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Nordost Frey interconnect hum

I bought a pair of used Nordost Frey unbalanced interconnects here and i noticed they induce a hum through my speakers when my preamp is off or when the cables are only plugged into the power amp. The strange thing to me is that my Nordost Heimdall interconnects do not induce the hum under the same conditions nor do other shielded interconnects. They do the same thing on another system as well. I understand that both the Heimdall and Frey have the same 97% shielding and the only difference is 2 extra center conductors. I'm waiting for the seller to ask Nordost but i thought i would ask here if anyone can explain it.

Thanks for any advice.
pongagt
brf
1,715 posts
 
Bo1972, I would sure hope that the Valhalla beat the Frey at over 4 times the cost i.e. $1000 vs. $4500
bo1972's avatar
bo1972
2,789 posts
 
The balance is not good of the Frey. The Red Dawn rev2 and also the Baldur are better balanced cables. Balance between low, mid and high freq.
daveyf's avatar
daveyf
2,871 posts
 
Bo1972, you think the Red Dawn rev2 and Baldur are better than the Frey cables?? I have Red Dawn rev2 and Frey and Tyr in my system and I can tell you the Red Dawn's are at the bottom of the heap. Red Dawn rev2 is a good cable, particularly for the money, but IMHO the Frey is superior across the board; as it should be for considerably more money. Frey is much closer to Tyr than Red Dawn rev 2 is to Frey. I guess YMMV.
bo1972's avatar
bo1972
2,789 posts
 
I prefer the balance of the cble. I always give a cable a value for what it costs. For the money the Rev2 is better cable. Baldur Loudsprekercable has a more pleasent mid compared to the Frey. I like the loudspeakercable of Nordost the most. Nordost give a lot of resolution and speed. But the resolution has to come in the right place. This I call Individual focus. Instruments and voices are there, but in real instruments and voices are a lot sharper focussed. This is not the onlu problem using Nordost interconnects. Wenn you have a system which can play very deep, you loose depth. The other problem what in all my tests occur is always loosing invlovement in the mid freq. For example the new Audioquest cabels are superior in individual focus compared to Nordost. Now I borrow the Redwood loudspeakercable of Audioquest. Wenn I campare this with Valhalla youb hear how much better the focus od all parts is. Sound is a lot more pleasent. The authority in the whole image is awesome. Stage has a lot more depth compared to Valhalla. I still advice Nordost loudspeakecable with another brand of interconnects. In all the tests I did with Nordost complete I had the same missing parts I want in a system. Period!
daveyf's avatar
daveyf
2,871 posts
 
Bo1972, I used to own Highwire cables which replaced Audioquest cables. The Nordost are FAR more resolving than either cable. Not sure what your your system consists of, BUT in my system, the differences are easy to hear. The Nordost cables are far superior.
If you think that Valhalla has less stage depth than the Redwood Audioquests, well like I said before, YMMV.
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