About Us

True Colours Industries was originally conceived as a company in the mid 1980’s by two university students Andrew Stacey and John Payne who were both studying Engineering at what is now the University of Central Lancashire. Both were passionate about sound quality, which was reflected in what was originally their part time, but later became full time jobs in Hi-Fi retail. Whilst working for a Hi-Fi specialist, a number of dedicated cables started to appear on the market. They were intrigued by the differences cables made to the sound quality of different systems, Andrew and John were also fortunate with the location of local manufacturing companies who worked in or supplied the local aerospace and defence industries, which gave them access to lots of Aerospace grade cables and materials not found in the Hi-Fi industry. Using these local resources and their engineering background, they became increasingly interested in the effects these had on the resulting sound quality, a number of prototypes were worked on made for personal use. However as often happens, Life got in the way and it was not until the early 90’s that the 1st product TCI Cobra in a very basic and unrefined form was sold through the Hi-Fi shop Andrew was managing at the time.
In 1997 True Colours Industries was formed and TCI Cobra became the 1st commercial product, closely followed by TCI Python and TCI Viper. The continuing use of specific aerospace technology and materials coupled with sound engineering and consistent design principles has ensured TCI has stayed ahead of the competition in both sound quality and value for money.

Design Philosophy

We believe design consistency is very important, if it isn’t present, the resulting designs are ad-hoc products, which do not relate to each other, sound different, and so, you as a customer can never know what to expect.  As a manufacturer, we have always believed from the beginning, that it is very important to have a consistent vision which is closely aligned to a design philosophy.  Consequentially we have key design elements as part of our consistent design philosophy that are set in stone.

 

  • Neutrality – The cables must have a neutral presentation.
  • Imaging – The cables are designed to recreate the live performance. They create a three-dimensional holographic image. The result is that you can clearly visualise the singer, guitarist, drummer etc. as they would appear on stage.
  • Musicality – They must be musical and retain the essence of the performance. Music is about transferring emotion and it is essential to retain this, otherwise you end up with clinical cold music reproduction.
  • No Anomalies – There must not be anything wrong with the sound. Because if there is, your ear will constantly be drawn to it rather than the music.  Typical problems with other manufactures are bright or coloured sounding cables.
  • Value – Value for money brand. We are very idealistic in that we will only bring out a product if we believe it is better than other things on the market.  This makes life very difficult initially for design but once achieved our product have longevity.  Cutting edge design lasts the test of time and our customer buy real value as products rarely go out of date, but generally just get small enhancements over the years.
  • Connectors – We design our products end to end. So not only do we design the cable, but the connectors too.  For most manufacturers connectors are an expense to be minimised. Many manufacturers will use a lot of heatshrink or plastic while terminating cables to cut costs.  We believe if you design the connectors correctly they can enhance the sound of the product and add value.  We can also make them look fantastic, as well.
  • Consistency – We have a top down design approach. We make the top products first and gradually evolve a range using similar materials and techniques. This give consistent sound and presentation common to all products.
  • Listening – We are constantly asked for specification and test results for our products. Although these can be very useful in guiding design they are not the most essential criteria for product development.  We have yet to hear of testing equipment that can for example measure imagery, tonal balance or musicality.  All our product prior to release undergo extensive listing testing. At the end of the day the ear is one of the most sensitive devices and it is ultimately the one that really matter!

The result of our philosophy is the loyalty of our customers over many years who come back time and time again.  Many of these have bought at trade shows where we have carried out comparative demonstration over 18 years. Each year taking on different well established brands.  You may ask, how do we achieve this? It basically comes down to great design, using aerospace material that nobody else uses and a core understanding of different manufacturing techniques and how they can affect the musical interpretation of the finished product

 

Warranty

All True Colours Industries products carry a limited 3-year warranty for the original purchaser. The warranty covers the product against manufacturing defects, but excludes user or accidental damage, misuse or any other type of abuse. The waranty specifically excludes any connected equipment.

TCI Cables have been manufacturing high quality Hi-Fi systems components for nearly 30 years.

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