Purist Audio, Venustas or Aqueous

Ray - I have done the comparison that you asked about (Purist AQ Anniversary vs Venustas)and here are my conclusions:
The Venustas gives a more "back of the hall" presentation than the Aq Anniv, which is more like being in the 5th row. The Venustas is a bit softer in transients throughout the music bandwidth, while the AQ Anniv is mellow in the midrange but has greater extensions at the frequency extremes. Neither cable suffers from brightness of any kind and both have very natural note decay. Both have great soundstaging when broken in - wide, tall, and deep. Both are excellent with ss as well as tube gear. The AQ Anniv is more prone to need to settle down for 3-4 hours after moving it than the Venustas, because of the combination Ferox/fluid. My preference with my system is/was the Aq Anniversary, but you certainly wouldn't regret going with either.

I now have the Dominus Rev C Power cords on my APL 3910 and Balanced 2M Dominus C Interconnects going to my Pass X350.5 Amp. The Rev C has a fantastic high end,(I was suprised by that)and a huge soundstage!..

My speaker cables need upgrading. I am presently using a silver ribbon bi-wire and though it has many good qualities, I believe I could do better especially in bass depth and quality. I cant afford the Dominus bi-wire Speaker cables.

I have been unable to trial either the Venustas or the Aqueous Speaker cable (even from the Cable Co).
I am so tired of waiting.

So,if I was to blindly buy one 2.5M Bi-wire Speaker Cable for my Legacy Focus Speakers which one do you guys reccomend?

The Aqueous or the Venustas ???.

Venustas.

I second the Venustas, and I wonder if I have the same reasons as Tvad though. The objective differences are as follows, and come right out of the Purist catalog bi-wire spkr cab. for ea. product:

1.) Venustas effective ga. = 8AWG
Aqueous effective ga. = 12AWG (2 sizes smaller)

2.) Venustas metal = copper/silver
Aqueous metal = copper/gold

3.) Venustas = 100% Ferrox Shielding (cable dia. = 1-1/8")
Aqueous = Foil with drain wire (cable dia. = 3/4")

4.) Venustas shock damping = Ferrox, 1-1/8" dia.
Aqueous shock damping = Contego, 3/4" dia.

Subjective differences (mine ;--)) would be

1.) The Venustas has much better current carrying capacity due to larger wire and the fact that silver is a better conductor than gold.

2.) The huge Ferrox jacket represents not only a better RFI and (especially) EMI shield, but also a much more sbstantial shock absorber than the fluid at approx. half the diameter.

3.) In the Aqueous, if you look at the cutaway drawing on the Purist site (vs. the Venustas drawing) you will see that the Venustas bi-wire cable consists of TWO PAIRS of 8 ga cable, while the Aqueous the two pairs TOGETHER add up to the specified (and smaller) 12 ga.

My conclusion -- the Venustas is (physically at least) twice the cable. If you want to better the Venustas, you'd have to get either the Dominus Ferrox Rev. C (8 AWG) or the 20th Anniversary Purist (7 AWG) -- both outrageously expensive.

Tvad, any other thoughts. . . . . ?
.

I didn't analyze it. I like Venustas. The interconnects have been more synergistic in more areas of my system than have the Aqueous (although I still use Aqueous as well), and the Venustas have better resale value.

It wasn't a difficult decision to make.