Recommended Component 2024 – Stereophile
Entry-Level Analog Excellence
Tower is the AudioQuest entry-level analog interconnect offering performance that you'd expect would cost a whole lot more. Tower has Solid Long-Grain Copper (LGC) conductors, Foamed-Polyethylene insulation, a Metal-Layer Noise-Dissipation System (NDS), and Asymmetrical Double-Balanced Geometry.
This version of Tower has Cold-Welded Gold-Plated RCA Plugs and RCA-to-RCA termination.
"Recommended Component" Honors
Stereophile honored Tower by awarding it the magazine's coveted Recommend Component status for 2024.
According to Stereophile, "[These cables] are insulated with foamed polyethylene, and are attractive, well made, and very flexible. Moving up the line, SM heard improvements in image focus, tone color, drama, and overall clarity and extension. 'If you're in the market for truly affordable, truly high-quality interconnects, I can think of no better place to start than AudioQuest,' he concluded. SM used it between his laptop and PSB Alpha PS1 desktop speakers. Compared with the stock PS1 cable, the AQ produced a larger, more present overall sound, with deeper silences, longer decays, cleaner highs, more realistic bass, and richer tone color. 'Suddenly, I had real high-fidelity sound coming from my laptop,' SM enthused."
"More Energetic and More Dynamic"
"It outperformed my pure copper chi-fi cable which is double the price of the tower and introduced a good amount of air and spaciousness to the sound," observes Yagiz, headfonia.com, May 6, 2023. "The E50 and L50 [amp and DAC] have a very balanced sound signature with a very good resolution. They don’t have the widest or deepest stage, especially out of the SE output."
"Pairing them with the Tower instead of generics improved the perceived headroom and improved imaging as well as other technical aspects, such as PRaT and resolution… Compared to the generics, the overall presentation sounded more energetic and more dynamic to my ears."
Tower's Inspiration
The image of London’s dramatic Tower Bridge is so famous that it is often mistakenly thought of as London Bridge. Tower Bridge, completed in 1894, is an unusual combination of suspension bridges on the land side of the towers, and dual bascule spans in the center. As with the many bascule bridges in St. Petersburg, Russia and over the Chicago River, moving this weight-balanced roadway requires comparatively little energy, making it very efficient for allowing river traffic to pass. Tower Bridge’s original hydraulic accumulators were a significant advance in storing the energy required to be able to open the two 1,000 ton bascules in only five minutes.
Solid Long-Grain Copper (LGC) Conductors
Solid conductors eliminate strand-interaction distortion. Evergreen’s solid Long-Grain Copper allows a smoother and clearer sound than cables using regular OFHC (Oxygen-Free High-Conductivity) copper. OFHC is a general metal industry specification regarding “loss” without any concern for distortion. LGC has fewer oxides within the conducting material, less impurities, less grain boundaries, and definitively better performance.
Foamed-Polyethylene Insulation
Any solid material adjacent to a conductor is actually part of an imperfect circuit. Wire insulation and circuit board materials all absorb energy (loss). Some of this energy is stored and then released as distortion. Tower uses air-filled Foamed-Polyethylene Insulation on both conductors because air absorbs next to no energy and Polyethylene is low-loss and has a benign distortion profile. Thanks to all the air in Foamed-PE, it causes much less of the out-of-focus effect common to other materials.
Metal-Layer Noise-Dissipation System (NDS)
100% shield coverage is easy. Preventing captured RF Interference from modulating the equipment’s ground reference requires AQ’s Noise-Dissipation System. Noise-Dissipation System prevents a significant amount of RFI from reaching the equipment’s ground plane.
Asymmetrical Double-Balanced Geometry
Purpose designed for single-ended applications, Asymmetrical Double-Balanced Geometry offers a relatively lower impedance on the ground for a richer, and more dynamic experience. While many single-ended cable designs use a single path for both the ground and the shield, Double-Balanced designs separate the two for cleaner, quieter performance.
Cold-Welded Gold-Plated RCA 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.
"Greater Overall Clarity and Impact"
Auditioning Tower at his friend Ginger Pete's place, Stephen Mejias reports in Stereophile, "While Pete's system is easily capable of highlighting differences among components, I was afraid our ability to hear differences among the cables would be limited by the room. I needn't have worried."
"With the Tower interconnects in the system, [Speedwolf's] 'Death Ripper' sounded almost like an entirely different song. The greater overall clarity and impact especially benefited the lead vocal, electric guitars, bass drum, and, well, everything else. Pete: 'Wow, wow. I can actually hear the drum tones, rather than just the basic sounds!'"
