AudioQuest ThunderBird Interconnect and ThunderBird Zero Loudspeaker Cables

I listened to ThunderBird interconnects and speaker cables on both an active (interconnect only) and passive loudspeaker system—of which two are based on personally owned ATC loudspeakers. The active speakers are SCM50 tri-amplified towers; the passives are SCM20SL compacts, the latter being ATC’s most recent offering with its latest in-house designed and built tweeter. Also weighing in was the new and formidable Cabasse Murano Alto three-way floorstander (review forthcoming). In passive mode, I ran the 80Wpc Roksan Attessa streaming integrated amp ($3199) with its in-house designed DAC. It turned out to be a real sleeper, incredibly satisfying as well as a great buy. Sources using ThunderBird interconnects included the Lumin S1 and dCS Bartók streaming DACs and as part of my analog front-end consisting of an EAT C-Dur turntable (review forthcoming) and a Pass Labs XP-17 phonostage, with the ThunderBird in the link between the phonostage and preamplifier. For the past few years, my reference cables have been Audience frontRow speaker, with Analysis Plus Micro Gold Oval interconnects performing the honors from my Pass Labs XP-12 preamp to the active ATC towers and a smattering of Wireworld’s equally excellent Silver Eclipse thrown in the mix.

Turning to sonic performance my initial impression was one of rock-steady neutrality across the octaves, potent bass dynamics and pitch extension, and a rich midrange with spirited harmonic liveliness in the upper ranges. There was nothing flimsy or passive or laidback about this Bird’s forthright tonal balance.

While it’s generally accepted that tonal neutrality is a given in today’s top-flight cables, that does not mean that cables necessarily lack a personality. Certainly, that is not the case with ThunderBird. A straight shooter across the octaves, it produced music with a tonal density and weightiness beyond almost every cable I’ve ever tested. Every individual note on piano, for instance, seemed to have audible gravity and impact. Even its upper mids and lower treble were fuller, more expansive and energetic, and more harmonically enriched. I think this is due to the absence of low-level noise and distortion, which open the door to the reproduction of subtle resonances and harmonic decay. As we all know, music and ambience don’t just come to a dead stop. There are low-level effects from the instrument itself and, in the case of a live acoustic recording, the response of the venue. As I listened to wind and brass selections from Dave Wilson’s Winds of War and Peace, ThunderBird Zero seemed to let me hear deeper and for greater duration into the sustain and decay of the music, particularly the rippling energy generated from the bass and kettle drums.

When approaching a cable review my habit is to listen first for its top-end character. The reason? That’s where our hearing tends to be at its most sensitive, and if there are timing and phase distortions, colorations, and frequency non-linearities you’re going to sense them. This is also the spectrum where sub-standard cables go to die. ThunderBird’s top end was one of the most expressive and continuous I’ve yet experienced. As I listened to Stravinsky’s Pulcinella [Argo]—an LP that gushes transparency—the characteristic that was most apparent was the lack of tension in the upper octaves, particularly in the strings and winds. There was an uncongested flow of air and harmonic energy that spelled pure naturalism. Mind you, I didn’t say the treble was “sweet,” which implies a constant “one-notey” character. By expressive, I mean that ThunderBird Zero had a wide-ranging ability to communicate contrast from, yes, the sweet to the acerbic, from the sharper edges to the more rounded ones.

As I listened to The Wasps Overture [Vaughn-Williams, LSO, Previn, RCA], it was instantly apparent that there was a minimum of congestion across the orchestral soundstage. The ThunderBird Zero seemed to widen contrasts and elucidate heretofore buried details. I noted an airier openness between images, including the low-level string transients and sustain of the concert harp. ThunderBird’s openness and air acted almost like a balm over the upper mids. Section layering within the orchestra was very good, indeed, highlighted by three-dimensional width and depth and a distinct clarity from downstage strings to winds to brass to bass viols to the furthest upstage percussion cues. 

Reflecting the resolution with which ThunderBird reproduced ambience and soundstage was the recent BMG LP release Paco de Lucía: The Montreux Years. These live performances were recorded from 1984 to 2012. The sonic differences in acoustics and recording technique, as the venues shifted over the years, was completely revealed. One venue seemed more open and spacious, while another hall at an earlier point in time seemed narrower, less lively, and more closed in.

Another area that receives the full benefit of ThunderBird’s ministrations was instrumental textures. The tactile elements from smooth to coarse that help define a specific instrument—the fingernail tips on a guitar string versus the more aggressive clatter of a flatpick on a steel string, or the octave strings singing from a 12-string acoustic, or the air moving over a saxophone reed, or the spring and rebound of the drum skin of a tympani, even the skittering sound of sheet music turning—were clearly reproduced. During Melody Gardot’s “Who Will Comfort Me,” transients had the electric snap that I’ve come to expect, quick but not edgy. ThunderBird’s unbridled, wideband dynamics have the power to startle. For example, during the Manhattan Jazz Quintet’s cover of “Autumn Leaves,” nothing else makes me jump from my seat like the sudden blast from Lew Soloff’s trumpet as it rockets into the recording space.

ThunderBird Zero also delineated small and larger collections of voices with ease. Individuation of singers was quite good, whether it was two- or three-part background harmony or a large chorale. In fact, on this subject of transparency and inner detail, years ago I recall listening with HP in his Sea Cliff home, most likely to the Infinity IRS V speakers. If I recall correctly, it was the Weavers Reunion at Carnegie Hall, and we both noted that during this live concert recording, the rise and fall of the audience’s rousing response wasn’t just a sweaty-palmed smear of applause; rather, the handclaps were crisp, particularized, and specific, adding to the dimension and scope of the appreciative crowd. It got to the point that you could nearly point out each pair of hands in a specific row. If everything else in your rig is up to snuff, ThunderBird Zero brings forth this level of resolution and transparency.

More difficult to explain was what I didn’t see coming—a response to familiar music that bordered on the emotional. This was based on my hearing more of the musical performance than before, while simultaneously hearing less and less of my actual loudspeaker and system. Some cables, lesser ones, tended to squeeze a little of the life and expression from wide-range speakers like the ATCs, perhaps suppressing micro-dynamic energy or clouding or rolling the top ever so slightly, sucking some of the airiness from the treble. But ThunderBird seemed to saturate the stage with greater musical color, from darker resonances to brighter, sunlit harmonics. My enthusiasm for listening to music was raised to new heights.

As I’ve written countless times in cable reviews, cables don’t fix systems gone awry. Ideally, they are fine-polishing tools, detailing and bringing out the luster of a system. They provide a transparent window that exposes the pristine surface beneath. The reason we love great cables is because they draw an audio rig ever closer to the dream of realizing the live musical experience in the home. To that end, ThunderBird Zero joins a very small cadre of cables that, in my opinion, demonstrate exemplary transparent sonic behavior and convey superb musicality all along the system chain. Without question, this is one high-flying bird.

Read our 2023 Editor’s Choice for our top loudspeaker cable picks in the $2000-$5000 range.

Specs & Pricing

Price: Interconnect: $2900/1m (RCA); $3900/1m (XLR); speaker, $5700/8′, $6600/10′

AUDIOQUEST
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(949) 790-6000
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