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Curious How These Nordost Speaker Cables Do What They Do

For a day and a half I’ve been listening to Nordost Red Dawn Rev.II cables in my system(Quad VA-One and Dynaudio Excite X14),courtesy of a friend who is in turn demo’ing some ungodly expensive upgrade...My reference are the Acoustic Zen Epoch..What these cables have brought to my system are:
The first thing I noticed is the music seems to come easier,ie:a touch louder than normal at low levels and it’s so clean I find I’m listening louder..
wider,deeper,and sharper defined imaging and staging...deeper,better defined and tonally richer bass...increased low level detail retrieval...a treble that is not as easy on the ears but seems better defined,almost sharp and I can see where some systems could move way to far into bright with these cables...
So I attribute the cleaner/sharper tone to the addition of high purity silver to the cable but I wonder what it is about the materials and construction that allow the bass,imaging and staging changes and especially the ease which music seems to come now?Any comments(from those who have found cables do matter)and NOT from those who believe they are snake oil PLEASE!!!
freediver
ieales's avatar
ieales
1,201 posts
 
@ethiessen1 
@jmcgrogan2 +1, squared.
1² = 1. Sorry, couldn't resist, but it illustrates some of the noise here that does not say anything.

Systems with no onboard tone controls in my experience, have seemed to be more responsive to cable changes than those with.
Absolutely! Many devices have the Tone Control in circuit all the time. Seldom are they flat. Stepped controls may be better if they use discrete matched parts. MidFi units may use stepped continuous pots and standard ±10% RC.

I use a passive control 0 to -22db in 1 ±0.05db steps of my own design. BTW, anybody thinking of buying a stepped passive, unless it is made for your system, the steps may not be even.

An advantage of a stepped external control is that it is not subject to the vagaries of component internal temperature. Continuous controls can vary audibly with temperature change and dual controls seldom track as well as high quality individual resistors. Throw in a balance control for good measure and it's never gonna be the same twice! Some device buffer gain, tone and balance controls, adding yet another three amplifier stages.

Digital controls can be very good if properly implemented.

FWIW, I note the reference step level on every disc so that if I evaluate another component I can match the level exactly. OK, < 0.5db.
cheapbob
50 posts
 
There is an old expression that seems appropriate at this juncture: "Out of the frying pan, and into the fire"

I have a friend who had an extra pair of Nordost Valhalla Reference speaker ribbons he had no use for, so he gave them to me.

At the time, my 1975 Advents were connected to the receiver with Monster Cable Audiophile grade lamp cord.

To go from $5 speaker wire to $5600/1-meter pair was the equivalent of going from a paper airplane to an F-35A Strike Fighter.

I have no other reference, except to say that this was a huge improvement. I have no problem with bass, and the mid-to-high end seems to flow effortlessly.

The Nordost literature says the signal is traveling at 96% the speed of light...maybe that is the secret.
perazzi28's avatar
perazzi28
234 posts
 
+1 for Kimber Bifocal-X
uberwaltz's avatar
uberwaltz
13,381 posts
 
@cheapbob.

Can I be friends with your friend too please! Nice to know there are some people who just happen to have Valhalla cables "lying" around gathering dust!
Yikes!
drastic's avatar
drastic
18 posts
 
You ask an excellent question, freediver.  A few who have posted here touched on the technical reasons, but no one has given a clear and complete explanation.  I can't either.  But, there's no doubt that complex things are happening in cables that affect what we hear in a big way.  My own system has 3 brands of high-end cable that work well for me, but there's no point in naming them because what works for you could be different.  Here are the things to remember:
  1. Speaker cable interacts strongly with both speaker and amp.  Get to know a dealer who sells both, because he will have experimented with lots of cables, and he'll know what works well.  In my case, since both the speakers and monoblocs are by MBL, my dealer has lots of experience with what goes on both ends of the cable.
  2. Quality doesn't necessarily always increase with price.
  3. There is at least one prominent company out there (I won't say) that sells overpriced snake oil.  You'll be able to figure out who it is if you pay close attention to their ads in TAS and Stereophile, as they use lots of pseudo-scientific words designed to make you think they have discovered magic.
  4. Interconnect is important also, but in my experience what's good with one brand of source / pre / amp is good with others.  Once you choose a speaker cable, maybe a good experiment is to try the same manufacturer's interconnect.
  5. Trust your ears.
  6. A cable company that has a lending library can be your friend in this.
  7. After you've chosen speaker and interconnect cables, listen to power cords.  I thought that was lunacy at first, but it's not, and now I have all that plus a power conditioner.
George
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