Price Paid:  $50.00 from Singapore

Summary:
Buy this interconnect after reading a HiFi magazine, which highly recommended it. At first I borrowed the Ruby from a friend, and it match my Marantz Cd players and Cyrus Amp. It soften the overall sound a bit which I like. Not really excellent but value for money at this price here. Great link

Strengths:
Full sounding, engaging power and drive. detail and warm sound.

Weaknesses:
not a good all-round music cable. Might not match some systems

Similar Products Used:
Straightwire, Cabletalk, Chord Co, Ixos 102 master, Nordost,Soniclink, AQ quart, QED.

Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:
I bought the Audioquests after comparing them to the cheap OEM cable which came with my CD player. I heard them in my dealer and bought them on the spot. I was very happy with them for many years until I bought some shop soiled Cable Talk i/c's for my home cinema kit and decided to trial them in comparison. I originally thought the Audioquest would maul the Cable Talk but was stunned on the differance. The Cable Talk were much clearer throughout the frequence range, was faster, gave tighter bass and more energy. However, they reduced the fullness of bass considerably. I am not sure if the Audioquests just deteriorated over time or that the Cable Talks are just much better but the Ruby's now are used for the subwoofer link beteen by DVD and AV amp.

Strengths:
Well made, strong. Full bass.

Weaknesses:
Phono plugs a little tight. Hard to flex. Cloudy and muddy sound. Loose bass.

Similar Products Used:
Cable Talk Advanced 2, Cable Talk Monitor

Summary:
A better sounding cable than some other's in it's price range. Good amount of detail retrieval, and well-balanced overall. The Ruby's are one of the better cable values in hi-fi.

Similar Products Used:
•Too many to list.

Price Paid:  $59.00 from hcm audio

Summary:
I bought these Rubies to upgrade a pair of Topaz in portable headphone system consisting of a TEAC 300, heavily damped with sorbethane, and Koss E90 electrostatics. The contacts are treated with Pro-gold. While I have used a large number of Monster Cable 950's in various locations, I found I preferred the Topaz sound in this particular set-up, partularly of their dynamics in the mid-range frequencies. I had hoped that the Rubies would give more detail and can say that indeed they do. After about 50 hours of break-in, the sound is similar to the Topaz, with more detail and more dynamics. While I still prefer the 950's in other locations, this particular set-up just seems to sound best with the Audioquest products. Even though the Koss system is much cheaper and generally seems inferior to several Stax systems I have used over the years, I find that I like this particular set-up now quite a lot. Maybe your ears just need a change now and then. The 950's sound somewhat mushy and bland in this set-up, whereas in three Stax set-ups they sound well-balanced, and poised.
This experience again shows that you can change the sound of a system sigificantly with accessories and that it is hard to predict how any two components or accessories will
sound until you try them out.

Strengths:
good detail, midrange dynamics

Weaknesses:
stiff, like other audioquest cables

Similar Products Used:
Monster Cable 850, 950, Topaz, XLO

Summary:
I love this cable. Just right for the Marantz Monoblocks running my system. They are very detailed although do not use them on harsh or cheap electronics! The build is great, they should last a lifetime.

Strengths:
Build Quality, Detail

Weaknesses:
Somewhat trebly

Similar Products Used:
Kimber, Monster