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AudioQuest's Mackenzie sits third in the Rivers series, above Red River. It is a two-cable design, one lead per channel. A carbon shield, a separate ground wire and Hanging-Silver plugs make it the first Rivers cable with upper-range parts.
Other length & termination options are available. Call us to discuss your needs.
The wires are solid Perfect-Surface Copper+, AudioQuest's highest grade of copper, which it calls PSC+. The wire is drawn with an ultra-smooth surface, and AudioQuest says this cuts the distortion caused by grain boundaries. Solid wire also removes strand interaction.
The wire is also direction-controlled. AudioQuest says drawn wire has a grain with a direction. It listens to every batch, picks the direction, and marks the jacket with arrows. Point the arrows at the amplifier and noise drains where AudioQuest intends.
The insulation is Hard-Cell Foam, injected with nitrogen to form air pockets. AudioQuest says the stiff foam holds the signal pair in a fixed geometry. Air stores almost no signal energy, so little is released late as smear.
The layout is what AudioQuest calls Triple-Balanced. A third wire carries the ground on its own. The shield never has to double as a signal path. AudioQuest says both signal legs then travel equally clean routes.
Mackenzie ends in AudioQuest's Hanging-Silver XLR plug. The body is pure Purple Copper. The parts hang in the plating bath instead of tumbling, which AudioQuest says gives a more even coat of silver. The plug is cold welded to the wire, so there is no solder in the path. It latches into the jack.
Around the cable is a three-layer shield with a carbon layer. AudioQuest calls it Carbon-Based 3-Layer Noise-Dissipation. An ordinary shield drains radio noise into the ground, and AudioQuest says that dirties the reference the signal is measured against. The carbon layers soak up the noise first.
hi-fi+ named Mackenzie its 2026 award winner among cables under £1,000 on March 19, 2026. Reviewer Eric van Spelde had found it made "a night-and-day difference" in his modest system.
Yagiz, reviewing the XLR version for Headfonia on May 26, 2022, heard "cleaner, faster transients" and a presentation that "feels more spacious and dynamic." He found the plugs "heavy and well-made."
Run Mackenzie from a balanced XLR output on your DAC, streamer, CD player or phono stage to a balanced XLR input on your preamp or amplifier. Point the arrows on the jacket toward the amplifier. Line up the pins and push until the latch clicks.
Then listen.
Measure the route the cable will really take between your components, around shelves and behind the rack. Then add a little slack. As audio legend George Cardas puts it, "A cable that's just long enough usually turns out to be just not long enough." Keep the left and right cables the same length. We recommend a matched pair.
Balanced XLR works when both components have XLR jacks, and we recommend using XLRs whenever they do. If one component has only RCA jacks, use an RCA cable instead of an adapter. You only get the possible benefits of a balanced output with a pure XLR-to-XLR connection.
If your amplifier and speakers sit far from your source, we recommend a long interconnect over a long speaker cable. A really long interconnect affects system performance less than a really long speaker cable.
An interconnect often stays in a system for years, so it is easy to overlook. Look again when something else changes: a new DAC, streamer or phono stage, a better amplifier, or a move to components with balanced XLR jacks.
An interconnect is one link in the chain. It usually joins these categories.
The XLR version of AudioQuest's Hanging-Silver plug: silver over a body of pure Purple Copper, cold welded to the wire so no solder sits in the path.
The cable has three wires: positive, negative and a separate ground. AudioQuest says this keeps the shield out of the signal path, so both signal legs travel equally clean routes.
Toward the component that receives the signal, normally the amplifier or preamp. AudioQuest sets the direction of the wire and says the arrows let noise drain the right way.
AudioQuest's Carbon-Based 3-Layer Noise-Dissipation. It soaks up radio noise before the noise reaches the layer tied to ground. AudioQuest says this keeps the ground reference clean.
A limited lifetime warranty to the original owner, for cables bought from an authorized US dealer. AudioQuest will repair or replace a defective cable that has not been abused. Keep your proof of purchase.
AudioQuest Yukon XLR is the next rung. It keeps the Rivers layout and the Hanging-Silver plugs and moves the wires into Polyethylene Air-Tubes.
The most popular configurations are shown on this page. If your system requires a different length or termination, call our audio experts. We’ll help you choose the right configuration and arrange a custom cable for your system.
Want to learn more about interconnects, solid-core cables, or RCA versus XLR? Visit our Learning Center for guides, tips, and expert advice.
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