Fake! AudioQuest WEL Signature power cable inside - first look
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- Опубликовано: 2 июн 2024
- This just came by, I will give them proper burn in but for that I needed to change connectors. Since I've already had them opened, I decided to do a short video on structure inside. Enjoy and expect full review within week or two!
Errata:
Arrows are actually ok, direction was fine, Ive found AQ Mistral installation guide and it has relevant info:
www.audioquest.com/pl/pages/i...
So I stand corrected! 
Наука
I really enjoyed the topology overview. That was very interesting. Mahalo!
Your investigations seem directed at whether the design or exotic conductors and materials matter more. Of course, just generalizations but interesting nevertheless. Your take so far? Looking forward to who will wear the design champ crown, absolute sound quality and for the money.
Yes that's the general idea, I want to learn and see if there are some patterns in geometry that seem to work. And to find the champ along the way :)
Mille grazie, seguo sempre i tuoi video molto interessanti e informativi. Grazie
Grazie!
Right connecting is: iec -> -> -> -> schuko (into all power cables audioquest)
Aaaand yes, you're right, I've checked that in Mistral guide, I've added errata to the desc and video. Thanks!
@hifi zone did you see the directionality issue on any of the other cables like the Dragon?
No such thing as a directional cable, plus you are running AC through it. AC= Alternation current. It has no polarity.
Even so, it shows a build detail found in the OG.
Nope, that's the first one. But I've seen some other errors in other cables (like speaker ones) - kinda like they wouldn't always know what they're doing. Or for some reason it's on purpose? But why?
@@k4syx Hopefully not on the Dragon Zero! ;)
@@Mr_J_J that's still ahead of us - I have Source and High Current variants lined up but haven't opened them yet :)
I have purchased the $25.00 along with being a Engineer there is no advantage beyond higher gauge 14AWG -10AWG no gain can be had proper Noise Suppression is the best DC blockers for devices with a transformer RF/EMI for switch mode power.
not true, higher gauge sounds warmer
@@MasterofPlay7 my comments stated 10AWG which is larger after that is 8AWG but probably won't fit under the terminal I also do electrical
@@thinkIndependent2024 ive never seen something bigger than 12 gauge in commercial products
No offense is meant, honestly..!
However, you are proposing that a meter or so of magic cable located at the tail end of kilometers of distribution lines, line distribution equipment, in-wall wires, and then followed by EMI filters, rectifiers and very heavy filter capacitors (and even regulators in some instances), can make *any* audible differences?
This is assuming that its wire gauge is sufficient to handle the required current loads with negligeable voltage losses, of course.
I cannot believe that in truly double-blind A-B testing any differences would be heard from a cable such as you reviewed.
Such tests have in fact been performed on similar products and no one has ever detected statistically meaningful or repeatable differences.
However, offering the benefit of the doubt- If you (or anyone else) can truly hear such differences you really need to volunteer at a proper testing lab where they can verify your ability in scientifically based double-blind tests.
Now THAT would be extremely impressive (not to mention ground-breaking).
But thank you for an entertaining video. 🙂
No offense taken :) I know this is hotly debated topic. My test subject is my wife, she sometimes confirms what I'm hearing but she cannot discern very subtle changes (she doesn't listen to music as much as I do and she's not focusing on details). As for the last meter story my running theory is that good cable design works as a EMI/RFI filter. What's supporting this is that IF I will place real EMI filter before tested cable differences are scaling back. They're still there but not so obvious anymore. You know, on perfect world I would have a lab, equipment and time to check properly what's going on. I'm sure that AQ guys know what's up, it can't be coincidence that their cables make a quality ladder with steeper prices.
What is even more impressive is how many punters bought these cables from a scammer thinking they were the real deal and then could apparently hear major differences with their existing cables :D LOL
I use these audiophile cables on my welder. You should see the welds now!
@@michaelhope007 just imagine the things it would do to your vibrator! =)
The shielding must be connect to the earth on schuko side.
Yes that's the usual way most of these work. However, I'm not 100prc sure if that's the case when DBS is connected. I will check for that in both dragon fakes that I also got.
hi. why to do that?
@@petkokaratonev9233 The idea is to "sink" RFI or EMI inducted currents/charge away from the device, to the ground.
Yes please that would be very helpful. I still wonder why the DBS on my Dragon Source is connected on the load side. Hopefully the shield isn’t connected to the ground on the component side. I don’t have my multi-tester with me where I am at this year unfortunately.
@@k4syx aha! got it, thank you!
Around 9:00, there is a cut in the blue cable 🫡
Good eyes! Yes they had to do this damage when removing outer layer of insulation.
You're telling me that the last two (or three or four, I don't know how long your cable is) metres of cable makes a difference after how many kilometres from the power station along aluminium conductors? I'm having none of it.
How about you get a 5 K VA petrol powered generator and set it up outside of your listening room (don't want it inside, the exhaust would change the air density and therefore alter the speed of sound AND make you gag) then run your mega cable and see if it makes a difference?
Oh but wait, the sound of the generator would mess up the SN ratio. Or maybe you should get measuring/test equipment that can detect stuff that's not on the electromagnetic spectrum - best of luck with that.
Why would you even watch this video, go enjoy something else on RUclips that won’t trigger yourself :)
Happy Listening 🎶
Wow wow quite a long post referring to nothing I've said. You're imagining things I've never said and then finding absurd arguments to fight them. Looks funny from some distance :)
More seriously. My theory (theory!) is that these last few meters tend to catch the most of EMI and RFI interference. Why? Because this "mamy many kilometers" is in fact last 100-200m from the local trafo station and it's usually buried about 1m underground, and then it goes within concrete walls which are also nice shield. So this last 2m can make difference being either shielded well, or not at all.
Of course all of the above may not really apply to you, if you're living in such a remote area that you actually have no medium voltage power network, no local trafo for last mile lvn, but only kilometers and kilometers (and kilometers) of 220v cable, straight from the kettle wall plug in power plant, all of it laying on the ground or hanging from the trees.
Then you actually may try to look for some equipment measuring things from Ghostbusters ;)
Relax, take no offense and just cheer up and enjoy the music!
It's intended to look funny, I'm "taking the piss", (yes, I'm aware that sarcasm is the lowest form of wit but I was raised on it) and it refers to your cable and I'm very much interested in things measurable, if you do find something that supports your theory please post it.
Regarding shielding, a mains transformer is good at passing 50/60 Hz and works quite effectively as a filter at other frequencies. I've never seen noise on the AC of a transformer secondary though it must occasionally exist because there arel pops & clicks when reactive loads are turned om/off on the same mains circuit but a LC filter on the supply to the audio equipment will mitigate it. Also a well designed PSU will have small value film caps in parallel with the main smoothing caps that will further reduce noise.
@@stevesmyth4982 love good sarcasm :)
Yes, bypassing is good and cheap and almost no one is doing that in PSUs :(
I'd love to take these to the proper testing bench, but I no longer have easy access to good equipment. There are some serious measurements for speaker and interconnect cables and they differ in many measurable areas .
There's a big problem with power cables though. They are not used in audio path, so all of such measurements should be completely unrelated. I'm doing these reviews because I want to learn and understand what's going on. So far I can see two patterns: the more shielding layers, the better. Like in many layers of shielding. And the second one is that large amount of very thin strands OR small amount of thick solid cores seems to be better than something mid way. But that shouldn't matter - it's there, but I have no explanation that would convince me. Shielding is also not so obvious, because as you say transformer should block pretty much everything. But it seems that's not the case and something really gets through...
so they were wrongly connected: the other way around? This is so strange and 'Chinese' if it is so. to make such a complicated cable and than do this is feeding your theory. Remember? 🙂 Was there anything wrong at the speaker cables the expensive Dragon ones too? I have them for about half a year and only disconnected the 72 Volt last week: it sounded better without: I could hear it! perhaps also wrongly connected. And so very strange all!
Yes I prefer them with DBS disconnected. I'll check my new fake dragons for arrows direction inside the connectors, one of the viewers above commented that it is supposed to be like this but I doubt it. As for the details vs simple errors, this is factory vs hand made connector montage. You can go wrong when mounting plugs if you're not sure what you're doing.
My Dragon speaker cables had one of DBS connector wires shorted and braided with black "negative" speaker signal line. I've immediately removed that connection and the cable sounds way better
Errata! Arrows are actually ok, I've found Mistral AQ installation guide and it says that all AQ power cables have them pointing to the "wall" side of the cable. So it was ok after all!
@@k4syx Well make a post about this too! 🙂 It will be very interesting too for everybody. And admitting faults is only very strong remember. So thank you. and so yes I must open my dragons too to look for faults too. 😞
:-) and by the way: credits to you that I decided to take a risk too with the Dragons. 🙂 And I am not sorry.
@@onnonugteren2935 I will cover this in a full WEL cable review - this is important and interesting thing for everyone to know.
I cannot believe what I am hearing from you. I don't doubt you are an educated man, but when I hear you talking about BURNING IN a main cable, I have to wonder. Anyone that thinks this bull shit will make ANY difference to any audio product is fooling themselves. You cannot measure any difference, or possibly hear any difference. All ANY mains lead needs is low resistance and be adequately thick to handle the rated power load. With insulation thick enough to insulate the three conductors. NOTHING else matters. We all like to dream that adding this, or changing this will make it sound better. Nothing wrong with this dream, we all do it. But this is 100% bull shit! If you have this kind of money to throw away, fine, we are all free well, (most of us!) to do whatever makes us feel good. But please, you are being conned, it matters not that these are fakes! The real thing is just a bigger con. Test equipment is far more sensitive than ANYONES ear. If you cannot measure any difference, you cannot hear one.
Hi! Let me put it this way. I'm an engineer, and if I hear or see something that I cannot see and measurements - but I can experience this in a repeatable way - I'm not dismissing it as a bullshit, I rather begin to wonder if I there's something I'm not measuring. Something missing in my data. I am able to hear slight difference due to burn in, it's really really very slight, but since I can afford to wait for a while for the result I'm doing this.
In general theory also says that power cables do not affect the sound of the equipment in any way, regardless of their impedance, capacitance, inductance or resistance or whatever. Because they are not in signal path and they are just delivering current to the power supply.
But, knowing that, being electronic engineer with formal education and degree, I can clearly hear the difference the power cables make. It's repeatable, I can quantify and describe the difference that according to my knowledge shouldn't be there. So rather than dissmis this as BS I think that we're not measuring everything we should.
In a way, same goes for f.e. speakers: like what part of frequency response or impedance curve covers phenomena that we perceive as a soundstage? Unfortunately there's little money (on the grand scale of things) in audio equipment and thus little real scientific research going on... Imagine my shock and surprise when I've heard difference coming from different power cord for the first time. I've literally went to have my hearing checked and checked my whole audio chain for damage (my first power "audio" cable was some random brand that just looked fancy - that's why I got it - and it was really AWFUL sonically). Best regards!
Absolutely! It takes more specialized test gear than an Audio Precision and LRC measurements using a dummy load and test tones. The scientific method starts with observations, and only then are hypotheses tested. The more you know the more you don’t know. Already knowing everything is called dogma, and is the opposite of scientific discovery. Besides it’s fun to explore and test.
Do you feel that winding topology (braided, twisted, star) and shielding has no benefit?
@@Mr_J_J So far, I have to repeating patterns that seem to work: 1. A lot of shielding (2 layers preferably, aluminum foil and wire mesh) 2. A lot of small strands OR a small number of solid cores. That's what I see so far.
@@Mr_J_J I think I have said enough JJ. This is not my channel after all. I respect everyone's opinion. Some people think Gods are real, more people believe in fairy tales without proof or any logic. So why not believe in magic cables?
fake 🤣🤣 as opposed to real audioquest cables??