Athena

Combining the physical flexibility and relatively small size of its more affordable sibling, Lone Ranger, with the jet-black backgrounds, top-to-bottom coherence, and seductive effortlessness of AudioQuest's finest designs, Athena stands proud among the Folk Hero range — an outstanding choice for high-performance systems, environments, and listeners that value refinement and purity over ultimate scale and sheer brute force. 

Athena's design features include: Graphene+Carbon Mesh-Network; ZERO-Tech for uncompressed transient current and linear noise-dissipation; 72v Dielectric-Bias System; direction-controlled No-Grain Copper (NG-C) conductors; and Perfect-Surface Silver (PSS) NDS shield drains to effectively minimize damaging RF-Noise. 

Athena speaker cables may be used in one of two ways: either as ideal Full-Range cables, or, in combination with their dedicated Bass-Only cable, BigFoot, in a high-performance BiWire cable assembly.

BiWiring

When a speaker has separate Bass and Treble inputs, running separate cables to the Treble and Bass inputs significantly reduces distortion. BiWiring prevents the strong bass signal from modulating the delicate treble signal, like taking the waves out of the water when you swim.

When using Athena for Treble, AudioQuest BigFoot Bass-Only is the ideal choice for running to the speakers’ Bass inputs, reducing current modulation, and, even more importantly, taking RF interference off the amplifier’s output. A BiWire Combo with Bass-Only and ZERO cables joined together at the amplifier is usually most convenient, though joining them is optional. When TriWiring, use Bass-Only cables on the Midrange and Bass inputs.

Do not Double-BiWire with two ZERO-Tech cables. Your amp will distort.

Almost all speakers come with Bass/Treble Jumpers that are worse than driving with a compact-spare tire. If you single-wire your speakers, please use better Jumpers. AudioQuest offers a range of excellent options starting with the affordable Bare Naked Jumpers.

• ZERO-Tech (No Characteristic Impedance): The only way to prevent characteristic-impedance mismatch-effects between a cable and its attached source and load circuits is for the cable not to have a characteristic-impedance. ZERO-Tech accomplishes this by eliminating any electrostatic field between the cable’s high and low signal conductors — enabling uncompressed current transfer. All-important transient current is unrestricted and RF Noise-Dissipation is more effective and linear.
• Solid No-Grain Copper (NG-C) Conductors: Solid conductors prevent strand-interaction, a major source of dynamic distortion. No-Grain Copper dramatically minimizes distortion caused by grain boundaries and maximizes RF Noise-Dissipation.
• Linear Noise-Dissipation: The Earth is permeated with RF-Noise from satellites, cellular, WiFi, etc. Athena’s Graphene+Carbon Mesh-Network, ZERO-Tech, direction-controlled No-Grain Copper (NG-C) conductors, 72v DBS, and Perfect-Surface Silver (PSS) NDS shield drains effectively minimize damaging RF-Noise.
• 72v Dielectric-Bias System (DBS) with RF Noise-Trap: Insulation is also a dielectric that acts like a shunt-filter. Biasing the dielectric both minimizes dielectric-noise and linearizes the filter, significantly improving wide-bandwidth dissipation of induced noise.
• Perfect-Surface Silver Shield Drains: Dramatically aid the efficient dissipation of RF-Noise.
• Permanent Molecular Optimization (PMO): By optimally and efficiently applying a high-frequency AC signal many times greater than any audio system could possibly provide over any length of time, transient intermodulation distortion and the cable burn-in process are significantly reduced.
• Cold-Welded Red-Copper Spades or Bananas: Cold-Welding avoids the introduction of heat and distortion-causing materials like solder. The bare parts are submerged (hung) in silver instead of tumbled in a lower-grade solution. Speaker breakouts and plug casings are synthetic, not metal, to avoid inducing RF Noise into the conductors.
• Athena speaker cables may be used in one of two ways: either as ideal Full-Range cables, or, in combination with a dedicated Bass-Only cable, BigFoot, in a high-performance BiWire cable assembly.
• Directionality: All drawn metal strands or conductors have a non-symmetrical, and therefore directional, grain structure. AudioQuest controls the resulting RF impedance variation so that noise is drained away from where it will cause distortion. A fundamental aspect of AudioQuest’s multifaceted Noise-Dissipation technology, Direction-Controlled Conductors ensure induced noise is dissipated and drained properly.