Audioquest King Cobra first impressions

Cable Asylum

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The other day I realized how much I didn't like the sound of my old quartz x3 on my tuner. Curious of the new line of AQ interconnects I bought a pair of the King Cobras to try.
I thought I would give these a whirl between my pre and amp, since they would get the most play time there and a quicker break in. Another thing about using them from my pre to amp is that my preamp has 2 sets of RCA outputs so that comparisons with another cable are very quick.
My initial thoughts are as follows:
Compared to my AQ Emerald the Cobras are a bit mechanical, analytical sounding. The Cobras do have excellent detail and high frequency extension and almost seem a bit brighter than my old Emeralds. The soundstage is not as big as the Emeralds, nor do the Cobras have the fullness and bloom to the sound. The King Cobras seem a bit cold compared to the warmth of the Emerald. The Cobras do seem to best the Emeralds in seeming a tad bit clearer.
Compared to the old Quartz the Cobras bested them in detail frequency extension and clarity. I would take the new Cobra over the old Quartz all around.
I compared these to my Diamond X2's (not the new Diamonbacks but the old top of the line all silver Diamonds) and the Cobras were definatley outdone here.
Overall not a bad cable and I did buy it to eventually go on my tuner to upgrade from my old Quartz which it is clearly an improvement over. The Cobra is more similar to the old quartz in the fact they both used AQ top line metals with PE insulation.
Initial impressions are that the old Emerald is still a better overall cable than the new Cobra, but the Emerald is really replaced by the now Panther. Both the Emerald and Panther using top line AQ metal with teflon insulation. I am really interested to try some Panther out as the Cobra blew away the Quartz, I wonder how the Panther compares to the Emerald?
Overall the Cobra is a good cable for the money, I will give it more time to break in and see if it relaxes a bit and opens up with more of a full bodied sound.
Aaron

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Topic - Audioquest King Cobra first impressions - Aaron 01 09:53:03 11/22/05 (2)

And just wait for your Second Impressions ! - Bambi B 07:56:07 11/23/05 (1)

Re: Comparison of new AQ cables with older - mdjukic99@yahoo.com 15:17:47 11/23/05 (0)

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