High Fidelity Cable replaces NPS 1260

Jerryg123

If you get to go by High Fidelity Cable please report back

@jerryg123 Thanks in advance for checking while in Frisco.

@68pete Thanks for the reply.

@jayctoy I remember working with you on your order and am truely happy that you are happy with your end product. 

I believe (from my limited intuition of the company) what is listed on the company Audiogon is legit and their might be more listings on cableco. Though I cannot say if they'll be refreshed. I truely do wish that HFC and Rick are able to come back in some shape or form in the future as Q45 was nowhere near the end of Rick's ideas. 

If anyone has questions about products you're welcome to shoot me a message here, as I've deleted all of the social media monitoring off of my phone. 

Keep your ears open and as always, enjoy the music. 

Audio connectors get dirty. After being Manufactured not cleaned, plug-ing  and unplugging them. When connecting and disconnecting material is transferred between connectors and can create change in impedance and a distortion. A Gigabit fiber optics network's cable must to be cleaned when the fibers are plugged in and unplugged, if not you get error messaged. Must be a mild acid and stop.  Good Luck

Jim

Jim

@cd45123 

I have placed 1260 on my Purple fuses and inside my Classe processors power harness pins. 

I cannot tell you if it has made a difference but I'm sure it has to some level. 

I'll be putting it on my power cords and even on my vacuum tube pins that go into my Ares Magnum phono drive. 

@lowrider57 

I have a nearly brand new bottle of the NPS1260 which I've used some of. 

My concern of yours is shared. Is the Q45T really 2x better sonically that the HFC website claims? 

Even Ethan at The Cable Company told me that even though there is a new formulation, that doesn't make the 1260 less good. But I don't think he's had the chance to test it himself or has gotten feedback yet....Still, if the Q45T leads to superior sonics over the 1260, I would like to use it. 

From late 2011 when Rick launched HFC, to late 2014 I helped on the digital side. I did all the website, marketing, banners, lightbox photography of all the products, contacted a heap of reviewers and websites to promote e.t.c

So apart from Rick and his wife (who was building all the early cables), I was the only other person. I was not an employee and not remunerated one single dollar, I just did it to be involved with what I sensed to be a cutting edge signal technology, which it was. No other cables come close.

Rick is a genius designer, passionate, huge hearted, and as all people like this, best suited to designing and inventing new products, not the dull minutiae of running a business. He could also be a difficult person and would burn bridges when he was provoked.

He told me even though the GFC had sent Virtual Dynamics under (with sales dropping 90%) it had been 10 years and things with VD had run its course. It’s now been exactly 10 years with HFC and the same thing seems to has occurred, with COVID sending them under.

Supply chain issues would hurt HFC most of all because Rick has almost everything custom made, not much is off the shelf. For example the initial CT-1 RCA connector has almost 40 different parts (in a single connector!)

Rick will be back and energised in a year or two with a slew of new products, no doubt about it.

The Q45t will be back and i hope some more new products from Rick

I just got my q45t and it is amazing. This is a damn shame if that company went under. With that said, I am grateful that I got a bottle. It’s so amazing (really makes for a black background, significantly improved the low end on my Franco Serblin Accordo Essence speakers (was my only and singular gripe, which was the lack of low end punch for these speakers), expanded the sound stage nicely, making it easier to pick out specific placement of instruments and vocals... basically, everything you’ve heard on this thread is true) that I’m going to try and grab another bottle from somewhere. It’s just too good for so little money.

Bill

If past history is an indicator of future performance, Ricky will land on his feet. Not the first time an inventor of real, difference-making products has had problems on the business end. Without considering any of the other possibly legitimate factors that have been offered here, how about this: His products are so good, he simply can’t keep up with the demand. Simplistic yes, but maybe closer to the truth.

I should state that the only thing treated so far is the PC from my Puritan 156 to the wall, and my Fidellium speaker ribbons.  Will treat the XLR cable next, and then the PCs from components to Puritan, one by one.  Super happy with the sonic improvements.  Very lush sound. 

Bill

This q45 is just amazing, Too bad HFC is temporarily close. The improvement Iam experiencing is extraordinary.It is really a game changer.Lets hope they can regroup and sell q45, so others can benefit from it.

Also my friend who bought the q45 per my recommendation before HFC close, He applies on tubes, wire going to cartridge with amazing result.He is not posting here.

There are two basic topics on this thread:  Q45T, and is HFC closed.  This post is about the latter.  While there are many who write that they know the owner, Rick, it is striking that over the period of rumor, speculation and drama associated with HFC and it's current business status- there appears no one has met with or spoken to Rick.  Has he not reached out to any of his long term customers?  Is he a ghost?

While HFC listings continue to be active on both Audiogon and CableCo, from experience, orders are NOT being filled, and attempts to contact the company continue to be met with silence.  Audiogon tells me they are unable to reach the company.  Yet, the HFC website continues to say "...temporarily closed due to covid".  Tough to know what to believe.

It would be particularly useful if someone could provide FACTS from Rick himself, rather than speculation and opinion.

Unfortunately, given listings for the company are still out there with no contact from HFC- it is becoming increasing difficult to have any confidence in the ability to safely procure products. 

I would greatly appreciate being proven wrong.

I expect that Rick has dropped making cables for the time being and his new venture will be focused on these new contact enhancer products only.

@agisthos again, are you simply speculating, or do you have direct information on this?

Entirely speculation, but using deduction.

'IF' Rick comes back with another venture, I suspect he will not start out with the cables, due to complexity and cost of custom manufactured cables like HFC.

He will probably start with the new contact enhancer technology. But I am certain he will come back to cables at some point as it's his passion.

agisthos

That would be good news

I would think Synergistic Research would be interested in the Q45 product to sell with all of their other tweaks.

I would never buy anything from Synergistics Research.

I would rather go without. Tom

@vinylshadow I got your PM but Agon needs to review my response since it has my contact info so not sure if you'll get my reply. Needless to say, I'm happy to share my bottle with you.

-Alex

It did seem a rather desperate business model, to have 60% sales regularly.  The first time you do a sale with that deep a discount you bring in a load of cash which can help short term cash flow issues. The problem is it’s like a drug and you soon become dependent on the deep discount sale, especially since customers know one will be coming soon and hold back spend until that time. So ultimately your margins are slashed as almost all sales are at the deep discount.  Second hand prices crash too, which lowers the brand value.    
 

Anytime I see these levels of discounts offered by a business repeatedly, it’s a warning that the company is in trouble. 

@duckworp

That’s exactly right. And customers get used to wanting that sort of discount permanently.

When I saw those 60% off sales I either thought they were cleaning house to release a new line of products or were in trouble. It turned out to be the latter.

It did not help that last year they changed the website over from an informational website to a shopify shopping cart. All the info, reviews, sales pitch was dumped for product cart listings. An ecommerce site is fine for cheaper items, but I do not think it would work with expensive high end products like HFC had. I suspect it hurt sales in the end.

But one thing I never see on audiogon is a huge amount of 2nd hand product, considering the success of the brand. People tend to keep their HFC cables, because they really perform at a higher level.

Agithos I don’t know how much more Rick can improve the q45st, excellent as it is already, Jessica told me the ideas of Rick on q45st is not yet completely there yet. I will be waiting.

Okay, I am in the DFW area on business and stopped by HF Cables and did speak to a person there.

First off Rick is not around and they are determining weather they are going to try to stay in business. Looking at the inside of this shop I would lean heavily towards NO.

The place is a wreck junk everywhere.

If I had an open order with this outfit I would be working on getting my money back through my Bank or CC company.

Sad but it is reality.

@jerryg123 Thank you for taking the time to obtain in person information.  It is much appreciated.

@crummwoody I am a man of my word and I wanted to know too.

Maybe his conscience finally got the best of him. I bought a bunch of his products and none of them worked. I know people are going to jump on me but I can only say what I heard and there was nothing substantial that happened with his products. His videos when he first started were Very well produced and made you feel like by using his products with the magnets that the world will change. Like I said I couldn’t hear anything. I think he’s got a lot of explaining to do.

i’ve been self-employed my entire life which is nearing 40 years now. The only way to be is 100% honest with your customers. I never felt I got that from him. 

I have to say that was not my experience with Rick. If anything I trust him more than most any other high-end manufacture I’ve dealt with over the last 20 years. Rick has helped me out personally when I was having a hard time in my life and this man has a huge heart. I can only imagine that he’s in some sort of trouble and knowing him you’ll get through it. He will also use everything in his power to make things right.

I never got to try any HFC cables, but, the NPS-Q45T I received about a week before the company shut down is outstanding. It does way much more for my system than the $350 suggests. Times more. It’s a no brainer IMO. One has to try to believe it. I am sure if the HFC guy does not resurface, other companies will copy the formula, reverse engineer it, and come up with their own equivalent. This stuff works

Oh my …playing catch up , I have been using HFC products for yonks, currently running CT1- Ultimate reference RCA and speaker cables , yup they actually work unlike utter voodoo such as SR HFT’s 

Rick will return with products that will shock our high-end audio industry.

I own a lot of High Fidelity products and they all work great. All made positive changes in my stereo system. Hopping Rick is back soon- Great guy.

+1 Pete. I own several MC power modules and a couple cables. Each one produced a major improvement to my system. The digital cable was so good, I traded up to the next level.

So there were people there, but haven’t been responding to any emails? @jerryg123 you spoke to someone there, Could you share some more about the discussion. Did they tell you what would be happening with current orders already placed. Will they be issuing a refund or follow through with delivering orders?

No response from hfc emails or from Casey the past couple of weeks, whom had been communicating with me regularly prior. I have paid HFC about $15,000 in products which I haven’t received yet since October, so naturally this is very worrisome for me.

Anyone else in a similar situation and has heard from them?

So are they hfc out of business ? From Rick no guesses. 

Thxs. 

Ayodej 15k ? I believe Rick will either refund you or He will try to make yours and ship it to you? Will see. I did have to wait longer as well.How I wish they will communicate to you.Jessica is the one who is good at updating.Not refunding you or fulfilling their obligations, it will affect their credibility.Can you imagine if you put a thread here asking if they have the same experience like you here in Agon? 

Yes I have an order out since October also. I’m still confident that Rick will contact me either with a shipment or a refund. 

I did receive a pair of CT-2 3-D balanced interconnect cables before I lost contact with HFC. I played music last night after two weeks of breaking in and  it’s just amazing how good these cables sound. Amazing! 

I finally get to apply Q45T on 2 more power cords (4 locations) and man this stuff is amazing…More music. Just more music and less analyzing on the gear. 

Q45T is a love portion number 9 for every audiophiles in every budget systems.

John you are so right on my pc q45 st did amazing as well .

Gotta say I LOVE the q45t.  It's truly incredible stuff.  I liked it so much that I tried ordering the BIG bottle of q45t from Cableco.com.  Just got an email today saying that they're no longer fulfilling orders as HFC is still shut down.  Referenced that HFC might reopen manufacturing in Canada.  I then received a refund.  I would have greatly preferred the big bottle of q45t instead of a refund.  But at least I'm not in the position that some of our Agon members are, which is unfortunate, to say the least.  And I'm grateful that I have the small bottle that I ordered and received from HFC last month.

Bill

I need some help !    

I have a pair of Ultimate Reference speaker cables and one of the cables stopped working, no sound coming from the right channel. Before people ask, yes I did switch out the cables with an old pair of cables that I had laying around and the speakers and channel work just fine. It is the cable that is bad. I checked the cable with a multimeter and the negative side of the speaker cable is bad.

   Now for the big question, who can I send the cable to for repair?

benjie

Thats a good question? Have you tried the end of the cables to see if a wire is loose at the spade or banana part of the cable? I was told there are about 40 some little parts in the end of the cable? Try posting on High Fidelity face Book page Last time i check the Chatt feature was still working. You may get a slow response and see if you get any response.

good luck

Those are directional.

I have an older home theater system at home that I want to use q45t on.  Can I add this stuff to bare speaker wire?  My guess is yes, but everything about instructions indicates spades or banana plugs.  Thoughts?

Thanks. 

Bill

wtb

YES

@jayctoy ​​@68pete

Yes the cables are directional. My concern is that the cables have been connected for a few years to these speakers. There are no small children or pets that may have stepped on the cables or pulled on them. The cables just lay on the floor and now stop working. I removed and inspected the cables and found no visible sign of damage. i checked the cables with my Fluke meter for continuity. Rick told me about 5 years ago how to check and what the reading range should be. Three of the speakers cables test at 1.6, 1.5, 1.7 and 70 to 150, the meter is all over the place with that one wire. So I know that is the problem.

As for checking to see if there is a loose connection or wire it is not possible. The end where the spade is connected is epoxy and the end where the wire comes into the connector looks to be pressed fitted. Everything is tight. The end where the wire connects to the magnet tube is sealed tight. Nothing appears loose or broken.

A few years ago I had a similar problem with an rca cable. It was a UR Helix cable that stopped working. This is when I found out from Rick on how to check the cable and what the reading range should be. A reading over 5.0, there is a problem with the cable. I asked Rick what could go wrong since the cable just lays on the floor and nobody touches it. He never really gave me an answer at the time and just told me to send the cable in for repair. The cable was repaired ( no charge ) and everything has worked fine ever since. Never did find out what they found was wrong with the cable.

So for the moment I have some very expensive paperweights. It seems that there are not any options for repair at this time. Just a thought, all you guys pulling cables off to apply Q45T, I would be very careful not to stress the cable ends when removing or installing. You might be in the same situation that I am, a cable that stops working and no place to send it for repair.

Thanks @68Pete.  I'm going to do that tonight.

Bill