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Cables - When Did it All Start?

OK, here we go...

This is not another "I just installed cable X and the soundstage and microdynamics just shot through the roof..." or "What cables do you guys recommend for..." but a simple question. When did people start noticing that different cables in audio gear apparently sound different? Or another related question, who was the first cable company to offer different "audiophile" cables?

I do not have golden ears and with two children constantly chirping in the foreground/background I can barely hear the music most times anyway, thus I really have no practical experience if cables make a difference.

Regards,
david_berry
viridian's avatar
viridian
4,184 posts
 
I think that the Polk speaker cable came out right around the same time as the Fulton stuff. The highly capacitive Polk fried a lot of amps in it's day, but a few still swear by it.
david_berry OP
211 posts
 
I have read many threads on the merits of cables that sometimes have broke out into a "cable war". The question just stuck me last night was how long has this been going on?

Regards,
sidssp
1,077 posts
 
I don't remember who the first cable company was but my first high-end cable was a pair of speaker cable from Mark Levinson in the late 70's. The main design concern at that time was to minimize skin effect and resistance. So the Mark Levinson cable was very thick and was made up of thousands of very fine pure copper wires.
jayctoy's avatar
jayctoy
1,962 posts
 
I dont know if this would help,Iam not sure if its
also true,One salesman at tweeter told me the reason
why monster cable are cheaper but good.He said
that Noel Lee got the patent,So everyone who sells
pay him royalty?WILLING TO BE CORRECTED IF WRONG.
I MYSELF,I want to know.
rockvirgo
587 posts
 
In my experience, Gold-ends were the first ever "fru fru" interconnects, circa 1975. They had a thick, black rubbery outer insulation, coil spring strain reliefs and gold plated, solid metal RCA's: basically everything the OEM and Radio Shack cables lacked. Then along came the monster.
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