Cable woes, I got 'em!

[JohnMichael]

Currently my AQ Rocket 44's have a bad banana at the amp end. I think either the banana was made too thin or weak in the center where it broke. I noticed the wire pulling to one side and it was then I saw the plug was dangling at the midway point.

Since I did not want to risk a short I replaced the 44's with my AQ Slates. Sadly one of the banana's at the speaker end came loose a while ago. This pair was terminated by AudioAdvisor but easy to use with one as bare wire.

As previously mentioned my Geortz TQ2 need repair due to channel imbalance.

AQ is great. I just received my RMA number to ship them back. I only have to pay shipping one way and they will repair and return at no cost. I use the Slates when I need to but would not bother returning them to AudioAdvisor.

I have not heard from Geortz but since I am on vacation I will be calling them instead of emailing. I hope they are as helpful as AQ.

I guess this is what switching speakers and cables will do for you. Oh well it is the price for playing.

[Mr Peabody]

Do you grab the plug to disconnect opposed to the cable? I switch cables at the back of my speakers a lot depending on what system I will use and so far so good. I just make sure I have the plug between my thumb and fingers before tugging.

[JohnMichael]

I never grab the wires. The Slates were terminated by AudioAdvisor and I doubt it was soldered well. All the other connections were good. The Rocket 44's still have good connection but only half a banana. So electrically still sound but short.

As I said AQ has been great and I will send out the one Rocket 44 tomorrow.

I also need to contact Goertz about the TQ2. I have no idea why one channel has more output than the other. I hope they are as good as AQ.

[harley .guy07]

I have seen this happen before, usually its weak copper or metal in the area of the banana connectors or it was stressed during the manufacturing process and it took just the right tug or pull to make it break. I would say that AQ being on top of getting this fixed for you is a cool thing though as these cables aren't the cheapest out there. The cables I used to sell when I worked in the industry had a problem with this from time to time and they would always fix these issues as well.

[JohnMichael]

Well thank you Audioquest for the great service. I sent one of my Rocket 44 cables due to a broken banana. Well they replaced all six of them. More than was necessary but impressed me. They did this at no charge and free return shipping.

I had been using the AQ Slates that were terminated by AudioAdvisor. Either the Rocket 44's are superior or the AQ cold weld is better than the AA soldered to banana's. The sound is more focused, quieter and detailed.

I am a full believer in AQ for their engineering, manufacturing and service.

Oh and they sent the original bananas and I will use one to repair the slates.

[JohnMichael]

Never heard from Goertz about the TQ2's. I have not called them but I had sent them an e-mail. I unscrewed the RCA jacks and all the solder points looked good. Since it was the right channel that was not sounding as loud as the left I decided to check them again. This time I did notice how loose the right RCA at the cd end was. I knew the RCA jacks on the Krell were a little larger in diamaeter. I switched the IC's around so the loose right RCA plug was now making good contact with the Krell. The other end still made contact with the SA8001. Of course I switched the left around so the serial no's were at the same end.

[JohnMichael]

I like the AQ Rocket 44's and the Diamondbacks are designed and insulated in much the same way. I wanted to hear how they might compliment each other.

I had tried the AQ King Cobra's and was not pleased with the sound. I was using AQ Slates at the time which to my ears are a noisier cable. I did not have the RS6's set up properly at the time so between the noisy Slates and very detailed King Cobra's along with the midbass suckout was a real mess.

[JohnMichael]

So far the Diamondbacks are impressive and kicking butt of the TQ2, Micropurl, DNM Reson IC's. As quiet and musical as the Rocket 44's.