AudioQuest Dragon BASS Speaker Cable Pair | The Grid HiFi

AudioQuest Dragon BASS Speaker Cable — Pair

AudioQuest’s ultimate dedicated bass and midrange speaker cable, built around pure Perfect-Surface Silver conductors and the company’s most advanced bi-wire architecture.

AudioQuest Dragon BASS sits at the top of the Mythical Creatures Series and is engineered specifically for the bass and midrange inputs of bi-wireable or tri-wireable loudspeakers. It is designed to partner with Dragon ZERO on the treble section, creating AudioQuest’s highest-level dedicated bi-wire speaker cable system.

Dragon BASS combines 100% Solid Perfect-Surface Silver (PSS) conductors, ZERO-Tech, patented RF/ND-Tech, Carbon-Based Linearized Noise Dissipation, and a 72V Dielectric-Bias System with Level-X RF Noise-Trap.

Designed Specifically for Bass & Midrange

Dragon BASS is not a full-range speaker cable.

AudioQuest designs its BASS cables specifically for frequencies 10kHz and below. The intended bi-wire configuration is:

Dragon ZERO → Treble Input
Dragon BASS → Bass / Midrange Input

AudioQuest's approach keeps the large magnetic fields associated with bass energy out of the cable carrying delicate upper-frequency information. In a tri-wire system, AudioQuest recommends Dragon BASS for both the midrange and bass inputs, with Dragon ZERO feeding the treble.

100% Solid Perfect-Surface Silver (PSS)

This is one of the defining differences between Dragon BASS and the models below it.

Dragon BASS uses Solid Perfect-Surface Silver (PSS) conductors. PSS is AudioQuest's highest-quality conductor metal, combining extreme-purity silver with the company's Perfect-Surface manufacturing technology.

Solid conductors eliminate strand-to-strand interaction, while the extremely smooth, high-purity silver surface is designed to minimize distortion caused by grain boundaries within the conductor. AudioQuest positions PSS as providing greater clarity and dynamic contrast than its copper conductor technologies.

ZERO-Tech

Dragon BASS incorporates AudioQuest's ZERO-Tech architecture.

Traditional speaker cables have a fixed characteristic impedance. AudioQuest designed ZERO-Tech to eliminate this fixed characteristic impedance by eliminating interaction between the cable's insulation and conductors.

The goal is uncompressed transient-current transfer while maintaining linear RF Noise Dissipation from octave to octave.

That ability to pass large transient currents without restriction is particularly relevant to a cable dedicated to bass and midrange drivers.

Patented RF/ND-Tech

Dragon BASS incorporates AudioQuest's RF-on-ground Noise-Dissipation Technology (RF/ND-Tech).

A cable's ground conductors can act as antennas and pick up radio-frequency noise, potentially carrying that unwanted energy into sensitive audio circuitry.

AudioQuest's patented RF/ND-Tech uses a common-mode phase-cancelling array designed to dramatically reduce RF-induced distortion and signal masking while providing linear Noise Dissipation across the entire length of the cable.

This technology is particularly important to AudioQuest's BASS architecture and is one reason Dragon BASS is purpose-built rather than simply being another Dragon ZERO cable.

Carbon-Based Linearized Noise-Dissipation System

Dragon BASS also employs AudioQuest's comprehensive Carbon-Based Linearized Noise-Dissipation System (NDS).

Multiple shields work with a carbon-based resistive network to convert much of the incoming RF energy into heat. Remaining unwanted energy is drained away from sensitive amplifier circuitry through direction-controlled signal and shield conductors.

AudioQuest calls the system "linearized" because it is engineered to remain effective across an extremely wide bandwidth instead of targeting only selected frequencies.

72V Dielectric-Bias System with Level-X RF Noise-Trap

Dragon BASS incorporates AudioQuest's 72V Dielectric-Bias System (DBS) with Level-X RF Noise-Trap.

The insulation surrounding a conductor also behaves as a dielectric and can store energy. By maintaining a constant bias across that dielectric, DBS is designed to linearize its behavior and significantly improve the cable's ability to dissipate induced noise over a wide bandwidth.

The integrated Level-X RF Noise-Trap pulls additional RF noise out of the cable, further reducing its interaction with the connected audio circuitry.

Direction-Controlled Conductors

Dragon BASS's conductors are carefully controlled for directionality as another part of AudioQuest's RF Noise-Dissipation strategy.

Rather than treating conductor direction as an isolated feature, AudioQuest integrates it with Carbon-Based NDS, RF/ND-Tech, ZERO-Tech, and DBS to control how induced RF energy travels through and exits the cable.

Mythical Creature Cold-Welded Terminations

Dragon BASS uses AudioQuest's premium Mythical Creature cold-welded termination system.

The cable conductors are cold-welded directly to extremely pure Red Copper spades or bananas, eliminating solder as an intermediate material. The bare copper connectors are submerged in pure silver rather than tumbled in a lower-grade plating solution.

AudioQuest also avoids metal in its speaker breakouts and plug casings so those components do not introduce additional RF noise into the conductors.

Standard configurations include:

• 2 U-Spades → 2 U-Spades
• 2 Bananas → 2 Bananas
• 2 Multi-Spades → 2 Multi-Spades

A specialty V-Spade is also available for certain large wingnut-style binding posts. AudioQuest particularly recommends considering U-Spades with its substantial Mythical Creatures cables because they offer broad binding-post compatibility and strong mechanical support.

Available Lengths

At The Grid HiFi, Dragon BASS is sold exclusively as a stereo pair in:

• 8 ft / 2.4 m pair
• 10 ft / 3 m pair
• 12 ft / 3.6 m pair
• 15 ft / 4.6 m pair

Key Features

• Sold as a stereo pair
• Flagship Mythical Creatures BASS speaker cable
• Dedicated to bass and midrange frequencies 10kHz and below
• Designed to partner with Dragon ZERO
• 100% Solid Perfect-Surface Silver (PSS) conductors
• ZERO-Tech
• Patented RF/ND-Tech
• Carbon-Based Linearized Noise-Dissipation System
• 72V Dielectric-Bias System
• Level-X RF Noise-Trap
• Direction-Controlled conductors
• Mythical Creature cold-welded terminations
• Pure-silver-plated Red Copper connectors
• U-Spade, Banana, Multi-Spade, and specialty V-Spade options

Dragon BASS + Dragon ZERO

This is the key to understanding Dragon BASS: it is one half of AudioQuest's ultimate bi-wire speaker cable system.

For a bi-wire loudspeaker, AudioQuest recommends:

Dragon ZERO → Treble
Dragon BASS → Bass / Midrange

The large magnetic fields created by bass energy are therefore kept out of the treble cable, giving upper frequencies a less magnetically disturbed signal path. Dragon BASS adds RF/ND-Tech specifically to address RF noise within the bass/midrange connection.

AudioQuest specifically warns not to bi-wire using two Dragon ZERO cables in parallel. According to AudioQuest, parallel ZERO cables can create a very-high-frequency resonant peak. The correct architecture is one ZERO + one BASS cable.

AudioQuest also offers Dragon in a BiWire COMBO, where the ZERO and BASS cables are joined together at the amplifier end for a cleaner and more convenient installation.

Dragon BASS vs. ThunderBird BASS

This is a major step within the Mythical Creatures family.

ThunderBird BASS uses Solid Perfect-Surface Copper+ (PSC+), while Dragon BASS moves to 100% Solid Perfect-Surface Silver (PSS). Dragon therefore takes AudioQuest's dedicated ZERO + BASS bi-wire concept to its highest conductor level.

The architecture remains centered around ZERO-Tech, RF/ND-Tech, advanced Noise Dissipation, DBS, and dedicated bass/midrange operation, but Dragon's pure PSS signal conductors make it the reference expression of the concept.

Why Buy AudioQuest Dragon BASS from The Grid HiFi?

Dragon BASS is a highly specialized cable and should be configured around the entire system. The loudspeaker's crossover architecture, amplifier binding posts, speaker terminals, cable length, termination type, and matching Dragon ZERO cable all need to be considered.

The Grid HiFi can configure a complete Dragon ZERO + Dragon BASS system specifically for your amplifiers and loudspeakers, including the proper lengths and Banana, U-Spade, Multi-Spade, or specialty termination.

For customers building no-compromise two-channel systems, The Grid can also help determine whether separate Dragon ZERO + BASS pairs or the Dragon BiWire COMBO is the better installation.