Icons of Audio: Bill Low of AudioQuest
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- Опубліковано 30 чер 2024
- This is the first in a series of interviews with icons of the audio world. Here, Ken Micallef interviews AudioQuest founder Bill Low. Check out AudioQuest's website at bit.ly/3zljnOr for more information.
0:00 - Intro
1:00 - Emotional transportation
1:43 - Narrow down the variables
5:50 - It's the little things
6:18 - Speaker crossovers
7:32 - On Richard Vandersteen. speaker designer
7:49 - On Garth Powell, Senior Director of Engineering at AudioQuest
8:50 - Emotional vs. analytical listening
10:42 - The process of evaluation
13:00 - Humans are phase-sensitive instruments
16:00 - Back to speakers, phase and crossovers
18:00 - Bill's take on how the brain parses sound in the first 50 milliseconds
19:38 - The effect of going from a first-order to a fourth-order speaker
21:33 - Greenwood Sound: 1975 and Bill's history as a Linn dealer
23:35 - What inspired Bill to make better cables
25:12 - At the time, music was changing so fast... it was an incredible evolution
26:33 - Enter the Walkman and personal audio
27:14 - Back to Bill's early customers and cables
28:13 - The misapplication of knowledge is a very big bugaboo in audio
29:27 - 1976, Chicago, CES... Polk introduces Cobra braided Litz cable
30:22 - A wakeup call to the industry
31:20 - Fulton cable
32:24 - Bill's time as a manufacturer's rep
36:05 - The value of benchmarking
38:25 - Why Litz cable exists
40:30 - The "original recipe" 12-gauge twisted-pair Litz speaker cable
42:15 - The story of AudioQuest
44:02 - Bill has an epiphany
46:40 - Cold calling and selling cable out of the trunk of a car
47:30 - Executive/Encore Audio and the origin of the AudioQuest logo
48:10 - At first, Bill was the labor force
49:40 - What was in Bill's stereo system at the time
53:15 - Music for evaluating cables, then and now
55:44 - Vocals and comparing amplifiers
58:03 - The biggest challenge in audio is not exaggerating distortion in lesser recordings
1:01:00 - "Damped" recordings and its effect on high-end sound
1:02:58 - AudioQuest music recordings
1:06:50 - "If I hadn't recorded jazz, we could have avoided losing money"
1:07:56 - Mighty Sam McClain
1:10:42 - The role of studio monitors
1:11:26 - Why people used Yamaha NS10s as monitors
1:12:34 - The differences between the Folk Hero and Mythical Creatures speaker cables
1:14:35 - The naysayers and skin effect
1:17:00 - Cables and phase
1:19:15 - The subjective rollercoaster and the funhouse effect
1:22:16 - The tyranny of the machine
1:23:17 - ABX testing is the audiophile enemy because of how it is used
1:23:55 - The sunglasses analogy
1:32:13 - That which does not change, our brain suppresses
1:33:52 - Listening to music in bed
1:38:31 - Digital streaming vs. vinyl records
1:41:07 - One the "gifts" of car audio, hands and eyes is how we define value
1:41:46 - What Bill says to cable naysayers
This video is sponsored by Fidelity Imports: fidelityimports.com/
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Really nice to hear his history and insight
Great! Mr. Low has very precisely formulated several thoughts that have been running through my mind for some time. Reflection on AB tests, the way we perceive music, that we are not really an oscilloscope and that changes in the time domain can be considered problems in the frequency energy domain and many others. Despite the energy and enthusiasm that Mr. Low has. That's two hours well spent.
Thanks for sharing!
Bill Low is quite knowledgeable and inspiring. Thank you for this interview.
Next do Ray Kimber, always love to hear his talks about cable design, plus I always feel that we don't hear enough from him you know what I mean
Seems like a very erudite & thoughtful chap.
Thought this was great. I did not mind the length at all. Wish he would have answered the question about what the he believes the differences are between the different product lines and levels a little more fully. But he answered how he answered, and generally it was really interesting. Thanks!
Bill Low here:
I believe you are referring to Ken's question about the AQ Folk Heroes and Mythical Creatures -- in which case I said the fundamental truth, which is simply "price vs. ability to disappear and reveal." But there are important details --- The nuance that makes those models somewhat more complicated than my quip acknowledges is exemplified by the SILVER models of Robin Hood and William Tell. Is it a simple price hierarchy, or is ThunderBird sometimes a superior cable for less money than the SLIVER Folk Heroes?
As made visible in my reply below to a question about my systems, I use RH Silver and WT Silver in 2 of my systems -- because they are smaller cables (ergonomics of a desk system), in a context in which damping factor is of minimum importance, and the lengths (cumulative impedance) are short. I use the Silver versions of those cables because they are more transparent.
However, if was driving speakers that were much more dependent on the amp to control them, and/or significantly less efficient, I would use the less expensive ThunderBird because its big-block V8 torque would be more important than the top 2 octaves finesse advantage of the Silver Folk Heroes.
In comparison, Richard Vandersteen offers William Tell SILVER with his Model Seven XTRM speakers and M7-HPA amplifiers combination because the mono amps are meant to be used right next to the speakers with short speaker cables. Length in a speaker cable reduces performance (though much less with ZERO-tech models) and raises the price. Considering only the amount of metal and cable impedance, a 4 ft William Tell has lower impedance than an 8 ft ThunderBird -- so with mono amps next to the speakers, the Silver Folk Heroes might cost less than a longer ThunderBird, give up nothing in impedance, and offer the highest most-cost-effective performance.
Another variable in the matrix of Folk Hero and Mythical Creature speaker cables is BiWiring. For roughly the same money, is it better to single wire with ThunderBird ZERO, or BiWire with William Tell ZERO? For almost all BiWireable speakers, the William Tell COMBO will be better in every way, including bass slam, despite the higher impedance -- because significantly reducing current-modulation in the treble cable (taking the bass waves out of the water where the treble is trying to swim), is so very cost-effective.
And that's without considering the very big benefit of the Folk Hero and Mythical Creature BASS cables including a cancelation "circuit" that pulls RF off the output of the amplifier -- a relevant/significant benefit for transformer-coupled amplifiers, and a very important benefit for solid state amplifiers. This circuit can't be included in full-range cables because the filter/noise-trap is too effective about 10kHz, really screwing up the tweeter signal.
It's also valid to use only a full-range ThunderBird in order to be able to add the ThunderBird BASS cable later. Even if the BASS cable is only added years later or never, it won't have been a mistake -- nothing that good is a mistake :-)
Does that answer your question?
I hope this actually becomes a series and doesn't just fall by the wayside like everything else Stereophile tries to get going.
Thank you for your enthusiasm! We're committed to making this series a lasting success
Does Bill Low moonlight as a hypnotist?
That voice........you are very relaxed, your feeling sleepy, your eyes are getting heavy......
When I snap my fingers, you will wake up and love the music......... :)
really informative, in-depth interview. thanks
Glad you enjoyed it!
I'd be interested to know what's in his current home audio system.
There are several systems, we can ask Bill for details. Check back in a few days...
Bill Low here:
Even though revealing my systems won't make everyone happy, and will seem wasteful and way too-much to others -- I can't resist. After all, I have a serious lifetime case of the healthy version (don't we all claim that?) of having been bitten by the audiophile bug at age 12, 60 years ago.
The systems listed below are all subject to revision/curation over time, though some of the best gear is 10+ years old.
The 3 music systems, one of which is indulged in every day, are the bedroom systems where the bed is the "hot-seat" for listening while awake, and while going to sleep. All 3 systems are 100% equally effective, enthralling and engaging -- the 3rd system proves that context and relationship to the music is everything.
- NYC: AQ Niagara 7000, Aurender N20, Aesthetix Romulus CD/DAC w/variable-out, Riviera Labs AFM25 mono amps, Rockport Avior II speakers, AQ Dragon cables.
- California: AQ Niagara 7000, Aurender N30, Aesthetix Romulus CD/DAC w/variable-out, Riviera Labs AFM25 mono amps, DeVore Fidelity Gibbon X speakers, AQ Dragon cables.
- When traveling: Bose Flex (Bluetooth-only) and an iPhone. Placing the Flex generally out of line of sight, usually on the floor, maximizing its fill-the-room capability while minimizing room nodes (generally a 2 or 3 position experiment taking 90 seconds).
- NYC home theater: AQ Niagara 5000, 77" Sony OLED, Aesthetix Mimas integrated amp with DAC card, Wilson TuneTots. Dragon cables and Vodka Toslink from the TV
- California living room, home theater 80%, music-only 20%: AQ Niagara 7000, Sony 83" OLED, Acoustic Signature Ascona Neo turntable, 6000 arm, Lyra Atlas Lambda, PS Audio Stellar phono, dCS Vivaldi One Apex, Riviera Labs APL01SE preamp and AFM50 mono amps, Rockport Cygnus speakers, Dragon cables and Vodka Toslink from the TV.
- NYC desk Zoom and UA-cam: AQ Niagara 1200, Auralic Vega 2.1, PS Audio Stellar S300 amp, Devore Fidelity Micr/O speakers, Diamond USB, Dragon interconnect, Robin Hood Silver speaker cable.
- California desk Zoom and UA-cam: AQ Niagara 5000, Aesthetix Mimas integrated amp with DAC card, Devore Fidelity Micr/O speakers, Diamond USB, William Tell Silver speaker cable.
I can't state strongly enough that the Bose Flex really is that important to me -- and how very much more tolerable days full of Zoom calls are with quality electronics driving the extremely natural DeVore speakers.
Ace!
WooWoo
ugh, what a slog. 2 hours is a bit long. You should have cut this down to just the most pertinent bits.
Consider watching it in bite-sized chunks instead. We created chapters, so that you can jump to any particular topic and catch a couple minutes of it instead of watching the whole thing.