Although dynamic, I think it's too smooth and polished. There is neither leading edge attack nor the bite you get from rosin on the bow. Without edge definition, images lack body from being too big and diffuse. I think Columbia is more palpable largely because it is tighter and more together.

Colorado sacrifices the coherency and musical intelligibility of Columbia. I think Colorado's bass is bloated, which causes a loss of definition compared to the cheaper Columbia(!), and the mid-bass lacks punch. When listening to small-scale jazz -- quartets or quintets -- I found Colorado's fullness could obscure the distinction between drums, upright bass, and low notes on the piano; or between piano and electric guitar. The sound homogenizes, and loses the differentiation you get from Columbia. I know boundary reinforcement comes into play when dealing with bigger bass, and I know that cables can necessitate fine-tuning of speaker position. However, I moved the speakers around about as much as made sense in my room. I made gains in some areas, while losing in others, and I couldn't achieve the top-to-bottom coherency of Columbia. Direct comparisons suggest Columbia is like hearing music through a fine scrim. There is a slight veiling, yet recordings and associated equipment sound more like themselves. Colorado removes the scrim, but its bold personality makes the gear and recordings sound more like Colorado. Colorado steps on your toes in the process of getting out of the way.

In trying Colorado, I was expecting Columbia, only better; but it is something very different. If you like one of these two cables, you may not like the other. Columbia has what I consider the reputed neutrality on which AudioQuest built its reputation. It doesn't seem to favor any frequency. It is open and clear and allows you to hear everything all at once, all the time. It can exhibit residual hardness or brightness if the associated equipment is not up to task, and it lacks the last bit of naturalness and ease in favor of balance and control, but because it is also smooth and slightly laid back, it's never tiring. My system tends towards dry and bright, yet I still like Columbia! Columbia is fleeter of foot in the bass, but the bass is so rounded and natural and organic sounding, it is impossible not to appreciate.

Colorado improves on Columbia by curing all its weaknesses: bigger bass, more swagger, greater naturalness, no hint of brightness, more instrumental detail, greater quiet, and a sense of greater (if, in some ways, false) transparency. However, its weightier sound brings a ponderous quality. Colorado is more detailed in some ways -- particularly how its extra quiet renders space a little better, even at the sacrifice of venue acoustics -- but because of the darker presentation -- its heavier, weightier voice -- it is not obviously so.

Here's why A-B comparisons cannot be the sole arbiter. In direct comparison, I often preferred Colorado to Columbia because of the obvious sonic fireworks -- the bigger bass, the more obvious rendering of space, the larger images, and grander scale. But over longer evaluation periods when not swapping cables, Colorado's seams became apparent through the sturm und drang, and I gravitated toward the rationalism of Columbia. The omissions Columbia make are small, and easily overlooked, especially when not making direct comparisons. The commissions that Colorado make are easily spotted over the long term if your musical tastes are as catholic as mine. I found Colorado worked for large-scale orchestral work, big band jazz, rock (except for the missing edge and grit), and electronic music. However, its big-boned sound fell apart with things like small-scale jazz or Mozart sonatas.

A recording that exemplifies everything that is right and wrong about Colorado is an EMI Classics Mozart CD (Rondo and Violinsonaten) with a young Maria-Elisabeth Lott playing Mozart's child violin. The violin is, at best, half the size of an adult instrument. Lott is accompanied by fortepiano in the sonatas. Here, Colorado's greater background quiet lets through more low-level detail, and consequently it's a champ when it comes to rendering space. It's easy to hear the space *between* the violin and the fortepiano through Colorado. Yet, it's too big and bold, and too smooth and polished. Colorado gives you the IMAX perspective. Because of its bigger, weightier, bolder perspective, the child violin sounds almost like a viola, and the fortepiano sounds closer to a modern piano. The images are too big and diffuse, while the bite and buzz of the rosin on the bow is smoothed over. Through Columbia, the instruments are more appropriately scaled, more palpable, with a sharper, brighter tone, and with the buzz of the rosin and the almost harpsichord-like plucking of the fortepiano. There's more space around the instruments and more nuance to the playing, though less instrumental detail than Colorado.

Although DBS cables don't require much break-in, I nevertheless put a couple hundred hours on Colorado to make sure it was on song. I played with speaker positioning to no avail. The only thing I couldn't try was a larger room, which, perhaps, is what a big-sounding cable needs, although whether that would cure what in my system is an overly smooth presentation with lack of subtlety is questionable.

In short, I tried everything at my disposal with Colorado, and never warmed up to it. I think Columbia is special with a seamlessness and coherency that easily justifies its asking price, and gives more than a taste of very expensive wire in very expensive systems. I liked it enough to reach for Colorado, hoping for better still, but got something rather different. It is not "Columbia, only better." I really wanted it to work, because it does make obvious gains, particularly its rendering of space, which is essentially life-sized (or larger!) on something like the aforementioned Mozart sonatas.

For me, then, Colorado represents compromised improvement and unfulfilled expectations. Where it succeeds, it succeeds extremely well, and you may not be able to live without it. Where it fails, I have interconnects costing one quarter to one half of Colorado that better it. I understand we don't always get across-the-board improvements, but when I'm paying this kind of money, I expect to make some gains in performance, and avoid significant tradeoffs. The line that Columbia trades in is neutrality, detail, openness and clarity. The line that Quadlink trades in is touch, texture, palpable air, and natural ness. Colorado trades in some of both lines, but I don't think it so far outclasses either to justify is price, especially as we're approaching the dearer side of $1,000/meter.

I view Colorado as American muscle car with a big V8: extremely capable, yet limited. Its bigness and boldness will blow your hair back on the straights, but its weight and smoothness means it becomes clumsy through the switchbacks. Columbia is more like a 6-cylinder European sports-luxury: capable and refined, if lacking brute force. Thus, if you value a big soundstage with large (but less palpable) images, smoothness over edge definition, grand gesture over delicacy, own a system capable of resolving large dynamic swings and deep bass, and don't listen to baroque and early classical music on period instruments, then Colorado could be a good fit. However, if you value coherency, transparency to equipment and recordings, and the performance insight that comes with clear articulation of musical lines, then stick with Columbia.

AudioQuest claims that interconnect and speaker cables are equally important. If you buy their least expensive interconnects and most expensive speaker cables, the results will be that same as if you buy their most expensive interconnects and least expensive speaker cables. I don't think this is entirely true given the different voice I hear between Columbia and Colorado. Colorado is the least AudioQuest-sounding AudioQuest product of my experience. However, to close the gap on Colorado's areas of strength over Columbia, what I saved on interconnects, I put into a better pair of speaker cables.

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Product Weakness:	Has a definite character: too smooth and weighted from the bottom up. An oversize perspective with high instrumental detail, but lacking subtlety and nuance with bloated images on small-scale material.
Product Strengths:	Large soundstaging with clearly audible space between performers, deep background quiet, capable of large dynamic swings, deep bass, smooth, and never bright.

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Associated Equipment for this Review:

Amplifier:	Musical Fidelity A308cr (Recapped with Nichicon/Muse)
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated):	Musical Fidelity A308cr
Sources (CDP/Turntable):	Musical Fidelity A308cr; Rega P3-24, TTPSU, Ortofon 2M Bronze, Groovetracer Reference Subplatter & Acrylic Platter; Expressimo Brass End Stub & Half Moon Counterweight; Musical Fidelity kW Phono
Speakers:	JMlab Electra 915.1
Cables/Interconnects:	Cardas Quadlink, AudioQuest Columbia, AudioQuest Colorado ICs, Cardas Neutral Reference, AudioQuest CV-8, AudioQuest Gibraltar Speaker; Cardas Quadlink & manufacturer's own Power.
Music Used (Genre/Selections):	Classical, Jazz, Rock, Metal, Folk, Electronica
Room Size (LxWxH):	16 x 12 x 9
Room Comments/Treatments:	Upholstered furniture, large area rug
Time Period/Length of Audition:	2 Months
Type of Audition/Review:	Product Owner

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Analog Engineering Associates

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