May 27, 2014

  • AudioQuest F-14, Part 4

    There's something undeniably cool about these late-80s/early-90s landline phones.
    Sony Phone
    Whether I was at home or away in college, landline phones could take up desk space. Thus, it was more convenient to mount the phone on a wall. The big buttons are a plus. So is the headset which actually spans the distance from your ear to mouth. Heck, this old phone doesn't have a provision for Caller ID. But it does evoke romantic memories of the early-90s. Back then, we didn't have the internet. We had to rely on printed media and snail mail. We actually had to pick up the phone, and make dozens of calls.

    I've stated many times that, because the AudioQuest F-14 spanned my college years, it was a link, a bridge. It marked my transition from mass market to high-end audio. When I originally bought some F-14 in April 1990, I was a college freshman, living with a roommate in the dorms. Calls home were expensive. I bided my time by reading up on audio. Girls were actually a possibility. The F-14 was my speaker cable during my glorious senior year. It faithfully provided the music, while I became an adult.
    IMG_0796
    Well, that was then. Now that my 20+ year-old F-14 has been Cooked, let's give it some regular playing time, see if anything has changed. My Simaudio 600i and Totem Element Ember both sport WBT binding posts. These binding posts have shafts with holes in them. Conveniently, you can thread bare wire (such as the leads of the F-14) through these holes.
    IMG_0795
    Alas, the Totems are bi-wire models, so I still need to use a jumper. Yeah, yeah, I could have cut short pieces of F-14, and crafted my own bi-wire jumper.

    Anyone who has used the audiodharma Cable Cooker will not be surprised at its results on the (over two decades old!) AQ F-14. The first thing I notice is a reduction in grain, fizzies, and raspiness, and scratchy hardness. The music comes through more cleanly. The skimpy F-14 cannot do power and bass. Yet, after being Cooked, the F-14 isn't as "pinched" in the midrange. The images are a little less 2-D. The transients aren't as brittle, jittery, and uptight; the music has better movement and flow. The upper bass is brought up a notch, and exhibits smoother flow and pace.

    Back in the early-90s, the AQ F-14 was, at 79 cents a foot, a bargain. But now that it has been Cooked, it performs at an even easier-on-the-ear level. Too bad the Cable Cooker didn't exist all those decades ago, when I was in college. It would have made the already very good AQ F-14 even more kick-ass.