Price Paid:  $40.00

Summary:
I purchased one pair of 12inch Topaz for $60 taxes in from Creative Audio. Terminated with puresonic gold RCAs which fit quite snug into the terminals of both source and end. My first thoughts were that they are well constructed: the cable itself is sturdy and rigid and the terminations were solid.
After connecting, my first impression was not to good. It was not much better than the very thin interconnector supplied with my CD player. The dealer had suggested a run-in period, so I waited for a while to pass judgement. After several days of lengthy play time the Topaz started to open up. There seemed to be an urgent sense of clarity that came about the speakers. Everything was now quite detailed. Background sounds of the music were distinct, vocals were just beautiful, and the bass was pronounced yet very articulated. This was a definite improvement.
This cable does make bad recordings sound very bad. A couple of cds from my collection are poor ones from the early days. Although the tracks are some of my favourites, I can barely tolerate the sound. Even some napster recordings don't make the cut.
I think that this is a good choice for some budget or mid-fi systems. If the back of your equipment is tight for space, you may have some trouble, as I did. This is easily overlooked. Topaz in my system used:

between NAD C350 and Yamaha CDC775
to Paradigm Monitor 7 via Goertz HT 5ft biwired

Value is a full 5. $60CDN made a marked improvement to my lisetening experience. Overall, 4.5 since my experience with high grade interconnects is limited, but I am very happy with this purchase.

Strengths:
well constructed, detailed sound

Weaknesses:
not too pliable

Similar Products Used:
manufacturer supplied stuff

Summary:
I am using a Lexicon MC-1 with a B&K 7250 Amp,
and B&W 804 speakers.

The sound of this system is great, but I was always a
little frustrated at the dynamics during HT listening,
it just seemed a little compressed and lifeless compared to my old Yamaha receiver. Something just didn't seem right.
The guy at the home theater shop suggested I try different interconnects. At first I was very, very skeptical.
But upon trying the copper interconnects from Analysis-Plus,
the dynamics that I was longing for was finally there!
I could hear more detail in the treble, but at the same time, there was more punch in the lower bass.
I also tried the Silver Audio Hyacinth and also noticed more detail in the treble, but not as much lower bass extension.

All in all, I think the Audioquest Topaz is fine for music, but I would not recommend it for HT.

Summary:
AudioQuest Topaz is a very dull cable - should be called Grey (Boulder) cable. I have no clue why Stereophile Magazine likes it. Yes, it is very neutral ... in the sense ``dull/flat.'' However, it can be very good as a center channel or subwoofer interconnect cable.

Strengths:
bass control

Weaknesses:
dull

Similar Products Used:
QEG qnect2

Summary:
I really can't tell the difference between this model and jade (the cheaper one). But anyway this cable is more than ok compared to any cheap standard RCA (Since I haven't auditioned 300 buck cable in my house ::)))

Strengths:
quality

Weaknesses:
stiff cables, very tight RCA plugs

Summary:
I recently got a pair of .5 M cables as demos from HCM Audio for use between a Teac PDH 300 CD player and Koss 950 electrostatic headphones. The results were quite good. I also used tried the 950i's and while the sound was slightly clearer, it lacked bass, midrange and dynamics. I then tried the Topaz where the 950i's had been, between a CEC 5100Z CD player and Stax SRM-3 headphone amplifier, with Lambda SR404s, and found that the 950i's worked better in that set-up.
From this I conclude that you have to see if things like cables work in your particular application and that the 30-day return policy of most mail-order and internet dealers is a good thing if your new purchase is no obvious improvement over what you were using before.
Also, I am sure that many reviewer's may be unable to tell the difference between cables either because the cable fails to make any difference in that application or because their system is incapable of registering much improvement. Headphone listening is generally more critical than loudspeakers. The eloctrostatic systems I am dealing with, which use only one interconnect, are able to register minor differences between cables as well as warm-up and break-in effects.
Also is Audioquest changing the color of these cables or are other reviewers talking about different cables? Mine were gray-green.

Strengths:
good value in the right set-up

Weaknesses:
stiff cables, tight RCA plugs

Similar Products Used:
Monster Cable 950i's, 850, XLO