Alan Sircom Reviews Sort Systems for Hi-Fi+

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Nordost is starting the year off right with another great review! In the January issue of Hi-Fi+, you will find a new piece covering Nordost’s complete Sort System. Alan Sircom is no stranger to Nordost. As he makes clear in his article, using Nordost products (whether they be cables, power products, or resonance control devices) will elevate the performance of your sound system, making all of your components seem more cohesive. With the introduction of the Sort Lift, Alan was able to address his system from all angles: electronics, loudspeakers, and cabling.

“Whether Sort Systems is the start, mid-way, or the end point in your Nordost journey, these components work, work in harmony with one another, and combine perfectly with Nordost’s more commonly thought of system components. Highly recommended.”

“The unSorted sound is like your system on a bad hair day. The soundstage seems to fold in on itself, the natural sense of harmonic overtones, and sense of musical structure to the sound has weakened. It’s just not all there!”

To read Alan’s review in it’s entirety, visit the review page on the Nordost website, or CLICK HERE.

Speaker Placement: Image is Everything

“Image Is Everything!”

How to squeeze every drop of performance from your speakers….

By Anthony Chiarella


In nearly two decades as an Audio Reviewer, I wrote hundreds of articles and, as I look back, most of these were written about speakers. Whether listening to them, evaluating them, or moving them around my room, loudspeakers have consumed more of my attention than any other part of my audio systems…and with good reason! The performance of no other component in your system is more sensitive to proper placement than your speakers; in other words, speaker setup places the sound of your system largely under your control. Here’s how….

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Roughing-In for Bass

The art and science of speaker placement involves a series of adjustments, beginning with “Roughing-in” speaker positions by finding the location where bass response is smoothest. (Note: assuming your speakers have spiked feet, Nordost’s Sort Füt units, or some other type of interface with the floor, you can retract these to make it easier to move the speakers. Near the end of the process, we’ll level the speakers and will adjust the feet at that point.) Start with both of your speakers about three feet away from side and rear walls, pointing straight ahead. Play some music with deep bass content (pipe organ, double bass or prominent electric bass) and move the speakers out of the corners until a natural bass balance is achieved. Don’t even think about mid- and high-frequencies right now: we’re dialing-in bass response. Listening to tracks with heavy bass content, disconnect first one speaker and then the other, moving each closer to, and farther from, rear and side walls until balanced bass is achieved. Now, connect both speakers and let ‘er rip! Is bass powerful and natural but without boom or overhang? When you’ve balanced the bass, it’s time to move “Onward and upward….”

Room Treatment

When it comes to Midrange and Treble, the room—specifically the reflective/absorbent characteristics of various surfaces such as walls, floors, windows and furnishings—is going to influence the sound at the listening position. If you find your mids and highs are bright and forward, try moving the speakers a little farther from room boundaries (but not so much that you compromise bass performance) and consider adding some absorptive treatments—wall hangings, carpets, plush furniture—at strategic points in your room in order to minimize reflections. At this point, you can also start toeing-in the speakers slightly.

Equilateral Triangle Approach

Years ago, British manufacturers including Spendor, Harbeth, Rogers and ProAc used a system whereby the two speakers and the listener formed the three corners of an equilateral triangle (all three sides being identical in length), with the speakers toed-in until only the front baffle of each speaker was visible from the listening position and both sides of the cabinet hidden from sight. This is a great way to control room reflections and focus central images for a solitary, centrally-seated listener; on the other hand, though you’ll wind up with razor-sharp focus, the soundstage probably won’t venture outside the speakers. What’s worse, the best seat in the house is the ONLY seat in the house, since this sort of positioning accommodates only one listener and is, to put it bluntly, anti-social.

Nearfield Listening

A similar approach—known as “Nearfield Listening”—involves moving both speakers and listener into the center of the room, father away from the four walls, with the listener sitting close to the speakers. Nearfield listening, which had its genesis in recording studios where engineers placed their “Nearfield Monitor” speakers atop the mastering console, goes even farther to remove room variables from the sonic equation. While this theory has many supporters, I always feel like the speakers are too close…almost like I’m wearing headphones. And of course, only one listener will enjoy properly balanced sound.

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Voweling

“Voweling” is a more recent tuning process. Developed by Wilson Audio, voweling involves moving the speakers a fraction of an inch at a time—forward and backward, closer together and farther apart—until you’ve achieved the best tonal balance and imaging. When I first heard about voweling, I dismissed it; after all, how could moving the speakers half an inch at a time have a dramatic impact upon sound? And then I tried it….

In a word, it works! Moving the speakers such a small amount influences the mids and highs without impacting the bass. Once the speakers have been “Roughed-in” for bass response, as per above, put on a recording of a solo vocalist and slightly toe-in the speakers until the voice is sharply focused. Using a tape measure, make sure the speakers are the same distance from the back wall. Maintaining the same toe-in angle, move each speaker about ½” closer to the other and re-audition. Experiment, moving the speakers very slightly closer together, farther apart, forward and backward, until you’ve achieved the most natural, pleasing tonal balance.

Fine Tuning

Once you’ve dialed-in your ideal tonal balance, it’s time to fine-tune spatial characteristics. The goal is to balance image focus, on the one hand, with soundstage size on the other. This is accomplished by gentle toe-in. Since you’ve gone to great lengths to pick the exact location for your speakers, you should proceed in a way that doesn’t negate your hard work. I recommend pivoting each speaker using the outer rear foot as the fixed vertical axis of rotation; in this way, the positioning (which you worked so hard to achieve) stays constant. (Consider putting small pieces of tape on the floor to mark the speaker positions.) Work in half-degree increments, focusing the image in much the same way as you would a pair of binoculars. If you’ve accomplished all previous steps properly, you should only need a small amount of toe-in to focus images while achieving a wall-to-wall soundstage.

Spikes and Feet

As a final step, you need to adjust the floor spikes or other speaker feet. There are two goals here: first, you want to make sure the speaker is completely stable and doesn’t “rock” back and forth; secondly, you need to make sure the speaker is perfectly level. Drop a spirit level atop each speaker cabinet until the perfect level is obtained and all four spikes or feet are in solid contact with the floor. If you find the sound to be bright or forward, you can tilt each speaker back slightly by raising the front spikes. (Again: a little is better than a lot!)  Or, if you have Nordost’s Sort Füt, this last step will go much smoother. The Sort Füt is adjustable so that you can level your speakers with ease, and their premium package comes with a laser level to help both with leveling and toe-in. If you have the funds, I strongly suggest a set of Sort Füt. This solution not only protects your speakers from external vibrations, but also drains the cabinet of internal vibrations generated from the speakers themselves, elevating the sound of EVERY speaker to a much higher level of performance!


 

For more even ideas about speaker setup, see our Speaker Placement Guide  

 

Dealer Spotlight: AudioNirvana

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By Michael Taylor

The High End industry in the Dominican Republic has a special shop available to them: AudioNirvana. Audiophiles there know that AudioNirvana is a place where they can get together to share their hobby and purchase the best products in the market, made by the best brands in the world. All of this is possible because of the efforts of AudioNirvana’s owner, Nelson Gomez.

Music has always been a part of Nelson’s life. Ever since he was a child he would sit in front of his father’s TUNER for hours, listening to all types of music. Even as a child, Nelson could appreciate that each genre of music created something special.

He entered into the world of high end audio in 1997 as an end-user, and ever since then, he’s made a point to attend industry shows around the world, creating and fostering relationships with key players in the hifi community. However, it wasn’t until five years ago that a friend suggested he turn his passion into his career, as an agent and representative for the brands that he loves.

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For Nelson, it is of the utmost importance that he identifies with the brands he represents. Nordost is one of those brands. He says, “Nordost permits me to demonstrate to my clients what their technology is capable of, with no limitations or anything that would change the characteristics of its sound”.

AudioNirvana has a unique business model.  Nelson often invites the companies that he represents to the Dominican Republic to engage in presentations and/or discussions about their products. This gives his clients the rare opportunity to have a direct interaction with the manufacturers of the products they love. Apart from these periodic discussions, Nelson also gives product presentations, teaches classes on technology, and entertains his clients in his shop, so that his customers have the chance to observe, and have a better understanding of, the products they are interested in purchasing.

In the Dominican Republic, the high end audio market has been growing consistently. That’s due, in great part, to the relationships that Nelson has cultivated with his clients, which are, according to him, his greatest investment.

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Nordost at Sound & Vision: the Bristol Show

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Please join Nordost February 24-26 for Sound & Vision’s 30th Bristol Show. You will find Nordost in room 210, on the second floor of the Marriott City Center Hotel Bristol. Show attendees will have the opportunity to experience Nordost’s famous product demonstrations and cable comparisons, as well as be some of the first to experience some exciting new Nordost releases like the Valhalla 2 USB 2.0 Cable and the Sort Lift. While at the show, don’t forget to take advantage of some unbeatable show prices on your favorite Nordost products, available on the Ground floor, Bay 4

Nordost at CES 2017 Recap

We started 2017 off strong this year at CES.  Industry attendees were the first to hear demonstrations of the new Valhalla 2 USB 2.0 Cable, which makes an astounding difference in hi-fidelity computer audio.  Throughout the show, Nordost was well represented in several fellow manufacturers’ sound systems.

Here are some images from Nordost at CES 2017:


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Simaudio used Valhalla 2 cables (supported by our new Sort Lifts) for the launch of their MOON 888 MONO AMPLIFIERS:IMG_9733 IMG_9772 IMG_9776

In the TAD/MoFi room you could find Nordost’s Tyr 2 Speaker Cable:IMG_9777IMG_9783

VTL used Odin 2 in their stellar system:IMG_9786 IMG_9787 IMG_9789

Hegel used both Heimdall 2 and Blue Heaven Cables along with Sort Kones:IMG_9800 IMG_9802

Our own room was set up with a full loom of Valhalla 2 cables to showcase our new V2 USB cable.  You could also find our entire range of QRT and Sort Products, making the system sound its absolute best!IMG_9866IMG_9815 IMG_9818 IMG_9823 IMG_9864   IMG_9867 IMG_9868 IMG_9869 IMG_9870

Nordost Playlist – January 2017

Nordost is lucky to have a wonderful team of representatives and product trainers who travel around the world educating and demonstrating the effects of Nordost’s products. As part of these demonstrations, it is our job to find an interesting and diverse selection of music to showcase our cables, power devices, sort system and accessories. Whether at shows, visiting our dealers and distributors or even in our own listening room in our headquarters in Holliston, we are constantly getting asked what music we are playing (or if our audience is not so bold to ask, we can see their Shazams working overtime). So we thought this would be a perfect opportunity to share our favorite songs of the moment. Some may be classics, some may be brand new, some may not even be to your taste, but one thing is for sure …it’s all great music.

Here are some of the songs that we will have on rotation this January.

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  1. Downtown—Majical Cloudz—Are You Alone?
  2. Suis-moi—Cyrille Aimee, Nataly Dawn—Suis-moi
  3. 7 Years—Lindsey Stirling—Spotify Singles
  4. Surefire—John Legend—Darkness And Light
  5. No Roots—Alice Merton—No Roots
  6. All My Friends—Dylan Kelly—All My Friends
  7. Bang Bang Bang—Mark Ronson, The Business Intl—Bang Bang Bang
  8. Ave Maria (Ellen’s Gesang) D.839—Franz Schubert, Andrea Bocelli, Academy of Choir Art Of Russia, Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra, Vladimir Fedoseyev—Viaggio Italiano
  9. Who Knows Who Cares—Local Natives—Gorilla Manor
  10. Reality Check—Noname—Telefone

NOVO’s Phil Gold Reviews Valhalla 2

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It is always great to start the year with an outstanding product review, and that is exactly what we are doing! Philip Gold of NOVO (previously Canada Hifi) had nothing but good things to say about our Reference range of cables in his review “Nordost Valhalla 2 Cables Reivew- Their Place in our Hobby”

“These cables bring out the music more than any others in my experience. They do this by offering the flattest and most extended frequency response, the highest level of detail, the greatest accuracy of the instrumental and vocal tone and full responsiveness to transients and sustained harmonics.”

To read the rest of this article on Valhalla 2 Cables, head to the review section on the Nordost website or just CLICK HERE!

Introducing The Valhalla 2 USB 2.0 Cable

Nordost is historically on the cutting-edge of the hifi audio industry. With the introduction of each new product, Nordost continues to push the “sonic boundaries” in every corner of the market it occupies: power, resonance control, analog and digital cabling, etc. However, there comes a point where simply increasing gauge size or changing materials will no longer lead to the level of improvements that Nordost deems worthy of a “step up” in range. In digital cabling, the Tyr 2 USB has achieved that level of greatness. In order to improve upon this already stellar cable and meet Nordost’s lofty standard for its Reference Valhalla 2 range, a total redesign was in order.

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The Valhalla 2 USB 2.0 is revolutionary in terms of USB cable design. For the first time, Nordost is introducing a flat, twin-axial geometry to its USB cables. This innovative layout allows the two signal wires to run parallel, compared to the standard twisted-pair configuration, shortening the signal path and drastically increasing transfer speeds. Another advantage to a twin-axial design is the ability to separate the power (positive) and ground (negative) legs of the cable, isolating them from signal and each other, minimizing the effects of harmful interference. The Valhalla 2 USB 2.0 then goes one step further, taking the precaution of isolating the signal conductors, by covering each power leg with a finely-braided, silver shield, as well as enclosing both signal conductors in their own braided, silver shields. Each shield is connected to the metal plated backshell, completely ridding the cable of any EMI or RFI and eliminating noise.

In addition to these advances, the Valhalla 2 USB 2.0 still uses all of the main technologies and design structures that Nordost has built its reputation upon. The V2 USB 2.0 is constructed using four, 19 AWG solid core, silver-plated copper conductors. Each conductor, both power and signal, is suspended in Nordost’s proprietary Dual Mono-Filament technology, increasing the dielectric and mechanical damping, while maintaining the overall flexibility of the cable. It also takes advantage of Nordost’s unique, mechanically tuned lengths, reducing internal microphonics and high-frequency impedance resonance.

Of course, as with all of our Valhalla 2 cables, the V2 USB is completed with a HOLO:PLUG® connector. Nordost purpose-built this fully shielded, low mass USB connector to ensure that there is no loss of signal transfer from the cable to the connectors themselves. The Valhalla 2 USB 2.0 is the only solution on the market capable of elevating digital streaming, attaining true, reference-quality results.

The Valhalla 2 USB 2.0 is now available for purchase at select Nordost dealers, worldwide. To find the Nordost dealer nearest you, visit the “Where to Buy” page on www.nordost.com.