About the AudioQuest Mackenzie XLR
AQ's Mackenzie cables let the music flow
AQ's Mackenzie cables let the music flow
Named after Canada's longest river, AudioQuest's beautifully built Mackenzie interconnects offer long-term listening enjoyment. Each cable features three solid copper conductors to virtually eliminate electrical and magnetic interference that can add brittleness to the sound.
Mackenzie's solid (not stranded) conductors are made of AQ's Perfect Surface Copper+. Proprietary metal-processing technology protects the wire's surface at every stage of drawing and fabrication. When high-purity low-oxide copper is kept as soft, pure and smooth as possible, it becomes a wonderfully low-distortion Perfect Surface Copper+ conductor. The resulting sound quality is even more focused and simply less in the way.
Solid connectors
Mackenzie's XLR plugs feature new connectors and new pins. The connectors are fastened by cold welding — a solder-less process that uses high pressure and silver paste to minimize signal loss. By contrast, solder tends to impede the signal, and the heating of the copper conductor during soldering can negatively affect its performance.
Product highlights:
- 1 pair of audio interconnects with XLR terminals
- 3 solid copper conductors per cable eliminate the distortion caused by electrical and magnetic interaction of cable strands
- conductors are made of high-purity, low-oxide Perfect-Surface Copper+
- stiff Nitrogen-Injected Hard-Cell Foam insulation stabilizes the position of the conductors to maintain consistent impedance over the length of the cable
- carbon-based 3-layer Noise-Dissipation System prevents RF interference from reaching the equipment's ground plane
- 3-conductor Triple-Balanced Geometry — the separate ground conductor ensures that positive and negative signals have equally low-distortion conducting paths
- cold-welded, silver-plated purple copper XLR plugs
- black-and-brown braided jacket
- warranty: 5 years
- MFR # MKENZIE0.75X
What's in the box:
- Two 2.46' (0.75m) XLR audio cables
Reviews (27)
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Features
Solid Perfect-Surface Copper+ (PSC+) Conductors: Perfect-Surface Copper+ has an astonishingly smooth and pure surface. Proprietary metal-processing technology protects the wire's surface at every stage of drawing and fabrication. When high-purity low-oxide copper is kept as soft, pure and smooth as possible, it becomes a wonderfully low-distortion PSC+ conductor. PSC+ is manufactured by applying the same exceptional technology to an ultra-pure copper. The resulting sound quality is even more focused and simply less in the way. For over 30 years AudioQuest has pioneered the use of superior metals; yet even we were surprised by the huge leap in performance made possible with Perfect-Surface Technology. PSC+ simply outperforms all previously available copper metals at any price. All of Mackenzie's conductors are solid. Electrical and magnetic interaction between strands in a conventional cable is the greatest source of distortion, often causing a somewhat dirty, harsh sound. Solid conductors are fundamental toward achieving Mackenzie's very clean sound.
Nitrogen-Injected Hard-Cell Foam Insulation: Nitrogen-Injected Hard-Cell Foam insulation is used exclusively in most of AudioQuest's video and digital audio cables. Similar to Foamed-PE, it is nitrogen-injected to create air pockets. "Hard" foam is used because the stiffness of the material allows the conductors in the cable to maintain the same relationship with each other along the full length of the cable, thus ensuring that the characteristic impedance of the cable is consistent.
Carbon-Based 3-Layer Noise-Dissipation System (NDS): Preventing captured RF Interference from modulating the equipment's ground reference requires AQ's Noise-Dissipation System. Metal and Carbon-Loaded synthetics prevent most RFI from reaching the equipment's ground plane.
Triple-Balanced Geometry: The three conductors in "Triple-Balanced" Mackenzie cables ensure that the XLR plugs' positive and negative signals have equally low-distortion conducting paths. This 100% coverage shield is never used as an inferior conductor.
Cold-Welded Hanging-Silver + Copper Plugs: This plug design allows for a connection devoid of solder, which is a common source of distortion. Because the ground shells are stamped instead of machined, the metal can be chosen for low distortion instead of machinability. Purple Copper offers a cleaner, clearer sound than the nickel-plated or OFHC metals commonly found in other manufacturers' plugs.
Directional: Arrows on the XLR connectors indicate the preferred signal path from the source component to the input.
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Customer Q&A
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An audible improvement over my old XLR CABLES. Not radical but a nicer separation, more clarity and most important a boost to subtle effects which to me can make all the difference between a good listening experience versus a great one.
Thomas from San Francisco CA.