Audioquest History Established In 1980 By Founder Bill Low

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Audioquest History

HISTORY

AudioQuest was not so much founded as it was evolved. When Bill Low created
AudioQuest in 1980 it was really just a small variation of the audio
activities he had started in 1972.

During high school and early college, Bill had struggled to have the best
audio system he could. He had built dozens of Heathkit and Dynakit
amplifiers, preamps and tuners for classmates. Each US$10 or $15 he earned
building kits went to buy records or to upgrade to a better piece of used
equipment.

While at college in Oregon, Bill realized that instead of simply offering
audio component recommendations to other students, he should sell the
equipment. His small appointment-only business evolved from selling BSR
turntables and Hitachi receivers in 1972, to Linn Sondek, Radford, Celestion
and Yamaha (first dealer in the Northwest) in 1974. In 1975 his little shop
was the largest Linn Sondek dealer in the US.

By 1976, with college long over, the urge to move to California was
irresistible. The retail business was passed on to a friend and Bill set
himself up as a manufacturers¹ representative in northern California, an
especially conservative market. Dealers were fond of saying: "If I don't
already carry it, I obviously don't need it." It was difficult to even get a
chance to demonstrate the superb equipment Bill was representing, which
included Decca, Audionics, Koss Electrostatic, AEA, Dunlap Clarke, and
Celestion among others.

During visits to southern California, Bill learned that the two markets were
very different. The standard answer from the southern dealers was: "Sure,
bring it in and let¹s listen." So, in 1977 Bill moved south. Unfortunately,
the combination of open-minded dealers and excellent equipment (Cizek,
Decca, RAM, Koss Electrostatic, RH Labs, PSE, Ariston, Armstrong, Rogers,
Chartwell) still didn't work. The truth was (and is) that Bill was just
plain not good at selling! He never became a professional salesperson, he
never learned how to sell other peoples' products.

After six years inside the audio business, both as a retail proprietor and a
manufacturers¹ representative, Bill once more started a by-appointment-only
store out of his living room in Santa Monica. This time Bill made one small
but very important decision Š he decided to make custom audio cable for
his store.

Audio cable became a visible subject in the US in 1976 when Polk Audio
introduced a Japanese sourced cable under the name Cobra Cable. This high
capacitance/low inductance litz cable encouraged some amplifiers into
self-destruction, but it usually made systems sound better. By 1978, Polk,
Bob Fulton, and Jonas Miller Sound had made audio cable an important subject
for those at the leading edge of audio.

Since the 1960s, Bill had appreciated the advantages of using better than
average cable. In 1977 Bill bought a spool of the 12 awg lamp cord that Noel
Lee (future "Head Monster") was selling to his dealers in northern
California (Bill and Noel used to sub-rep each other's lines in the two
California territories). In 1978, Bill and another small retailer cooperated
in ordering a custom-made twisted pair litz speaker cable. In some ways Bill
is embarrassed to remember this cable which he refers to as "original
recipe" Š it had 435 strands per conductor and didn't use very good copper.
However, as a starting point it was really very good. It clearly
outperformed the Fulton Gold cable that was considered top-of-the-hill at
that time. It was spiraled and it did not have any electrical contact
between bare strands.

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