[mwilson]

OK boys and gals, let's hear your love of all things Q. Either the search malfunctioned, or there wasn't a Q thread, so I figured let's get one going.
 
I started off with a headphone cable last year, and it's been consistently downhill for me. An interconnect, then another, some speaker cables, and soon enough I find a braided litz overload in my house. I must say, their cables hearken to (in my opinion) the golden age of high fidelity - cotton jacketed litz, just a pleasure to look at. Sound-wise, it's been the cable of choice for my LCD phones; I preferred it over the ALO copper/silver as that one seemed a bit too bright for these ears.
 
Who else think Q is great?

 

[sridhar3]

Quote:

Who else think Q is great?

 
*crickets*
 
I heard Steve Eddy lives in an old shoe.

 

[Steve Eddy]

Old?
 
No no. "Vintage."
 
A NOS Oxford wingtip from 1952.
 
Left.
 
se

 

[skyblue]

I have been long waited for a Q cable thread in the forum ;
naturally I am using both its headphone cables and its XLR interconnect since over a couple of months.
 
First off the XLR signal cables : if you guys read about the late Mr. Allen Wright advocation about "thin - thinest" wire that would travel signal to the end of the world, I would say the Q equals this theory.  Q's individual wires are TINY, it twist /braid together that are scientific to sound or not I don't care, to me it sounds excellent !!!  
 
How to say ?!  People look for 'stun' performance better look elsewhere.
With a good quality system setup, the Q simply gives me what I am after for a long time ...
 
a)  stable & explicit WIDE dynamic RANGE from the softest note to the cresendo without congestion ;   strong passages and soft as feather notes are all happening together. 
b)  all music notes ( various sections )   are happening ( playing ) ALL at the same time, no masking effect. Musician are NOT playing IN TURN but they all play together ... the soft instrument phasing can easily be followed under the big tune.
c)  point source : if people like the drum like 'something sound like a hifi drum size' SORRY not the Q !!  a drum is a drum a percussive hit in the middle and then diffuse & expand to the whole spectrum.  The voice is not double person thickness, the Q simply pinpoint excited but at the very same time widely expanded.  Difficult to describe but that is what I'm telling !!
 
I am going to make a HD800 adapter to use with Q headphone cable.  Actually I can just solder it onto the HD800 driver pins but, too cumbersome, and some sort of glue to secure the Q have to be used in this way. I am having a male 4-pin tiny-XLR for this purpose ...
 
the Q is NOT A CABLE to remedy the system fault, BUT THSI IS A 'NO SPECIAL EFFECT' CABLE.  Simple sounding , no enhancement , and its shortage, I'm sure there is in absolute terms, are comparble to the real thing !        

 

[sridhar3]

Quote:
 
Well, at least *somebody* appreciates your cable, Steve.  I can't speak for the rest of us, though.

 

[MLee]

Steve is a very customer oriented businessman that sells a very, very nice product. A select market, one that he can concentrate on making the best product for, no more, and settles for nothing less. What else can you ask for? I'll let others describe his product in more detail (And better!) than I can.

 

[Jian]

Q is the really great, one of the best sounding cables I ever heard, and by far the lightest and softest.

 

[skyblue]

HD800 adaptor to 4-pin Tiny XLR is finished today. A brief listen on HD800 with the Q, will post pic tomorrow.

 

[Jompa]

I also have it. I was actually bit skeptic of buying a cable and of the improvements people said it had in sound quality, but i was glad they was right. I hear improvements already after using it a few minutes. 
 
I hear music instruments better and improved bass + i hear things more clearly.
Definitely a good purchase and worth 280 American dollars. I was glad to get rid of the stock cable.

 

[MacedonianHero]

I just picked up a used Q Cable for a great price from a great seller. Should be here next week. Interesting to compare it to my ALO Chainmail (8 wire). I love the sound of the ALO cable (even compared to my now sold Silver Dragon), but being ergonomic is not its strongest point. I've heard the Q cable before and liked it. I shall report back after I get it and perform some A-B comparisons.

 

[Tresmont]

All,

I meant to post this earlier, but have been distracted (damn this whole work thing!!). First off, I am truly a fan of Q cables. I bought my LCD-2 rev1 about a year ago and loved them from the beginning. I just didn't know that they could sound so much better with better cables. I've been a skeptic of cables in the past, but became a believer. Not only do the Q cables open up the sound (there's a greater amount of nuanced detail the stock cables gloss over), but from a purely aesthetic view, the rediculously light cotton cable is just something I enjoy looking at.

I'll let those that are more poetic or articulate in audiophile better describe the beauty and joy I attain in my 'system', but I have to proclaim my appreciation for Steve's attention to detail and exemplary customer service. I thought I had a short in one of the cables, so I shot a quick email to Steve that was promptly replied to; as in within an hour or so. The problem was trouble shot from afar to no avail. I was encouraged to send the cables back to Steve for assessment, and within a week, the cables had been checked for error (none to be found), re-terminated (what I thought was the source of error), and returned to me overnight at little expense to me...

I listen to a beautiful presentation of sound that is enhanced in no small part by Q cables this evening. I thank Steve for his attention to detail and, in a world suffering from a lack of interest in detail and service, for his immediate attention and resolution to my concerns. I cannot recommend Q cables strongly enough!

Steve, if you're listening, thank you. Also, have you considered cables for JH Audio IEM's? I'm running silver dragons that are (like Q) a huge improvement over stock, but I'd love the sound and aesthetic (not to be undersold in any way!) of Q's. Just a thought.

 

[Steve Eddy]

Hello, Tresmont.
 
Thank you for the very kind words. And you're quite welcome.
 
As for IEM cables, I'm afraid I'd looked into that and ultimately decided to leave those for others to do. Sorry.
 
se

 

[sridhar3]

Quote:

 
As for IEM cables, I'm afraid I'd looked into that and ultimately decided to leave those for others to do. Sorry.

 
Yeah, the cables and connectors would be too small for him to handle with his big fat meathook fingers.  I hear he can't even dial a phone anymore:
 

 

[mwilson]

It would be very nice to have steampunky Qs for IEMs, I agree. 
 
But the real challenge for Steve, what with the advent of wireless communications (such as bluetooth audio, or wifi streaming), would be to create an aftermarket transmission medium. Convenient pressurized cisterns with only the purest air, utterly deionized, to be dispersed within the confines of one's home to ensure lag-free, jitter-free, error-free packet delivery. This way, nothing will stand in the way of pure electromagnetic radiation. In fact, physicists will scratch their balding heads at the shattering of the uncertainty principle - no placebo effect ever would be able to explain how all of the sudden both the momentum AND position of the matter wave can be measured with utmost precision.

 

[sridhar3]

Quote:

In fact, physicists will scratch their balding heads at the shattering of the uncertainty principle - no placebo effect ever would be able to explain how all of the sudden both the momentum AND position of the matter wave can be measured with utmost precision.

 
We can simultaneously measure the momentum and position of Steve's fat ass driving to Starbucks to spend way too much money on coffee made by hipsters using burned beans.