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Nordost Power Cables - my latest experience

Years ago I had a bunch of Nordost Vishnu power cables for all components, and a Brahma for the wall-to-distributor cable. In 2012 I then came across a new company called Cabledyne, and thought their power cable (a design which is no longer sold by them) was better than all of the Nordost cables.

But those Nordost models were an old product from 2003. Recently I have auditioned and then upgraded to the new Heimdall 2 power cables.

My experience was inconsistent and I thought to share it here.

Initially I got a Heimdall 2 for the source, an Oppo that is LPM and clock modified, and is just used as a pure digital transport with the audio card stripped out. On this component the Heimdall 2 was really good, far better than the Cabledyne.

I then upgraded power cable feeding the NAS to a Heimdall 2, this was again far better than the Cabledyne.
At this point my system was sounding the best it ever had in years, magical. I got a bit excited knowing I only needed to buy 2 more Heimdall 2's to complete the chain, one for the power amplifier and the other my Pre/DAC.

But when putting another one on my TeddyDAC (a DAC with analog volume stage inside) things went slightly backwards. Then when putting the last Nodost on the power amplifier, things went slightly backwards again.

Overall things are better than before, but this ending was disappointing to say the least.

I went back and looked at all the old comments here regarding Nordost power cables, for example the original Valhalla, and saw some users saying it was great for their CD player, or their source, but did not work well on the amps. That seems to be my experience. Maybe there is something inherent to the mono filament design which works especially well with digital devices, but not so much with analog? I don't know, I'm just hoping with more break-in it will even things out on the analog side.

I don't like to mix and match power cables brands, so it kind of sucks.


agisthos
Post removed 
tsushima1
1,165 posts
 
@agisthos

“ High Fidelity Cables will beat any Nordost cable, especially on interconnects and digital cables, which is what I use them for.

I am on record saying be wary of HFC for speaker cables due to potential mismatch issues. But when they work - they are spectacular.”

I would concur with much of this comment, I found the HFC Ultimate interconnects and digital exceptionally good ( I still use an pair of IC’s CDP to Pre ) however I just couldn’t get along with the associated speaker cables... like attempting to force the signal through a strangulated lead pipe !
agisthos OP
504 posts
 
however I just couldn’t get along with the associated speaker cables... like attempting to force the signal through a strangulated lead pipe !

That’s because their speaker cables were just the same transmission line coaxial design as the IC’s and digital cables. So the impedance was very high and they could not drive low efficiency speaker well at all. Anything above 90db was fine though, but that cuts out 80% of potential speakers out there.

I still use the CT-1 Ultimate Reference for IC and spdif, and will keep them forever.
agisthos OP
504 posts
 
+1 Nordost Qbase. My system has 3 QB4’s - each on a different circuit. I use only the primary earth socket for my parallel filtering conditioners. Great SQ.

With so many QB4's it will be difficult and expensive for you to implement the QKore system. But if you can do it check it out.
bjesien
1,283 posts
 
Just be careful if you have the older design Q bases. I pulled a cord out a few years ago and a white lightning bolt nearly took me out. I pulled it without securing the base  which was a mistake. They graciously replaced it with a new one but I aged 10 years that day.
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