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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

Showing 7 responses by uberwaltz

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!
uberwaltz's avatar
uberwaltz
13,381 posts
 
Yes perhaps that is better stated indeed.
Part of the reason for going with Nordost in my system, to help tame some of the unruly bass colourations present in my system/room.
As I said purely a tone control.....lol
uberwaltz's avatar
uberwaltz
13,381 posts
 
@audiosens.
Is it possible that what you perceive as a lack of warmth really means a lack of added coloration? That the red dawns are just conveying the music without adding much to it?
uberwaltz's avatar
uberwaltz
13,381 posts
 
@jayctoy 
Just looked up the Loki.
Interesting but as presently built it looks like can only go inline on a single ended input
Or if you were using seperates I guess it could go Between pre and power amp if you were using single ended.
In that application it may have some merit.
uberwaltz's avatar
uberwaltz
13,381 posts
 
@jmcgrogan2
I have come to regard all cables as some form of tone control along with any other aspects they may enhance in ones system.
Just me but it is easier and usually cheaper to swap cables around than gear.
However my next plan is trying out a Lyngdorf with room correction which hopefully will eliminate any need for "tone control" surgery.....we will see
uberwaltz's avatar
uberwaltz
13,381 posts
 
@dave_b 


Hopefully one can tell the difference between natural and unnatural bass bloom......

@jayctoy 

Very happy so far with the Heimdall, all purchased used so broken in and have not noticed any further changes since installing them. I am not sure that the cost vs sq factor in going higher up the chain will be of benefit to me with present equipment anyways.
uberwaltz's avatar
uberwaltz
13,381 posts
 
I am now onto the Heimdal series and for my system and my ears each step up the Nordost line has brought benefits.
Bass bloom has been much reduced compared to the all copper speaker cables I was previously employing, speed and detail is enhanced but not to the point it is tiring and wearisome ( at least not yet). I generally listen to music 4 to 6 hours a day.
All of my Nordost cables have been purchased used so two benefits in that, cost saving and already broken in (hopefully).
Will I continue to upgrade further? Maybe not as even used prices on higher product like Valhalla are quite prohibitive right now.
But am I happy with my present loom of Heimdal, heck yes!
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