FS: Audioquest Carbon and Coffee USB cables

Hey gang,
Was going through my stash of audio gear and came across a couple Audioquest USB cables that I bought back when I first got into digital streaming and audio.

These are "first-gen" versions of these two respective cables. Audioquest has made cosmetic/color changes to these cables since I bought these back in the day, but to my knowledge, they are still the same design, construction and materials (e.g., conductors).

Please note I no longer have the Audioquest product box(es) these cables were originally sold in. They will be packed in a padded envelope(s) to ensure safe delivery to your destination. I would rate their condition as good to very good, but they are not "as-new" in condition. Please see the note about the battery cover for the DBS unit for the AQ Coffee cable.

Please note: both cables are 0.75M in length

First up is an Audioquest Carbon USB-A to USB-B. MSRP is $179.95, my sale price is $50 FIRM plus cost of packing materials (likely ≤ $5) plus cost of shipping per your preference (USPS, UPS Ground, FEDEX ground) to your address.


Here's the specs from Audioquest for the Carbon:
CARBON-BASED 3-LAYER NOISE-DISSIPATION SYSTEM (NDS)

It's easy to accomplish 100% shield coverage. Preventing captured Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) from modulating the equipment's ground reference requires AQ's Noise-Dissipation System (NDS). Traditional shield systems typically absorb and then drain noise/RF energy to component ground, modulating and distorting the critical "reference" ground plane, which in turn causes a distortion of the signal. NDS's alternating layers of metal and carbon-loaded synthetics "shield the shield," absorbing and reflecting most of this noise/RF energy before it reaches the layer attached to ground.

HARD-CELL FOAM INSULATION

Hard-Cell Foam (HCF) Insulation ensures critical signal-pair geometry. Any solid material adjacent to a conductor is actually part of an imperfect circuit. Wire insulation and circuit board materials all absorb energy. Some of this energy is stored and then released as distortion. Hard-Cell Foam Insulation is similar to the Foamed-PE used in our more affordable Bridges & Falls cables, and is nitrogen-injected to create air pockets. Because nitrogen (like air) does not absorb energy and therefore does not release any energy from or into the conductor, distortion is reduced. In addition, the stiffness of the material allows the cable's conductors to maintain a stable relationship along the cable's full length, producing a stable impedance character and further minimizing distortion.

SOLID 5% SILVER CONDUCTORS

Solid conductors minimize the harmful effects of both electrical and magnetic strand-to-strand interaction. For digital cables, whose signals are of such high frequency that they travel almost exclusively on the surface of the conductor, increasingly thick layers of silver plating are applied to AudioQuest’s Long-Grain Copper (LGC) conductors to further improve Noise-Dissipation. Placing the superior metal on the outside of the conductor produces the greatest benefit on overall performance—a superbly cost-effective way to maximize a digital cable.

Second up is an Audioquest Coffee USB-A to USB-B. This cable is also in what I could classify as good to very good condition. Please note; the tiny little internal clips that hold the battery cover for the batteries in the AQ DBS battery pack have broken (these are very tiny little clips) so I've secured the battery cover with some black electrical tape. The DBS system works and can be verified by pressing the DBS "check light" button to illuminate the DBS LED, confirming that the DBS unit functions as intended.



Here's the specs for the Coffee:
CARBON-BASED 3-LAYER NOISE-DISSIPATION SYSTEM (NDS)
It's easy to accomplish 100% shield coverage. Preventing captured Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) from modulating the equipment's ground reference requires AQ's Noise-Dissipation System (NDS). Traditional shield systems typically absorb and then drain noise/RF energy to component ground, modulating and distorting the critical "reference" ground plane, which in turn causes a distortion of the signal. NDS's alternating layers of metal and carbon-loaded synthetics "shield the shield," absorbing and reflecting most of this noise/RF energy before it reaches the layer attached to ground.
DIELECTRIC-BIAS SYSTEM WITH RADIO FREQUENCY TRAP
All insulation between two or more conductors is also a dielectric whose properties will affect the integrity of the signal. When the dielectric is unbiased, dielectric-involvement (absorption and non-linear release of energy) causes different amounts of time delay (phase shift) for different frequencies and energy levels, which is a real problem for very time-sensitive multi-octave audio. The inclusion of an RF Trap (developed for AudioQuest’s Niagara Series of power products), ensures that radio-frequency noise will not be induced into the signal conductors from the DBS field elements. (DBS, US Pat #s 7,126,055 & 7,872,195 B1)
HARD-CELL FOAM INSULATION
Hard-Cell Foam (HCF) Insulation ensures critical signal-pair geometry. Any solid material adjacent to a conductor is actually part of an imperfect circuit. Wire insulation and circuit board materials all absorb energy. Some of this energy is stored and then released as distortion. Hard-Cell Foam Insulation is similar to the Foamed-PE used in our more affordable Bridges & Falls cables, and is nitrogen-injected to create air pockets. Because nitrogen (like air) does not absorb energy and therefore does not release any energy from or into the conductor, distortion is reduced. In addition, the stiffness of the material allows the cable's conductors to maintain a stable relationship along the cable's full length, producing a stable impedance character and further minimizing distortion.

ALL CONDUCTORS CONTROLLED FOR RF NOISE DIRECTIONALITY

SOLID 10% SILVER CONDUCTORS
Solid conductors minimize the harmful effects of both electrical and magnetic strand-to-strand interaction. For digital cables, whose signals are of such high frequency that they travel almost exclusively on the surface of the conductor, increasingly thick layers of silver plating are applied to AudioQuest’s Long-Grain Copper (LGC) conductors to further improve Noise-Dissipation. Placing the superior metal on the outside of the conductor produces the greatest benefit on overall performance—a superbly cost-effective way to maximize a digital cable.

MSRP on this cable is $399, selling for $125 FIRM + cost of safe packing materials (e.g. padded envelope) plus cost of shipping per your preference (USPS, UPS Ground, FEDEX ground) to your address.

Again, happy to ship per your preferred logistics carrier: USPS, UPS Ground, FEDEX ground.

I'll post some pics tomorrow when I have proper light (daylight), but in the interim, if you're interested, just let me know via PM and we can discuss the details of payment, packing, & shipping per your specific requirements and address.

Cheers and thanks for looking, gents.

Happy Holidays.

 

SALE PENDING.

 

The Coffee is a great USB cable, if you believe in that sort of thing. If you don’t, it works reliably as a printer cable! It might even let you print faster and use less ink, but my AP555 doesn’t have ways to measure this…

 

SOLD. Thanks to the nice folks who inquired. I hope everyone has a wonderful Holiday season. Cheers.

 

Thanks for stopping by. Have a nice day.

Mods, you can close this thread, thank you.