I’ve had a pair of AudioQuest’s new Brave Heart ZERO-Tech Speaker Cables in Barn for a few weeks and I can say one thing:
The Brave Heart are clearly better than the AQ Robin Hood Speaker Cables I’ve had here for years. How? The Brave Heart delivered more apparent resolution and better bass response to name two standout and clearly audible differences when put to work with the review DeVore O/Bronze and Audio Note 300B Konzertmeister. Nice.
How can I be sure I heard what I heard? When differences are clearly audible, that means they are easy to hear.
Here’s the press release from AudioQuest:
Meet Brave Heart: AQ’s latest ZERO-Tech Speaker Cable!
For Immediate Release
AudioQuest is delighted to introduce its newest ZERO-Tech speaker cable, Brave Heart — bigger, quieter, and altogether better than any speaker cable AQ has offered at its price.
There are a number of technical details, both external and internal, that contribute to Brave Heart’s outstanding combination of performance and value.
Bigger
Physically, Brave Heart is nearly the size of AudioQuest’s Mythical speaker cables — just 0.6mm smaller OD. Internally, it has almost a third more of the same superb Perfect-Surface Copper+ conductor metal as used in previous models, making it a slightly junior Mythical Creature. Yet, Brave Heart is more physically manageable because it houses positive and negative sides in separate round constructions.
Brave Heart’s larger overall size results in more “torque” — a sure and muscular grip on the music, especially the bottom end. Damping-factor is better preserved over length, especially benefitting speakers with ported (4th-order) enclosures that rely on strong amplifier control to perform their best.
More metal also means that variation in speaker impedance values across the frequency spectrum has less effect on frequency response.
Quieter
Brave Heart also uses upgraded polypropylene insulation, which linearizes and expands the bandwidth of its noise-dissipation. With conductors that are farther apart thanks to optimized insulation, the out-of-focus, harsh-sounding effect of distributed capacitance distortions are meaningfully reduced.
Additionally, thicker layers of Carbon-Loaded PVC, newly added Graphene, and 4% silver shield drain wires further improves RF-Noise Dissipation.
Classic AudioQuest Design Elements
Everything mentioned above is added to a wealth of proven AudioQuest design elements:
Solid conductors prevent strand interaction, and, because the conductors are direction-controlled, RF noise is efficiently drained away from the vulnerable amplifier circuitry — toward where it will do the least or no harm.
To further minimize the negative effects of induced RF-noise and timing errors due to dielectric noise, Brave Heart includes AudioQuest’s 72v Dielectric-Bias System.
There is no RF-relaying metal in the cable dressing, breakouts, or plug barrels, and the cold-welded gas-tight connections are made to Red Copper spades or bananas.
ZERO-Tech
Featured in AudioQuest Folk Hero and Mythical Creature speaker cables, ZERO-Tech eliminates characteristic-impedance mismatches between a cable and the attached source and load.
Power seems to flow unencumbered, presenting music and soundtracks as if out of nowhere.
Better
While a grossly overused and misused term, there is real synergy when all the above materials, values, and techniques employed in Brave Heart work in concert.
Brave Heart is bigger, better, and quieter than any speaker cable AudioQuest has ever offered at this price.
Brave Heart ZERO-Tech Speaker Cable
US: $4,990/8ft pr; $5,790/10ft pr
Canada: $6,790/8ft pr; $7,890/10ft pr
Europe: €4.999/2.5m pr; €5.649/3m pr
United Kingdom: £4,249/2.5m pr; £4,799/3m pr
Can be made to order in any length with choice of Bananas or Spades on either end.
Shipping in August.