Interesting story of cable history from PS Audio
BlueFox
Posts: 15,251
There is an interesting Polk reference in it. Apparently, Polk is considered one of the high-end cable founders.
"Good stories are worth repeating; and I think this one qualifies in light of our most recent posts on the oil of snakes and cables.
The summer of 1977 found my partner Stan and I looking to increase our sales of phono stages and we thought we would try and entice a few dealers to carry the product. *Up until this day we were 100% direct-to-customer, something you see more of today in high-end audio, but back then we were pretty much alone in our direct sales approach.
We were as confident as all 30-something-year-old*entrepreneurs*are quite certain our phono stage kicked everyone*elses*butts although we knew the Audio Research SP3A was much better than ours and we were sticking to our story.
There were two big dealers we were interested in, Jonas Miller and Absolute Audio, both well known high-end audio dealers of the day in Los Angeles. *Jonas Miller was a bit of a stuffed shirt and when it came to auditioning new products from unknown people like us, he wanted nothing to do with it. *Make a name for yourselves and come see me.
Absolute Audio was the exact opposite. *Located off the 5 freeway in Santa Ana California, it was owned by Neil Sinclair and managed by Mike Moffat. *Neil eventually sold the shop and went into business with Mike starting what became Theta Digital but at the time he was the second most important dealer in the LA basin. *He and Mike agreed to give us an audition to see if we passed muster.
Stan and I hopped in my 1969 Dodge and drove the 3.5 hours from Santa Maria to Santa Ana. *During those days the freeways were made from concrete slabs with expansion joints between the pours and my old Dodge didnt have much of a suspension left as I had tried to put lifters on the car so I have a very distinct memory of bouncing down the road with much noise and discomfort but then we arrived.
Neal wasnt there but Mike was. *We spent a few hours demonstrating the little phono stage and he was mightily impressed Mike, the engineer, had to take it apart and see what was inside so taken with its ability to best anything else they had in the shop at the time.
As we were packing up, Mike asked if we wanted to hear something new in audio something that made no sense whatsoever but was guaranteed to blow us away. *Sure. *Heck yeah!
We sat back down in the main demo room where the Quads were installed and played a record I am pretty sure it was off the Fleetwood Mac Rumors album which was just released and the hot Audiophile ticket of the day. *We listened, noted what we heard and were ready for Mike to insert the new piece of kit that would blow us away. *Mike went behind the loudspeakers, then disappeared behind the equipment stack and set to play the same track again. *Our collective jaws dropped. *What sort of madness was this?
Gone was the rather flat sound coming from the small electrostats and in its place a three dimensionality I never knew the Quads were capable of. *Stunning was the change we heard. *Dubious, at best, we asked for the original piece of gear to be put back on Mike complied and the dimensionality collapsed. *We all stepped outside and smoked a cigarette (yeah, I cant believe I smoked back then but we all did).
After a break we went back to try once again same thing. *OK Mike, what gives? *Well, you wont believe me if I told you so come have a look. *We walked behind the speakers and there on the floor lay the standard lamp cable speaker wire of the day and connected to the Quads was a set of round, thick, Christmas colored wire the likes of which wed never seen before.
Mike looked at us with a straight face and said Yeah, the only difference is the speaker cables. *I changed from what everything in the store is wired with to this new stuff from Japan called Cobra Cable. *(This cable was made of many strands of very fine wire called Litz wire and was later marketed by Polk Audio as Polk Sound Cable, but it started life as an import to a few cognoscenti like Mike)
That was my first experience with wire and its stuck with me to this day. *It wasnt long after that an entire industry grew out of this discovery. *Monster, Vampire, Polk, AudioQuest, you name them everyone wanted into this new game and it was a game changer to be sure.
Absolute Audio was our first dealer, Jonas Miller never considered us worthy enough for his store, and the cable industry just exploded after all that. *What an interesting time to be a part of the history of high-end audio.
*Forward to a friend and help us engage more readers"
http://audioshark.org/industry-news-153/firsts-cables-1558.html#.Udczh8u9KK0
"Good stories are worth repeating; and I think this one qualifies in light of our most recent posts on the oil of snakes and cables.
The summer of 1977 found my partner Stan and I looking to increase our sales of phono stages and we thought we would try and entice a few dealers to carry the product. *Up until this day we were 100% direct-to-customer, something you see more of today in high-end audio, but back then we were pretty much alone in our direct sales approach.
We were as confident as all 30-something-year-old*entrepreneurs*are quite certain our phono stage kicked everyone*elses*butts although we knew the Audio Research SP3A was much better than ours and we were sticking to our story.
There were two big dealers we were interested in, Jonas Miller and Absolute Audio, both well known high-end audio dealers of the day in Los Angeles. *Jonas Miller was a bit of a stuffed shirt and when it came to auditioning new products from unknown people like us, he wanted nothing to do with it. *Make a name for yourselves and come see me.
Absolute Audio was the exact opposite. *Located off the 5 freeway in Santa Ana California, it was owned by Neil Sinclair and managed by Mike Moffat. *Neil eventually sold the shop and went into business with Mike starting what became Theta Digital but at the time he was the second most important dealer in the LA basin. *He and Mike agreed to give us an audition to see if we passed muster.
Stan and I hopped in my 1969 Dodge and drove the 3.5 hours from Santa Maria to Santa Ana. *During those days the freeways were made from concrete slabs with expansion joints between the pours and my old Dodge didnt have much of a suspension left as I had tried to put lifters on the car so I have a very distinct memory of bouncing down the road with much noise and discomfort but then we arrived.
Neal wasnt there but Mike was. *We spent a few hours demonstrating the little phono stage and he was mightily impressed Mike, the engineer, had to take it apart and see what was inside so taken with its ability to best anything else they had in the shop at the time.
As we were packing up, Mike asked if we wanted to hear something new in audio something that made no sense whatsoever but was guaranteed to blow us away. *Sure. *Heck yeah!
We sat back down in the main demo room where the Quads were installed and played a record I am pretty sure it was off the Fleetwood Mac Rumors album which was just released and the hot Audiophile ticket of the day. *We listened, noted what we heard and were ready for Mike to insert the new piece of kit that would blow us away. *Mike went behind the loudspeakers, then disappeared behind the equipment stack and set to play the same track again. *Our collective jaws dropped. *What sort of madness was this?
Gone was the rather flat sound coming from the small electrostats and in its place a three dimensionality I never knew the Quads were capable of. *Stunning was the change we heard. *Dubious, at best, we asked for the original piece of gear to be put back on Mike complied and the dimensionality collapsed. *We all stepped outside and smoked a cigarette (yeah, I cant believe I smoked back then but we all did).
After a break we went back to try once again same thing. *OK Mike, what gives? *Well, you wont believe me if I told you so come have a look. *We walked behind the speakers and there on the floor lay the standard lamp cable speaker wire of the day and connected to the Quads was a set of round, thick, Christmas colored wire the likes of which wed never seen before.
Mike looked at us with a straight face and said Yeah, the only difference is the speaker cables. *I changed from what everything in the store is wired with to this new stuff from Japan called Cobra Cable. *(This cable was made of many strands of very fine wire called Litz wire and was later marketed by Polk Audio as Polk Sound Cable, but it started life as an import to a few cognoscenti like Mike)
That was my first experience with wire and its stuck with me to this day. *It wasnt long after that an entire industry grew out of this discovery. *Monster, Vampire, Polk, AudioQuest, you name them everyone wanted into this new game and it was a game changer to be sure.
Absolute Audio was our first dealer, Jonas Miller never considered us worthy enough for his store, and the cable industry just exploded after all that. *What an interesting time to be a part of the history of high-end audio.
*Forward to a friend and help us engage more readers"
http://audioshark.org/industry-news-153/firsts-cables-1558.html#.Udczh8u9KK0
Lumin X1 file player, Westminster Labs interconnect cable
Sony XA-5400ES SACD; Pass XP-22 pre; X600.5 amps
Magico S5 MKII Mcast Rose speakers; SPOD spikes
Shunyata Triton v3/Typhon QR on source, Denali 2000 (2) on amps
Shunyata Sigma XLR analog ICs, Sigma speaker cables
Shunyata Sigma HC (2), Sigma Analog, Sigma Digital, Z Anaconda (3) power cables
Mapleshade Samson V.3 four shelf solid maple rack, Micropoint brass footers
Three 20 amp circuits.
Sony XA-5400ES SACD; Pass XP-22 pre; X600.5 amps
Magico S5 MKII Mcast Rose speakers; SPOD spikes
Shunyata Triton v3/Typhon QR on source, Denali 2000 (2) on amps
Shunyata Sigma XLR analog ICs, Sigma speaker cables
Shunyata Sigma HC (2), Sigma Analog, Sigma Digital, Z Anaconda (3) power cables
Mapleshade Samson V.3 four shelf solid maple rack, Micropoint brass footers
Three 20 amp circuits.
Post edited by BlueFox on
Comments
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Great story.......just waiting for the naysayers to chime in.Political Correctness'.........defined
"A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."
President of Club Polk -
Very cool read!--Gary--
Onkyo Integra M504, Bottlehead Foreplay III, Denon SACD, Thiel CS2.3, NHT VT-2, VT-3 and Evolution T6, Infinity RSIIIa, SDA1C and a few dozen other speakers around the house I change in and out. -
The Gear... Carver "Statement" Mono-blocks, Mcintosh C2300 Arcam AVR20, Oppo UDP-203 4K Blu-ray player, Sony XBR70x850B 4k, Polk Audio Legend L800 with height modules, L400 Center Channel Polk audio AB800 "in-wall" surrounds. Marantz MM7025 stereo amp. Simaudio Moon 680d DSD
“When once a Republic is corrupted, there is no possibility of remedying any of the growing evils but by removing the corruption and restoring its lost principles; every other correction is either useless or a new evil.”— Thomas Jefferson -
Proud and loyal citizen of the Digital Domain and Solid State Country!
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Thanks DK. It was good to read some posts by the Xcrapper. I miss the lunatic fringe. They are what makes some threads entertaining.
How are your X600.5 amps doing? Did your power bill increase? I have a chance to get a 5 month old pair with 31 months left on the warranty. At 14K it is a lot, but the same as a new pair of Classe CT-600 amps.Lumin X1 file player, Westminster Labs interconnect cable
Sony XA-5400ES SACD; Pass XP-22 pre; X600.5 amps
Magico S5 MKII Mcast Rose speakers; SPOD spikes
Shunyata Triton v3/Typhon QR on source, Denali 2000 (2) on amps
Shunyata Sigma XLR analog ICs, Sigma speaker cables
Shunyata Sigma HC (2), Sigma Analog, Sigma Digital, Z Anaconda (3) power cables
Mapleshade Samson V.3 four shelf solid maple rack, Micropoint brass footers
Three 20 amp circuits. -
"Xcrapper" :twisted:...I had to go back and see who you were referring to. I don't think we've heard from him in a while.
The X600.5 continue to impress me as I go back through my music collection. They are one of the best audio investments I have made.
The X600.5s draw over twice as much idle current as the JC 1s, so I have a commensurate increase in my power bill. Leaving the JC 1s on 24/7 added $11 a month to my power bill. Leaving the X600.5s on 24/7 adds $24 a month to my power bill...and it's worth it!
Looking forward to your X600.5 review. It's always nice to have someone to compare notes with.:cool:Proud and loyal citizen of the Digital Domain and Solid State Country! -
Good read.
I remember in 1972/3 being told how 16 gauge lamp cord was a nice upgrade over the 18 gauge zip cord most of us were using at the time. I don't remember ever hearing anything back then about premium wire. And forget about termination, there were cheap aluminum spades and that's all I remember seeing. -
I had them and my best friend had them, not sure what to say......we sold em.
I know 1 guy that is in the "higher end" on the net (still), and swears by the Cobra cable.
Me?
Not so much.:redface:
You have to consider their age though and the fact they may be "tarnished/corroded" more than most current production.
That said, I was not the biggest fan even back then (20 years ago?).
'90's?
Hate to rain on a parade but maybe someone that has actually tried them can chime in?
The whole "history" thing is very interesting to me, the actual cables........not so much.Testing
Testing
Testing -
I think your missing the point Paul. It's not so much about the Cobra cables, but realizing cables can come in many flavors thus opening a new industry. Kinda like eating plain vanilla ice cream all your life and walking into a 33 flavors.HT SYSTEM-
Sony 850c 4k
Pioneer elite vhx 21
Sony 4k BRP
SVS SB-2000
Polk Sig. 20's
Polk FX500 surrounds
Cables-
Acoustic zen Satori speaker cables
Acoustic zen Matrix 2 IC's
Wireworld eclipse 7 ic's
Audio metallurgy ga-o digital cable
Kitchen
Sonos zp90
Grant Fidelity tube dac
B&k 1420
lsi 9's -
Way back in the 70's I was helping out a friend with his demo room at AES
We had made some speaker cables out of welding cable with soldered ends and people just loved them.
I didn't really think they sounded any better but they sure were impressive.
What REALLY made our demo better than anyone else's was the audio source.
We had recorded the board mix from Fleetwood Mac concerts with a new gadget that we had hand carried back from Japan.
The very first PCM audio encoder/decoder. The PCM-1 It was the very first ultra low noise digital signal anyone had ever heard. The signal was recorder on Sony 3/4 Umatic decks. It was a combined effort with Tychobrahe Sound, Gene Czerwinski from Cerwin Vega and Phoenix Sound -
It was good to read some posts by the Xcrapper. I miss the lunatic fringe. They are what makes some threads entertaining.
Same here. I surely miss that knucklehead! lol--Gary--
Onkyo Integra M504, Bottlehead Foreplay III, Denon SACD, Thiel CS2.3, NHT VT-2, VT-3 and Evolution T6, Infinity RSIIIa, SDA1C and a few dozen other speakers around the house I change in and out.
