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Art Dudley Listening - Stereophile Dec '09 Nordost

Reading this month's issue of Stereophile, I came across Art's monthly column - Listening. The overall theme was building a foundation for a given system, whether it be physical, mechanical, electrical, etc.

The Nordost boys came to his house with platforms, quantum field resonators, and Nordost cables. At the moment, I do not have the resources to investigate platforms or quantum field resonators even though in the article, they do work to some degree.

My question is concerning cabling. More specifically, Nordost cabling. The folks from Nordost recommended using cables within a similar line and performance specifications. For example, not using Valhalla speaker cables with Blue Heaven interconnects. What caught my attention, and seemed counter-intuitive, was the cabling they chose. From memory, they used Tyr Speaker cable, don't recall the IC, and Vishnu power cables. Basically, the highest, and therefore most expensive, cable was the speaker cables. Cheapest was the power cords.

When assembling my system, it seemed to me that I would be better off moving up the Nordost IC line, then SC, and finally PC's. Am I missing something here? My interconnects are Quattro Fil, speaker is Red Dawn, and PC is Shiva. Should I have gotten better SC and lower line IC's?
gherrera1
nglazer
846 posts
 
I am a big Nordost fan. I think you should start with your IC and substitute used Valkyrie for the Quatro Fil. I have both and the Val is a large step up, not far off from Valhalla and available for reasonable cost on used market.

It has been my experience that one should NOT use all Nordost cabling. Nordost tends to the fast, detailed, transparent side and all-Nordost becomes too much of a good thing; you need to balance out the sound with a slightly warmer cable along the line. So I would not use Nordost SC.

Just my thoughts. I use JPS Aluminata as IC from pre to amp, and then Valhalla speaker cables. Together, I get a great combo of speed, transparency, detail with some body and a touch of warmth.

Neal
buconero117
2,311 posts
 
Can you hear differences in cables? Absolutly. Do these differences show up in properly conducted double blind testing? Hardly ever. Dudley should be ashamed of himself for not using a double blind approach to reviewing cables.
plato
1,543 posts
 
I don't think I can recall any instance (in recent times) of a subjective audio reviewer using the double-blind approach to doing any equipment review, cable or otherwise. So if Dudley should be ashamed of himself, it shouldn't be for that reason. I mean, it's not like it's common practice in the industry...
stewie
187 posts
 
Plato is right--(and with a moniker like Plato, how could it be otherwise? :))--it isn't Dudley's problem, it's the industry's problem.
darkmoebius
900 posts
 
12-09-09: Buconero117
Dudley should be ashamed of himself for not using a double blind approach to reviewing cables.
Only on cables? Why not components, too?

Seriously though, how could any publication afford to do double-blind tests? I'd think that requires at least twice the staff and probably 4x amount of time.
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