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Audioquest LeoPard Tonearm Cable with 72V DBS
Solid PSS silver conductors in Teflon Air-Tubes.
Right angled metal 5 pin JIS plug to 2 x RCA plugs + ground.
Solid PSS Silver:
Perfect-Surface Technology applied to extreme-purity silver provides unprecedented clarity and dynamic contrast.
Dielectric-Bias System (DBS, patent pending):
When insulation is un-biased, its dielectric properties cause different amounts of time-delay for each frequency and each signal level.
Similar to how the earth?s magnetic field makes all compasses point north, the AQ DBS system creates an electrostatic field which causes the molecules of the insulation to all point the same direction. This minimizes the multiple nonlinear time-delays. Sound appears from a surprisingly black background with unexpected detail and dynamic contrast.
The batteries in DBS packs will last for years. A test button and LED allow for the occasional battery check.
Teflon Air-Tubes:
Air is a nearly perfect dielectric. Once DBS is attached (for 2 weeks), the normal weakness/harshness of un-biased Teflon is eliminated.
Welded Plugs:
8,000 amps welds Direct-Silver plated RCA plugs, creating a perfect-connection alloy between cable and plug. XLR plugs are also available.
Audioquest LeoPard Tonearm Cable with 36V DBS Review 10 Audio
I wanted to see what effect the DBS bias system has on the sound, so let?s pull the plug on that battery and see what happens. ((Sounds of groaning as reviewer leans far over turntable and unplugs wire.)) What? I don?t really believe this! The DBS battery is only connected on one end, with no electron flow through the cable from the battery. Nevertheless and regardless, the difference when the battery was disconnected is large and instantly noticeable on this phono cable. Every audible quality degraded significantly. It was as if the LeoPard transformed from a strong and able predator to a weak and struggling scavenger. Sonically, the cable went from high-end component stereo to a mid-fi rack system. Rough, grainy, flat soundstage, etc. Enough of that! The DBS system is very effective in this application.
The Audioquest LeoPard phono cable with DBS is a true high-end audio product. In other words, it is capable of excellent performance but not everyone will agree on its sound quality. That is fine. This would be a boring hobby if there was only one way to get good sound from a vinyl pancake! LeoPard cable costs about 70% as much as IC-70, but offers 85% of the latter?s reference-quality performance.
Overall Rating: 8.5 LPs
click picture to enlarge
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