AudioQuest Evergreen Cable with RCA Connectors, 1.5 m

Oh, audiophile cables, how I love you so. A source of endless entertainment, both from the wattses and voltageres that you carry from my DAC to my amp, and from the mind-numbing copy that graces your packaging. The box for the Evergreen starts out with a lovely story about where the cable gets its name. Apparently this cable is named after a bridge in Washington that, I kid you not, "because of structural issues, a replacement is inevitable." So, before we get to all the buzzfeatures, our cable is compared to a rickety old bridge -- failed marketing maneuver, or planned obsolescence?So on to the features. First up is that the cable is made of 'long grain copper,' which is a positive. My last cable was made of long grain rice, and that was not ideal. The sound was kind of wet, a bit sticky. I much prefer the long grain copper that the Evergreens are made of. The second selling point is 'solid conductors,' which again is the mark of a quality product. Back in the late nineties I tried a fancy new audiophile cable that used highly salinated water, touting their second point as using 'liquid conductors,' but as anyone with a cat and a waterbed knows, some things are really best left solid. Point three is the 'Double-balanced asymmetrical geometry,' and while I don't know what that means, I have always found symmetry a bit boring (but balance crucial!). Point four is 'asymmetrical conductor sizes,' which reminds me of my train ride into DC with my short, sassy conductor and my tall no-nonsense conductor. Good guys to have around when you're in a jam, so I'm going to give the Evergreen some credit here for their conductor dream team. Point five is the 'Metal-Layer Noise Dissipation System,' which, I'm not even going to make a joke here, I think is just a really silly word for 'shielding.' The last feature is 'Foamed Polyethylene Insulation,' which sounds like the itchy stuff in my walls, and I will say that my music has a nice itch-that-needs-to-be-scratched quality about it. The final word on the box is the instruction to make sure that the arrows point from your source to your destination. I botched this one rule up and everything sounded like a 128kbps MP3. Then I realized I was actually listening to a bunch of 128kbps MP3s, and that was easily rectified without disconnecting my fancy green cables.I'm not a believer in audiophile cables, and at ~25 dollars, this can hardly call itself an audiophile cable. It's not made of 101% oxygen-free silver copper Dalmatian. The insulation hasn't been injected with nitrogen or helium or radon. Heck, it hasn't even been doused in holy water! And to boot, it's named after a failing bridge. But there are a few things that make this cable worth the 25 bucks. First, the construction is solid. The connectors feel great. Tough, solid, yet not so massive that you can't get two paired up in a tight set of jacks. The cables themselves, the combination of conductor material and insulation also feel sturdy. Sturdy, yet flexible enough to maneuver without issue. That sounds silly, but it really can alleviate quite a bit of frustration when you're snaking cable around. The connectors are gold plated, and while I don't have much faith in that improving my tight, tight bass response, I have had trouble over the years with lesser connectors oxidizing, and that never ends well for anyone. Gold should hold up better in this regard. The cables also seem well shielded, something that actually has a great deal of impact, and that lesser cables often fail at. The path my interconnect between DAC and amp takes is not too pleasant, and the cheap interconnect I grabbed from an old parts bin was picking up all sorts of line noise, hard drives spinning up, CB radio, EVP, you name it. These cables really are well insulated from all the nonsense interference that tries to infiltrate our earwaves.So, while I'm terribly leery in products that contain more laughable market-speak than relatable features, I can't help but recommend these. For a fairly low price, you get great construction, shielding that actually helps keep your signal clean, and gold plated connectors that will help prevent an oxidized mess from binding them to your components. And unlike its eponym, I think this cable is going to last me quite a while.

My audio fortunes have had their highs and lows over the last 30 something years. The highs were good, but I've noticed that sometimes rebuilding and starting from a less than envious position can be an interesting experience. So the low points have their positives too. I had put the audio hobby on the back burner a bit over the last 10 years, while other interests took over. All the choice pieces went up for sale...just one of those times when you gotta do what you gotta do. This trend is beginning to change...slowly. I did manage to hang onto one item...my Sony DVP-NS999ES combination player...and a small Sony micro system that had been hooked to the TV. Curiosity got the better of me last year and I plugged the player into the one set of line level inputs, set up the speakers, and voila..back in business..on a smaller scale, but still not bad for having something to provide tunes while on the PC. Lately I've started hankering for that next step or two, and started looking at speakers..and a tuner..and an integrated amp. Now audiophile common sense...not exactly three words you'll find together often...will tell you to make your early changes on the front and back ends first...the source and the speakers. Well the digital source is pretty well covered and the tuner is on the way. Speakers are picked out and will be the next addition. But I need some cables to add the tuner. A pair of homebrew interconnects ran between the player and amp. Now I'm not new to the whole set of issues around cables. Been there and did that a long time ago..and discovered that it's not a pile of horse hockey. Differences can be subtle and take some serious listening to pick out. Will I spend multiple hundreds of bucks? The hell no! Will I use the generic red/white shoe strings? The hell no! A reasonable approach lies somewhere in between and I think I just found it. A 1 meter pair AudioQuest Evergreen interconnects arrived before the tuner did..so what am I gonna do? Plug those babies into the player and fire it up. SRV/In Step..the SACD copy..was in the player..hit the play button and immediately knew something was different..and for the better. A little more detail and depth..some added smoothness..just a more natural sound. Not at a night and day level, but still there...and discernible even through the little 15 watt amp and small speakers. Enough of a difference that I want to do a bunch of listening..that kind of excitement that usually comes from buying new speakers or something on that level. So now I'm quite interested to see what the next two pieces will bring. So this experience brings me to one point...these may be the only interconnects you ever need...unless you have some intentions of serious upgrading. Even if you do, these are a very good point of reference to start with. If you want/need decent cables and don't want to break the bank, look no further. Affordable, well made, nice fit and finish..and they sound good. What's not to like?