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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
dave_b's avatar
dave_b
3,159 posts
 
I hate to sound so definitive about anything, but for me and a lot of music lovers, Transparent is uniquely guided by, and committed to allowing your audio system to recreate music with such an utterly natural and noiseless environment that it becomes completely immersive!  
fleschler
2,021 posts
 
The two major brand cables with the worst sounding audio shows are the Transparent and High Fidelity cables.  The best I've heard at half a dozen shows has been the Mastersound cables.  Grover Huffman cables would be next.  Triode Labs wires in shows always sounds good.  Why is it that the most expensive cables from Transparent and High Fidelity ruin fine equipment at shows?  I have also auditioned High Fidelity cables in an $800,000 home system (AvantGarde Trios, 3X Basshorns, Caliburn/Cobra analog, etc).  and replacing the bright, forward and boomy sounding High Fidelity cables (2 ICs and 2 A/Cs) costing $40,000+ with Grover Huffman (elaborate design) for $2,200 brought the system into balance.  I bet even similarly low cost Triode Wires or more expensive Kubala wiring would have sounded great but the bright/boomy wires of several high end brands are terrible sounding in every system I;ve heard them in. 
ieales's avatar
ieales
1,201 posts
 
Some might find this Cable Snake Oil Antidote interesting with respect to LRC, the signal and the system.

Cables affect the sound and the effect is system dependent.

Another's opinion on a cable in a vastly different system may not be valid.
Post removed 
r_f_sayles's avatar
r_f_sayles
872 posts
 

Of all the conversations about conductors and signal path “science” what I see very little comment on is one of Nordost’s most prominent physical characteristics. This differentiates it from most other brands, and with the Norse 2 and up lines is the dual-monofilament suspension of the conductor (not to mention Fluorinated Ethylene Propylene (FEP) sheathing. It seems these days more and more highly transparent cable brands (ie Tara Labs square conductor, Black Cat foamed or woven, just to name a couple) amongst other things are trying to eliminate the effects of say smearing and discoloration, etc with a form of air-dielectric.

To my ears, regardless of any kind of scientific explanation needed, I find this kind of cable, especially in the front end of a kit, and especially with preamplified analogue signals to be very adventurous and inviting.

What I hear from these types of designs appears very consistently truer them most. With a somewhat neutral kit where one is not tonally compensating for a gross imbalance or short-coming, these designs seem to ring a little truer. Like almost no wire (influence) at all.

All imho, so certainly I like the price/performance ratio of the TYR Norse 2 product line. Your mileage may very...


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