Cables - When Did it All Start?

My first audiophile cable purchase also occurred about this time, (mid 1970’s).

Mine was the Peterson Litz, a tiny diameter interconnect with a jewel like jacket and gold RCA connections. I found out later it was manufactured from surplus military aircraft communications cable.

Steve McCormack was the culprit that introduced me to this high end cable. I clearly remember being confused as to why it effected performance (wire is wire).

Unfortunately for me, the Peterson was soon defeated by later versions from Peterson, followed by Cardas and Audioquest (among others). Fast forward to today and find my personal bank account empty, due to the stunning performance offered by Purist Audio Design.

Considering the evolution of speaker drivers, power supplies, digital players and phono cartridges, it was only a matter of time for high performance cables to be recognized as components instead of accessories.

I remember buying a pair of "Cobra Cable" speaker wires back in 1976. (I'm not sure if this was the actual name of the cables.) They were multi-stranded thin gauge lacquer insulated wires (green and orange to represent "+" and "-") woven in a 90 degree multi-layering patterning. The construction was supposed to reduce capacitance. Looked real cool, too, since the outer insulation was clear! I was into pretty good mid-fi, back then, and these cables made a big difference in the fidelity of the mid's and hi's, over lamp zip cord!

For me it was AudioTechnica interconnects in 1977. "....whadda mean they'll improve my system?" Yikes!! I wish I had the money I have spent on wire. It would probably pay for half of my new PT Turbo.

FatParrot: The "Cobra Cables" were the Polk's that Viridian mentioned. Their design reduced inductance, not capacitance. This design was VERY high in capacitance per foot and sent many an amp into oscillation and an early death.

As to who actually "started" all of this, i really don't know. I want to say that Bob Fulton was at least partially responsible, but i really don't know for sure. I've got a 12' pair of the 4 gauge Fulton Gold's. If you want to see REAL "monster" cables, there you go : )

As far as the Polk's go, i think that they were made for Polk overseas in the Orient. As such, they might have been available in Japan, etc... quite a bit before making their appearance here in the USA. Monitor Audio out of the UK also sold some similar cables back in the mid to late 1970's if i remember correctly.

I've also got a pair of the Discwasher "Smoglifter" interconnects that Rock mentions. These were also made for Discwasher somewhere in the Orient from what i can remember and were probably available there prior to finding their way onto our shores.

As far as Noel Lee / Monster Cable goes, from what i can gather, Noel saw an opening in the market and went for it. I don't think that any of his designs were ever original or innovative. He's just good at marketing and knowing how to turn a profit. Maybe J-10 can fill us in with a little bit o' "Monster History" if he checks out this thread. Sean
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Sean, you are absolutely right! They were called Cobra Cables, the memories just come rushing back.
Marty