AudioQuest Type 4 Speaker Cable No Frills

Stereophile Magazine "Recommended Component"

Forget the Fancy Box and Save a Lot

AudioQuest Type 4 is one of the most successful speaker cables in in AudioQuest's 30-plus year history. Its roots go all the way back to the late 1980s. The fundamental geometry and conductor complement of Type 4 hasn't changed since 1995, because any change to the size or position of the Spread-Spectrum conductor arrangement would reduce performance.

Excellent-value AudioQuest Type 4 gets the "Recommended Component" nod from Stereophile. Other reviewers are crazy about it, too. "If you've gotten the impression that I liked AudioQuest's Type 4 speaker cable, you're quite correct," writes Greg Smith in SoundStage. "I haven't heard anything less expensive than this that is as well balanced and appropriate for such a wide range of systems."

"This is an excellent cable," marvels Britain's Home Entertainment magazine in issue 64. "Type 4 has a fuller and more vibrant palate of tonal colours and textures than most. The treble is detailed, and instruments and voices are well separated, yet the treble is also well controlled, lacking the forward quality and assertiveness of some."

And you save a bundle buying Audio Advisor's 'No Frills Packaging' version of Type 4! See below for details…

Solid Long-Grain Copper (LGC) Conductors

Type 4's solid Long-Grain Copper allows a smoother and clearer sound than cables using typical OFHC (Oxygen-Free High-Conductivity) copper. OFHC is a general metal industry specification regarding 'loss' without any concern for distortion. LGC has fewer oxides within the conducting material, less impurities, less grain boundaries, and definitively better performance.

All four of Type 4's conductors are solid. Electrical and magnetic interaction between strands in a conventional cable is the single greatest source of distortion, often causing a somewhat harsh, dirty and confused sound. Solid conductors are the most important ingredients enabling Type 4's very clear sound. Whether a conductor is solid or stranded, skin-effect is a prime distortion mechanism in speaker cables. Type 4 very simply keeps this effect out of the audio range by using conductor sizes that are below the threshold for audible distortion.

Carbon-Based Noise-Dissipation and Cross-Talk-Dissipation Systems (Insulation)

The two negative conductors in Type 4 are insulated with partially conductive Carbon-Loaded Polyethylene. This remarkable material damps radio-frequency interference from being fed back into the amplifier. The sonic benefit is exactly the same reduction in 'hash' and better dimensionality that comes whenever RF interference is reduced in an audio circuit. Type 4 uses Nitrogen-Injected Foamed-Polyethylene Insulation on its positive conductors because air absorbs next to no energy, and Polyethylene is low-loss and has a benign distortion profile. Thanks to all the air in Foamed-PE, it causes much less of the out-of-focus effect common to other materials.

Star-Quad Geometry

The relationship between conductors defines a cable's most basic electrical values (capacitance and inductance). However, even when those variables are kept in a reasonable balance, the relationship between conductors can be varied in ways that greatly affect the sound. The Star-Quad construction of Type 4 allows for significantly better dynamic contrast and information intelligibility than if the same conductors were run in parallel.

Spread-Spectrum Technology (SST)

Any single size or shape of conductor has a specific distortion profile. Even though radially symmetrical conductors (solid or tubular) have the fewest discontinuities, any conductor of a particular size does have a sonic signature. SST is a method for significantly reducing the awareness of these character flaws by using a precise combination of different size conductors. The different SST-determined conductor sizes used in Type 4 allow an exceptionally clear, clean and dynamic sound.

Get More and Pay Far Less with 'No Frills Packaging'

Audio Advisor goes the extra mile terminating Type 4 speaker cable. Our factory-trained 30-year veteran technician hand-terminates each and every Type 4 cable using the highest-purity WBT Silver Solder.

Both the banana and spade termination are made of high quality copper with a gold plating. The bananas are a BFA-type with expanding contact area. The barrel on the bananas is chromium-plated. The spades are a 'double-notched' type, which will fit either 1/4" or 5/16" binding posts with ease.

The cables are then color coded with the highest-grade heat shrink to ensure proper installation.

After we hand-terminate the cables, we wrap them in protective plastic. You don't get a fancy box, but you save a lot of money with our 'No Frills' Packaging.'

• Solid Long-Grain Copper (LGC) Conductors
• 2 x 15 AWG (2 x 20 AWG + 2 x 17 AWG)
• Carbon-Based Noise-Dissipation and Cross-Talk-Dissipation Systems (Insulation)
• Star-Quad Geometry
• Spread-Spectrum Technology (SST)
• 'No Frills' packaging
• Termination: Gold-plated BFA-type banana with expanding contact area and chromium-plated barrel; or gold-plated 'double-notched' spade, which will fit either 1/4" or 5/16" binding posts
• Cables are color coded with the highest-grade heat shrink

Stereophile's "Recommended Components" for 1997 calls AQ Type 4 "the best cheap speaker cable on the market" and recommends "try this stuff before laying down long green for more expensive cables."