Golden Gate – RCA Interconnect
The $94,95 USD Golden Gate belongs to AudioQuest’s Bridges & Falls series and performance-wise, it is positioned above the Evergreen and below the Big Sur. It features AudioQuest’s Solid Perfect-Surface Copper (PSC) wire, Asymmetrical Double-Balanced geometry, Foamed-Polyethylene dialectic, and Metal-Layer Noise-Dissipation. It comes with a red and black braid jacket much like the big guns of this series. The plugs are the same as the Tower’s plugs and they have a beautiful red finish, much like the Red River XLR.
Similar to other AudioQuest cables, the Golden Gate comes in neatly designed black packaging. On the front of the box, we see a photograph of San Francisco’s Golden Gate bridge. On the back, there is comprehensive information about the cable inside.
Let’s take a closer look at the build quality and design of the Golden Gate RCA. First of all, I mentioned that I really like the Red River XLR’s red finish and Golden Gate is sporting the same metallic finish. It looks very good up close and under direct light sources. The connectors are gold-plated like the Tower and both of the cables have identical RCA housing. The Golden Gate has a red and black braid jacket and looks very good compared to Tower’s striped PVC jacket. The gold-plated plugs feel solid and well-made just like everything we received from AudioQuest. The company pays lots of attention to design and material quality and it is very good to see that.
In this paragraph, I will describe how the Golden Gate RCA affected the sound quality of my DAC & AMP stack. I will be comparing the Golden Gate with the generic interconnects (such as ugreen RCA etc.) in my inventory and also with the Tower. I will throw a pure-copper chi-fi RCA cable in the mix, too. The generic cables will be mentioned as “generics” in the text.
For this test, I used Topping E50 and L50 DAC & AMP because they have a very high price/performance ratio and they sound very good. I also know their signature well.
To me, the golden gate is the sweet spot between the performance you get for the money you pay, especially if you are buying a cable for a similar stack as me. This stack costs $550 USD and this $95 USD cable upgrade makes perfect sense to me if it adds to the overall sound quality. Does it? I will try my best to answer that. Firstly, compared to Tower, the Golden Gate sounds more refined. The stack sounds more effortless compared to the generics and there is a good margin of difference when it comes to transparency and detail retrieval.
The dynamism and the layering are improved over the Tower and in this regard, I just don’t ever want to use generic cables with this stack. The vocals are more accentuated, the hi-hats feel sharper and more dynamic. Mids feel more coherent. I like the characteristics of the AQ’s PSC, no matter the price range, the difference is easily discernible vs. generic cables. If you are looking for a start, I recommend taking the Tower for a spin. If you have a more expensive setup, discover a ratio that works for you. I usually spend 10-15% of the total price of my setup on cables and I’m happy with this ratio.
Last Words
AudioQuest offers a wide product range that can appeal to every budget and system. Whatever your cable needs, they have worked hard and succeeded to offer a solution for everyone. Although it may seem a bit confusing at first glance, it is possible to see and compare the properties of all cables in a single table from here.
What I realized after reviewing these cables is that AudioQuest is following a strict quality curve and whether the cable is the cheapest or the most expensive in the series, this quality level does not take a hit. Frankly, this is something we rarely come across. The cables I tried introduced several differences to my setup and I am happy that I got the chance to try them.
If you are happy with your current setup and just want to polish and improve what you already love, I recommend checking out AudioQuest’s analog interconnects. We are going to be checking out several USB and power cables from AudioQuest, soon, so stay tuned!
Page 1: Intro, AudioQuest, Preamble, AudioQuest Interconnect Cables, Tower RCA Interconnect
Page 2: Golden Gate RCA Interconnect, Last Words
Wolf Gang
“Dialectic”? Seriously?