AUDIOQUEST Ground Goody Thunderbird

Whether draining a shield or preventing hum, a ground wire — like all wire — is an RF antenna. AudioQuest GroundGoodys are the only solutions that don’t add RF noise while grounding turntables, ground-boxes, subwoofers, powered speakers, and more.

The often abused “New and Improved” accolade was never truer than with our totally revised GroundGoodys — and so new names were required.

Like Saturn and Jupiter GroundGoodys before them, ThunderBird and Dragon GroundGoodys use premium conductor materials, which are controlled for direction and cold-welded to Direct-Silver Plated #10 size spade lugs.

While Saturn used Perfect-Surface Copper+ conductor metal, ThunderBird steps up to Solid 6% silver, significantly enhancing its ability to efficiently dissipate RF noise. Dragon continues with Jupiter’s best-there-is Solid Perfect-Surface Silver (PSS).

The most important news is that our strongest Noise-Dissipation technology, the patented RF/ND-Tech that distinguishes AQ’s Level 8 Noise-Dissipation, dissipates and cancels most induced RF Noise.

ThunderBird and Dragon GroundGoodys can be combined with nearly any analog interconnect cable to create a low-distortion phono cable. The exceptions are AQ’s ZERO-Tech interconnects: The Mythical Horses (Black Beauty, Pegasus) and Mythical Creatures (ThunderBird, FireBird, Dragon) are not compatible with phono cartridges

SOLID 6% SILVER CONDUCTORS

Solid conductors prevent electrical and magnetic strand-interaction. To approach the ultimate Noise-Dissipation performance of our best conductor metal—Solid 100% Perfect-Surface Silver—increasingly thick layers of silver plating are applied to our Long-Grain Copper (LGC) conductors. 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 cable design.

RF/ND-TECH (PATENTED RADIO-FREQUENCY GROUND-NOISE DISSIPATION) MINIMIZES CIRCUIT MISBEHAVIOR BY CANCELLING INDUCED RF NOISE

Though a cable’s ground leads are integral to a component’s signal transmission, they also act as an antenna. Thus, they are subject to induced Radio-Frequency (RF) noise. RF noise is a parasitic signal that is typically coupled directly into a system’s most sensitive audio/video circuits. AudioQuest’s RF-on-ground Noise-Dissipation (RF/ND-Tech) greatly reduces resulting distortion and signal masking, yielding unprecedented levels of Noise-Dissipation across the widest bandwidth (range) of radio frequencies possible. Our unique circuit topology uses a common-mode phase-cancelling array, providing linear noise dissipation across the entire length of the cable (US Patent # 8,988,168).

DIRECTION-CONTROLLED CONDUCTORS

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. The correct direction is determined by listening to every batch of metal conductors used in every AudioQuest audio cable. When applicable, arrows are clearly marked on the connectors to ensure superior sound quality. For most models of AQ cable, the arrows not only indicate the direction that optimizes metal-directionality as part of Noise-Dissipation, but also indicates non-symmetrical attachment of shield and GND in order to optimize full-system performance. A fundamental aspect of AudioQuest's multifaceted Noise-Dissipation technology, Direction-Controlled Conductors ensure induced noise is dissipated and drained properly.

DIRECT-SILVER PLATED 3/16" (4.8MM) SPADES

Direct-Silver Plating is optimized for sound. It looks dull because there is no underlying layer of shiny, distortion-causing nickel.