In regard to your question about Audioquest cables, they have a plethora of models that vary sonically quite a bit! Most of the top model Audioquest models are decent sounding in terms of not being colored or contrived to change the bass or roll off the treble but those models are WAY WAY WAY overpriced! I would pay only 10% of retail for any of those very top Audioquest wires and even then I am quite sure that my current cables are much more transparent than Audioquest's best offering.
Based on my experience with the large scale cable manufacturers like Audioquest, Kimber, Cardas, Nordost and the like I have found very little sonic consistency between their different offerings from their basic entry level wires to their top offerings. Therefore I think it is a BIG MISTAKE to "label" a particular brand of wire as sounding a certian way.
At this point in time I think there are other great "bang for the buck" cable choices where the company founders have chosen to avoid the $50,000 marketing campaigns (which has to be rollled into the price of the cables!). This puts those companies in the position to crushing the big cable companies in terms of performance per dollar spent by the end consumer. IMHO the big guys are all seriously overpriced, even in the used bargain basement marketplace!
