ThunderBird, FireBird, and Dragon are AudioQuest’s best-sounding, most sonically invisible interconnects yet — category-defining products that establish new benchmarks of transparency and musical pleasure, bringing us significantly closer than ever to our sonic ideal of completely invisible cable.
AudioQuest’s 42-year history of designing and refining analog interconnects has been a long, steady climb up a mountain, the summit of which can never be reached … but with each step, we have arrived at cleaner, clearer, more naturally detailed and beautiful sound. For the most part, improvements in performance have been incremental — small steps, always in the right direction — but, just a few times along our 42-year path, new materials and/or technologies have brought so much improvement that it’s as though we took a chairlift to at least the next base station.
Mythical Creature Interconnects are that important.
ZERO-Tech: Unprecedented RF Noise-Dissipation
Most of the credit for passing so much more information than AudioQuest’s previous generation of state-of-the-art cables — and even more importantly, so much less misinformation (energy in the wrong place and time) — goes to ZERO-Tech (No Characteristic-Impedance) dramatically improving RF Noise-Dissipation. This enables more of the nuance that makes music so engaging, moving, and human: more fully realized tonal expression with more newly un-masked low-level detail revealed than ever before, more relaxing and stimulating at the same time, more palpable and engaging than previously possible.
For over 40 years, AudioQuest’s interconnects have been Double- or Triple-Balanced to prevent the shield from being used as an inferior ground-reference conductor. The Mythical Creature Interconnects make the multiple discrete signal and ground-reference paths externally visible for the first time — but that is not new technology. It is because the more complicated and optimized implementation of ZERO-Tech would have made the cables stiff and unfriendly if all hidden in a single round jacket. The extra effort of creating multiple constructions results in some of the most flexible interconnects AudioQuest has ever made.
The cool-looking Dual-72v DBS packs on the XLR models had to be created to maintain complete isolation between the inverting and non-inverting positive signal conductors of a balanced construction. This is but one external hint as to the very novel internal construction of these cables.
Carbon/Graphene/Carbon Mesh-Network
Detrimental Radio-Frequency (RF) Noise is more present in today’s environment than ever before. The Mythical Creature Interconnects apply more sophisticated Noise-Dissipation technologies than ever before. In addition to AQ’s foundational direction-controlled, Perfect-Surface conductors, Mythical Creatures Interconnects also employ a carbon & graphene resistive mesh-network, 72v DBS, and thickly Silver-Plated shield-drains (Dragon’s drains are 100% PSS-Silver, same as its signal conductors), greatly minimizing RF Noise getting into active circuits and causing masking effects.
Tried-and-True Design Elements
Of course, AQ’s tried-and-true material and design elements — solid conductors, superior metals and dielectric materials, directionality — provide the foundation upon which the Mythical Creatures are built.
AudioQuest Founder, William E. Low, says:
“For decades, I have declared that all cable is “bad” — that all cable hurts the sound, and that the definition of a better cable is one that does less damage.
For decades, I have described the evolution of AudioQuest cables as climbing up a mountain — a mountain whose summit might never be reached. From 1980 onwards, AQ cable evolution has been one continuous climb as our cables became ever more sonically invisible, made possible by an ever-expanding palette or tool kit.
The new Mythical Creature interconnects apply the very best of every ingredient and technique we’ve developed over 42 years. Plus, they employ ZERO-Tech, which reduces dielectric-involvement and improves Noise-Dissipation to unprecedented effect. They feature far superior RF drains, Graphene inside the Carbon Mesh-Network, copper and silver-plated RF-draining plug barrels, and other significant topology refinements.
We might never reach the mountain’s summit — perfect cable might never be possible — but we are very proud to be significantly closer than ever before.”
As always, we invite you to listen for yourself, and we thank you for joining us on the journey.
AudioQuest Mythical Creature RCA/XLR InterconnectsZERO-Tech reduces dielectric-involvement and dramatically improves RF Noise-Dissipation.
- Solid Perfect-Surface PSC+ or PSS silver conductors prevent inter-strand distortion, minimize distortion caused by grain boundaries, and maximize RF Noise-Dissipation.
- Solid Silver-Plated or PSS (Perfect-Surface Silver) shield-drains.
- FEP Air-Tubes minimize information-dissipating dielectric-involvement.
- 72v Dielectric-Bias System polarizes the FEP Air-Tubes, further minimizing dielectric noise, and providing linear, wide-bandwidth noise dissipation. Dual-DBS packs for XLR models.
- Carbon/Graphene Mesh-Network reduces RF Noise masking effects to unprecedented degree.
- Hanging-Silver over Red-Copper Plugs ensure uncompromised signal transfer.
- Copper- (ThunderBird) and Silver-Plated (FireBird, Dragon) RF-Draining Barrels maximize Noise-Dissipation by preventing a metal barrel from capacitively coupling RF to the conductors.
US Retail
- ThunderBird: $2,900/1m (RCA); $3,900/1m (XLR)
- FireBird: $5,500/1m (RCA); $6,900/1m (XLR)
- Dragon: $9,500/1m (RCA); $11,900/1m (XLR)
