Sometimes it takes someone willing to give their full attention to things that most people overlook.
Even during his student years, hobby DJ Wolfgang B. Thörner cared deeply about having good equipment. Yet among all the high-quality components, he quickly noticed a weak point that nobody had really addressed: the connectors of the time left much to be desired. Thörner immediately got to work. He developed RCA connectors that met his own standards of quality and began marketing them in 1985 under the newly created brand name WBT. Connectors of this caliber had simply never existed before, and success soon followed.
But Thörner was never one to rest on his laurels. Time and again, he reimagined what a connector could be and came up with inventive solutions to problems others hadn’t even considered. In 1991, WBT introduced the CCS (Circular Contact System), which made it possible to create a permanent connection between cable and plug – without stripping or soldering – while ensuring optimal conductivity and high mechanical stability.
Many would have stopped there, but not Thörner. He kept looking for ways to further reduce the connector’s impact on the signal. He believed the key was to minimize mass, which ultimately led to the launch of the NextGen connectors in 2003.
Next, WBT turned its focus to the surface quality of its connectors. In 2019, the company unveiled the PlasmaProtect system, in which gold is applied under vacuum to the polished contact surface using a high-current process. The result is an exceptionally durable coating with an extremely smooth contact area.
Even today, WBT continues to push toward the next breakthrough. The next milestone: the flat conductor. We congratulate on 40 Years of WBT and look forward to many more leaps in technology.
