bimasta
Addicted Member
I lived overseas during the 1980s (I’m American). The only audio magazines I saw were British, so I don’t know if the furor was repeated in the US audio press.
The discussion of wires and cables as independent components, of greater or lesser quality, had only recently begun — and a highly lucrative spin-off industry was born. Hitachi ran some splashy ads — The Cable Wars are over! We have created the perfect cable! It cannot be surpassed! — words to that effect.
The outrage was instantaneous. “Insufferable arrogance!” UK critics immediately set out to demolish Hitachi’s claims. It had little to do with the cables themselves — the Brits had seen their proud auto industry destroyed — by the Japanese. They’d seen prime real estate in London bought up, and their art galleries stripped of Impressionist masterpieces — by the Japanese. Now they were attacking British wire? We can't let them get away with it!
Fifteen years later I was in a thrift shop in Los Angeles. There was a box of RCA-terminated interconnects for $5. I looked, and they were the infamous Hitachi cables. Five 1-meter pairs, two 2-meter pairs. I bought the box. I figured Hitachi wouldn’t have made such grandiose claims if they weren’t at least good. And for $5?
Rewired my whole system with them. Very good. Better than the prior cables, which were all allegedly “High F End”. The Hitachi used twin-core LC-OFC for signal +/-, and a shield floating at one end for Ground. The RCA plugs were basic, almost an afterthought, and the plating is wearing off after all these years. I should replace the RCAs.
Has anyone run across these cables? Any comments?
The discussion of wires and cables as independent components, of greater or lesser quality, had only recently begun — and a highly lucrative spin-off industry was born. Hitachi ran some splashy ads — The Cable Wars are over! We have created the perfect cable! It cannot be surpassed! — words to that effect.
The outrage was instantaneous. “Insufferable arrogance!” UK critics immediately set out to demolish Hitachi’s claims. It had little to do with the cables themselves — the Brits had seen their proud auto industry destroyed — by the Japanese. They’d seen prime real estate in London bought up, and their art galleries stripped of Impressionist masterpieces — by the Japanese. Now they were attacking British wire? We can't let them get away with it!
Fifteen years later I was in a thrift shop in Los Angeles. There was a box of RCA-terminated interconnects for $5. I looked, and they were the infamous Hitachi cables. Five 1-meter pairs, two 2-meter pairs. I bought the box. I figured Hitachi wouldn’t have made such grandiose claims if they weren’t at least good. And for $5?
Rewired my whole system with them. Very good. Better than the prior cables, which were all allegedly “High F End”. The Hitachi used twin-core LC-OFC for signal +/-, and a shield floating at one end for Ground. The RCA plugs were basic, almost an afterthought, and the plating is wearing off after all these years. I should replace the RCAs.
Has anyone run across these cables? Any comments?
