I met Keith Eichmann by chance in 1997 when sourcing material from a local cable manufacturer in Brisbane. It appeared there were two people in Brisbane (Keith and myself) prototyping High-End cables at the same time, so the manufacturer put us together. As it turned out - Keith's theories on cable and connector design were more compelling than mine.

We collaborated for a couple of years to turn theory into practice, and in 1999 Keith proposed a license arrangement whereby I would license his technology and commercialise the products. Hence the start of Eichmann Technologies International.

The Company now exports products to over 30 countries, and our connectors are used by over 60 cable manufacturers around the world.

I first entered the Hi-Fi Industry in 1980 as a distributor of products in our state of Queensland. This led to establishing Hi-Fi Shows in the mid-eighties and now full circle back to manufacturing and distribution.

From the very beginning our philosophy has been to preserve electron flow - from the wall socket to loudspeaker. For example, our AC cable incorporates a unique fractal shape that reduces resonance and provides a cleaner flow of electrons to the power supplies of components. The interconnect and speaker cables incorporate an EMF buffer system to protect electrons in the signal carrying conductors, while our Bullet Plug and Bayonet Plug connectors deliver electrons in the most efficient manner to sockets and binding posts.

The philosophy involves thinking small. Very small! At the electron level.

And then designing a methodology to enhance electron flow. However, the proof is always in the listening - and this is where I was convinced the Eichmann philosophy is correct. In fact, the first time I listened to a prototype Bullet Plug, I was amazed by the detail, dynamics and transparency that was completely hidden when using standard RCA connectors.

In a similar sense, the initial Eichmann cable designs also provided more musical information and holographic imaging when compared to many other High-End cables. I recall telling Keith that his cable was the great "untangler" where separation of detail was better than anything previously encountered. In fact, when compared to the expensive cable system I was using at the time, the Eichmann design was like an "open window" allowing a much better view of the music.

In saying that, it has taken time to fully develop the technology, and I believe we have finally achieved our goals (and the Eichmann philosophy) with the "Series 2" range.

The Internet has changed the face of the cable industry, as anyone with a soldering iron and work table can now enter the market and sell their products via a website or via eBay/Audiogon auction sites.

The upside is that consumers have more choice, and many of these cable manufacturers produce quality products. However the market is now extremely crowded, and sorting the good from the bad becomes difficult.

In the old days, your local Dealer would often make a recommendation based on his listening tests. Thesedays, choosing the right cable is more complicated.

Our company policy is to offer High-End performance at "affordable" pricing. So we’ve never entered the world of ultra-expensive cables. However I can understand the perception of poor value-for-money when some companies charge thousands of dollars for short lengths of wire!

On the other hand, many companies invest large sums of money in research and development to deliver innovative, high performance cable products that progress the state-of-the-art. These companies obviously need a return on that investment.

For the audiophile, the challenge is to "listen" and only invest in those cables that provide high quality sound at realistic prices.

The "snake oil" factor is often related to expensive cables, and is introduced to explain the price and create interest in the product. For example, some companies will incorporate exotic conductor materials, proprietary insulation materials, special weaves etc to set their product apart from the competition. Occasionally such measures provide improved sound quality but in many cases it’s more hype than substance.

As always, we recommend that audiophiles listen to cable products with their own ears and ignore the hype!

I believe there will be a consolidation in the Industry, with many companies dropping by the wayside. In other words, the strong will get stronger. I also see more attention being placed on AC Cables which is the new frontier as far as audio is concerned. We’ve recently collaborated with a fractal mathematician from Germany to create a very advanced AC Cable using fractal resonance control. The result is outstanding.

The future for Eichmann Technologies is continued development of our cable line together with our connectors still the weak link in most systems. We recently released our new CablePod binding post, and have received excellent feedback.