High Fidelity Cables- the new kid in town?

marty

Well-Known Member
Apr 20, 2010
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Unless I'm mistaken, I don't know that this product has been discussed previously on the WBF. I learned of these new audio cables and their patented magnetic conduction technology by reading HP's comments in a recent High Fidelity Report (HP's new website).
http://thehighfidelityreport.com/high-fidelity-cables-ct-1-interconnects/

(BTW-I don't think there is any connection between the Report and the cable company even though they both use the term "High Fidelity" in their names).

The company website is here:
http://www.highfidelitycables.com/

It isn't everyday that the venerable HP has something enthusiastic to say about any audio cable since becoming one of Nordost's stalwart champions a long time ago. Yet in his report, he actually suggests there's not only a new kid in town, but the kid has got the goods to potentially de-thrown his previous Nordost reference at a fraction of the price. Now that's saying something.

So my obvious questions are 1) Does anyone have any listening experience with these new High Fidelity cables? 2) More importantly, has anyone heard their presumed sonic attributes in direct comparison to the obvious kings of the hill with which we are familiar with (i.e. Nordost, MIT, Transparent, etc).

This should be an interesting thread. Are these new cables ready for prime time? If you have heard them, are you ready to rumble? :)
 

mep

Member Sponsor & WBF Founding Member
Apr 20, 2010
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Uh, that review was over before it started. Am I missing something? Are there more pages?
 

Lee

Well-Known Member
Feb 3, 2011
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I have not heard them yet.
 

MylesBAstor

Well-Known Member
Apr 20, 2010
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I think that they put the page up two weeks early. It's not April yet.

Harry reviewed the cables half a year ago. They've been transitioning and merging the contents of the two web sites.

So you were saying?
 

mep

Member Sponsor & WBF Founding Member
Apr 20, 2010
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Harry reviewed the cables half a year ago. They've been transitioning and merging the contents of the two web sites.

So you were saying?

Is this yet another venture for HP? What happened to Soundings?
 

esldude

New Member
Is this not the company by the fellow who once owned the now out of business Virtual Dynamics cables?

Magnetic conduction lowers distortion and noise they say. Would be interesting to know how they measured that as cable already has lower distortion and noise than anything it connects at each end.
 

esldude

New Member
Looking at the patent, you wonder about who decides these things.

The patent describes improvements of a magnet attached to the center connector pin of a ferromagnetic material connector. They provide measurements which at -10 db from a computer sound card show better results without the magnet. Then done at -3db better results with the magnet. A really flaky hypothesis for why the -10 db signal obscured results is provided. And from there it is described how using a ferromagnetic wire as well as connector lets the magnet on the center pin provide even more benefits. So proposals for silver plated steel wire with gold plated steel connectors and their magnet to improve signal transmission. And the differences in the standard measures of distortion were quite tiny. So small I believe running the test again one likely gets that much variance without changing anything.

So looks to me like High Fidelity cables are the new name for some quite possibly snake oil based products. But hey HP says their good. They should have put that in the patent. HP heard the electrons as being accelerated he thinks.

You can see the patent here:
http://www.google.com/patents/US8272876

If we had only known, we could have gotten some RG142. Silver plated steel center conductor with teflon insulation, and pure silver braided shield. Mate them to some steel RCAs, put a tiny permanent magnet in them (the N pole goes toward the pin) and we would have had it. But now the process is patented. So we can't do that without permission from patent holders.
 

Joe Galbraith

Senior Member/Sponsor
Apr 22, 2010
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It is my understanding that the company is headed up by Rick Schultz. The same Rick Schultz of Virtual Dynamics. He was experimenting with magnetics toward the end of the Virtual Dynamics venture.
 

mep

Member Sponsor & WBF Founding Member
Apr 20, 2010
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It is my understanding that the company is headed up by Rick Schultz. The same Rick Schultz of Virtual Dynamics. He was experimenting with magnetics toward the end of the Virtual Dynamics venture.

That's not the guy who mods equipment with foil and blue goo is it?
 

microstrip

VIP/Donor
May 30, 2010
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taters

New Member
Jun 6, 2012
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Unless I'm mistaken, I don't know that this product has been discussed previously on the WBF. I learned of these new audio cables and their patented magnetic conduction technology by reading HP's comments in a recent High Fidelity Report (HP's new website).
http://thehighfidelityreport.com/high-fidelity-cables-ct-1-interconnects/

After looking at the prices it makes a lot more sense to deal with the cable companies that sell factory direct. Why pay the 50 to 70% dealer markup.

(BTW-I don't think there is any connection between the Report and the cable company even though they both use the term "High Fidelity" in their names).

The company website is here:
http://www.highfidelitycables.com/

It isn't everyday that the venerable HP has something enthusiastic to say about any audio cable since becoming one of Nordost's stalwart champions a long time ago. Yet in his report, he actually suggests there's not only a new kid in town, but the kid has got the goods to potentially de-thrown his previous Nordost reference at a fraction of the price. Now that's saying something.

So my obvious questions are 1) Does anyone have any listening experience with these new High Fidelity cables? 2) More importantly, has anyone heard their presumed sonic attributes in direct comparison to the obvious kings of the hill with which we are familiar with (i.e. Nordost, MIT, Transparent, etc).

This should be an interesting thread. Are these new cables ready for prime time? If you have heard them, are you ready to rumble? :)

After looking up their price of cables it makes more sense to buy from a cable company that sells factory direct. Why pay a dealer 50 to 70% markup for a cable with no resale value. If you want to pay full pop buy from an established company. At least you can get half you're money back If you decide to resell them.
 

beaur

Fleetwood Sound
Oct 12, 2011
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Brooklyn
Possibly so you can have a dealer nearby so that you can evaluate said cables against the competition, and if they are a good dealer trade the cables n for almost as much as you could sell them for.

While I too think the price is high it's nowhere near the price of some competitors and as I haven't heard them cant compare relative value.


After looking up their price of cables it makes more sense to buy from a cable company that sells factory direct. Why pay a dealer 50 to 70% markup for a cable with no resale value. If you want to pay full pop buy from an established company. At least you can get half you're money back If you decide to resell them.
 

Joe Galbraith

Senior Member/Sponsor
Apr 22, 2010
214
0
0
www.arsetmusica.com
That's not the guy who mods equipment with foil and blue goo is it?

Not that I know of. His early power cords, like the PC One, were sold direct and were an amazing bang for the buck (less than $100 for a 6 ft cable). They were really thick, heavy and stiff. They were a little difficult to work with in close quarters but they were really good cables. The company was in Western Canada.
 

es347

VIP/Donor & WBF Founding Member
Apr 20, 2010
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He has several videos on Youtube calling himself The Oddiophile ...watch and draw your own conclusions..
 

marty

Well-Known Member
Apr 20, 2010
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If we had only known, we could have gotten some RG142. Silver plated steel center conductor with teflon insulation, and pure silver braided shield. Mate them to some steel RCAs, put a tiny permanent magnet in them (the N pole goes toward the pin) and we would have had it. But now the process is patented. So we can't do that without permission from patent holders.

Actually, you can do exactly that. All the patent means is that you cannot commercialize his invention.
 

microstrip

VIP/Donor
May 30, 2010
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Actually, you can do exactly that. All the patent means is that you cannot commercialize his invention.

Yes. But patents are not a cooking recipe. They present the general idea and some specific characteristics of the implementation, so no one can commercialize something based in their working principle, but not enough for DIY replication. But once you add some DIY bias expectation the replica will sound much better than the original product! ;)
 

esldude

New Member
Not a lawyer. But information I find from lawyers is in the US you are not allowed to make or use even for personal use patented items without permission. You aren't likely to be prosecuted. But aren't actually being legal if you do such a thing. In any case without spending at least a thousand bucks plus no one would be convinced the result equaled the magic secret sauce of the patent holder it appears.
 

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