Quote:
Originally Posted by kuma
Pity.
No DNM.
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N I did follow your lead and did request them as their distributor pointed me to the same person but he said he's dropped them due to dissatisfaction. So I don't know if there is any special inductance/resistance/etc ATC synergy. He didn't think there was...but who knows the truth...maybe the profit margin is too low?
Quote:
Originally Posted by aerius
If we told you we'd have to kill you.
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I was wondering if there were audiophile muggers. This case with logo would be the way to find out.
Quote:
Originally Posted by philodox
I wouldn't be surprised if that is the only difference between them. Louder does sound better after all.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Patrick82
The higher up you go in Nordost's line of cables the louder it gets.
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Well...
...although I wasn't sure how the "louder" observation would be perceived, I chose not to clarify at the time. The non-Nordost cables sounded louder because their distortion was greater, and they were less even from top to bottom of the frequency spectrum. In comparison, they called attention to themselves, let themselves be known.
link
Quote:
Originally Posted by eyeteeth
In the past I've tried to keep it simple (stupid ), confining the description to imaging, transparency, etc. I think cables can be pretty simple and there's basically just a sliding scale of transparency. Is one cable more transparent than another being mostly what it's about. I could be oversimplifying it and wrong. I try not to 'fill the void'.
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The aftermath
A little help?
BTW the Nordost speaker cables are a dream to swap with the banana plugs or Z plugs as they call them (why Z?). Fast and easy!
The Nordosts are really very easy to assess as the step up in performance or rather the step out of the way of the signal is fairly easy to hear. The gaps between are consistent and make sense given the math of the increase in conducters of each. Some listening was done off axis.
I started with more interconnect swaps and due to being impressed yesterday, had a mind to possibly purchase one pair. And there is the frustration in trying to determine musical and monetary value as the steps up from Baldur to Heimdall to Frey are at each, one of those damn things where it isn't something really huge but it is noticeable and does seem important. (I stayed with the Tureck's Bach and Tool's 10,000 Days specifically 'Wings For Marie' and 'The Pot'). Like running up and down the keys of a piano I ran numerous times up and down the Nordost line first with the interconnects, and then later with the Frey in place, up and down the speaker cables line. The results were always the same and entirely predictable after a time. At the summit with the Brahma power cord from wall to the PS Audio UPC200 and Frey IC/speaker cables in place it is an extraordinary listen of great delicacy, holography and low level detail, and all tonally correct by my imperfect reckoning. A real sense of uninhibited purity of signal. Very realistic. The difference between the base and full summit can't be understated, unlike the incremental steps, the music at the top is huge.
Low level detail? I never realized Maynard very, very softly breathes "you" at near 1:08 of 'Wings For Marie (PT.1)'.
Now heard, I can hear it through the more modest wires but it took the Nordosts to reveal it as having been there.
(For a short time when I switched from Heimdall to Frey speaker cable things sounded bleached and thin. I wondered if, as instructed, there did need to be some amount of time for this to dissipate. I also wondered if I was setting myself up to be mentally tricked. I did give it fifteen minutes of play time and it did seem to fill out. I couldn't be entirely sure which of us adjusted but for every negative I felt I swapped back to my original cables only to discover that the negative was still there but worsened. Again also, I had in my mind through out the auditions my own motivations regarding the desire to possibly find favour amongst the offerings, with what my budget is...an entity sneaking behind my every move like Smeagol).
"It is precious....but how much?!!!!"
Climbing back down from the summit piece by piece from Frey to Heimdall to Baldur to Oritek from Brahma to Vishnu was the same every time. Music became more artificial at every step. Flatter not in a linear sense but in a less holographic sense. More papery, more mundane, more ordinary, less life.
On an individual basis I thought the differences between the Brahma and Vishnu power cords to be not all that great. There wasn't a feeling of regretable loss moving down. The Heimdal and Frey interconnects and speaker cables each are in lock step regarding the gaps in performance. Very frustrating that the difference is both small and large. It's smallish but there is regret in moving down. I know the least about the Baldur speaker cable but will go back to it versus the Heimdall versus my resident (notice I didn't say "reference"! Hate that word) speaker cable the PS Audio Statement, which unlike the dreamy to deal with Nordosts, is a person to connect and disconnect. How did the Statement fare? So-so. It certainly belongs at the lower end of these cables in it's mundanity and roundness. Humbled but proud? Not completely out of place. He's the guy who comes in fourth at the Olympics.
The greatest impact was in the interconnects, specifically the Frey. But I do believe diminishing returns set in at the Heimdall and Vishnu levels. They do seem to be 80% to 90% of the next level. Frankly from both a financial reality and a general principle standpoint I just refuse to buy a speaker cable that costs half as much as my speakers. I'll have to investigate the Baldur versus the Statement later but I doubt very much I'll go for it. The Heimdall/Frey affair is another story though. My cables are back in their original configuration (except for a Nordost Shiva which I owned previously now on the DAC1 as it is a little better than the Shunyata Diamondback previously connected. But the Vishnu isn't much better than the Shiva there. Wacky audio systems).
Yes, my cables are back in their original configuration but the Frey is in the lead. It's mark via it's lack of sonic mark is significant and unmistakable and the Frey shall stay. I think Nordost has thrown down a gauntlet here with trickle down state of the art transmission wire at a much lower price than before. My other cables seem like old technology, curvaceous 4:3 TV tubes versus modern flat and 16:9.
So, I'll just have to hobble along, one half Frey...one half not.
