Nordost Whitelight Optical Cable Doesn't Cost $32,865

Filed under: Home Audio > Wire & Cable



This erroneous bit of information that has been parroted around many of the gadget focused blogs lately is completely untrue. Apparently first printed in Jonathan Margolis's "Technopolis" column in the July 12, 2008 Financial Times "How To Spend It" magazine, the claim is that Nordost's Whitelight optical digital cable costs $32,865 a pair. While I'd normally be more than happy to ridicule anyone's $30K toslink cable, "three-layers of very low loss wadding along with an internal humid apparatus" or no, the phrase "a pair" immediately raised a giant red flag for me.

No digital cable, whether the format is optical, coaxial, AES/EBU, HDMI, etc. is sold by the pair. A simple Google search revealed that the Whitelight actually starts at $217. Considering a toslink cable made with glass fibers can be had for less than $20, the Whitelight is definitely overpriced, but not psychotically so. For that, see the $14,000/pr Nordost Odin interconnects and $20,000/pr Odin speaker cables.