We’re delighted to share a recent review which is especially helpful, since it looks at the QSOURCE as a product in its own right, and not just as an upgrade for the QPOINT (or QNET for that matter)!
In his review, Marshall Nack from Positive Feedback, describes the improvements in imaging, soundstaging, and presence that he experienced when connecting the QSOURCE to his network switch. He was impressed that the QSOURCE was able to “couple deep resolution, transparency, and relaxation”.
“To introduce intangibles like atmosphere and timbral finesse, along with tangibles like deep resolution and transparency out to the corners, you might consider the Nordost QSOURCE… the level of refinement the QSOURCE LPS brought exceeded my expectations; my quest for a Hi-End LPS ends here.” – Marshall Nack, Positive Feedback
Our Dealer Spotlight this month centers on Nordost’s most southerly audio store in the world, Soundline of Christchurch, New Zealand. Soundline was founded by industry legend, Frank Denson in 1979. At the time, there was very little quality HiFi equipment available in New Zealand. As a result, Frank began building his own turntables and speakers from kits. These initiatives were complemented by also building various amplifier designs under license.
In the early 1980s import duties and tariffs began to be relaxed in New Zealand, so Frank started to attend international audio shows, such as CES in Las Vegas. He had a particular focus on wanting to import hi-end equipment and made such an impression on the likes of Accuphase, Audio Research, Kimber Kable and Meridian Audio that he began importing these brands – brands that are still part of the Soundline family some forty years later.
By the late eighties, home theater had come along. As with the two-channel brands, Soundline were passionate about importing high-end video brands that they believed in. And so the likes of Stewart Filmscreen, Runco, Harman Kardon and Yamaha joined Soundline’s impressive portfolio. Such brands were perfect for the bespoke custom home theater designs that Soundline were now offering their customers. Soundline invested in their home automation department, and their professionalism and reputation for the high standard of install work meant that they were well placed, as this area of the business naturally expanded into distributing audio and video throughout the home. The ‘wow factor’ of integrating lighting into these installs further strengthened Soundline’s reputation across New Zealand, as clients preferred to only deal with one installer.
These days, Soundline in Christchurch is run and co-owned by Terry Wyatt. Terry has had a long-standing interest in music and audio equipment. In his teenage years in the mid-1980s he would frequent the hi-fi shops in Wellington and read the American and British hi-fi magazines. He was in awe of all the reviews and pictures of equipment that he could not afford. Two months after Terry left college, he had scraped together enough money for a deposit on his first separates hi-fi system – a Denon CD Player and Amplifier with Acoustic Research speakers to enjoy listening to the likes of Pink Floyd, Peter Gabriel, Dire Straits, and The Cure. He wasn’t old enough to have a line of credit, so his mother acted as his guarantor. He thanked her by playing the likes of Dark Side Of The Moon until neither she or the walls could handle it anymore. He continued to spend any spare time in music shops and hi-fi shops. He was offered a job working as an audio consultant for Absolute Audio, which he embraced with typical enthusiasm. He was conscientious enough to borrow equipment from the store and began to build up his vast knowledge of audio manufacturers and their respective sonic signatures.
In 1995, after six years working at a couple of hi-fi stores in Wellington, Frank Denson asked Terry to join his Soundline team in Christchurch. Terry didn’t need asking twice, as he had admired how Frank had built Soundline up as a company, and it was considered the premier hi-fi store in New Zealand. Frank already had enough faith in Terry to be out of the country when he joined! The faith was well placed, as Terry subsequently bought into the company in the early 2000s.
Nordost has been a feature in Soundline in Christchurch for the last three years. This came about by Terry’s tried and trusted methods of taking products home to evaluate in his own system. On this occasion, this was thanks to my friend and colleague, Bjorn Bengtsson, who had left Terry with a QB8 distribution block and a range of Nordost power cords to try, after visiting him all the way from Sweden. This was over the Christmas break of 2019/2020, so Terry had a little more time than normal to audition these items at home. Terry isn’t easily impressed but he was taken aback by the difference that the QB8 distribution block and the Nordost power cords offered over the distribution block and power cords that he was previously using.
He quickly placed two Nordost orders, firstly a QB8 and power cords for his own system, and then the same for demonstration purposes in the Soundline store for their many customers to audition in their own systems at home. Three years later, on a rare day off you will find Terry enjoying the likes of Vasily Kalinnikov’s beautiful 1st and 2nd Symphonies conducted by Neemi Jarvi through his fantastic Accuphase electronics and TAD speakers, with the veins of the system being a loom of Nordost Valhalla 2 cables.
Soundline’s longstanding database of happy customers is a testament to the values instilled by the company’s founder, Frank Denson, and the encyclopedic knowledge that Terry and his trusted Lieutenant, James Heal, have of their customers’ systems. They are both firm advocates that you should always upgrade your power cords before interconnects and speaker cables in your system. To quote Terry, “It’s incredible what one or two power cords can do for the sound of your system and for audio components that you thought you knew well”.
While the team at Soundline has very much embraced new technologies, they remain very much focused on their customers’ needs in buying the right system for their respective tastes and requirements.
SOUNDLINE CHRISTCHURCH
329 Madras Street Mon-Fri 9am to 5pm Saturday 10am to 2pm (03) 379 5695
Nordost products are designed to allow you to enjoy your favorite performances as they were intended to be heard. All of us here are passionate about great music, and want to share our passion with you. Each one of us has our own style… We listen to a wide variety of artists and genres but, in a way, we appreciate them all. We thought that we would share a few of the songs on our own personal playlists with you each month. Some may be classics, some may be brand new, some may not even be to your tastes, but we hope that there is something here for everyone.
Here are some of the songs that we will have on rotation this February.
You can now listen to our monthly playlist here: TIDAL | SPOTIFY | QOBUZ
Answer Me, My Love—Swamp Dogg—Love, Loss, and Auto-Tune
Everybody Knows—Leonard Cohen—I’m Your Man
Even If It Hurts—Tei Shi, Blood Orange—La Linda
Cry Everything—Kindness—Something Like A War
It’s Your Thing—Christian McBride, Dee Dee Bridgewater—Conversations with Christian
Murmuration—GoGo Penguin—v2.0 (Deluxe Edition)
Better By Now—Abby Holliday—Better By Now
Club Nine—Nicolas Godin—Contrepoint
One Fine Morning—Bill Callahan—Apocalypse
Giorgio by Moroder—Daft Punk—Random Access Memories
At Nordost we have always maintained that auditions are a BIG part of the audio cable selection process. Cable demonstrations can be a fun and informative experience, and is an integral part of determining what’s right for your home system. However, when conducting at-home auditions, there are often a lot of questions. We have compiled some of our most frequently asked questions here, to help you make the most of your own auditions!
Q: How can I try Nordost products in my system?
A: Most Authorized Nordost dealers have a demo case available so that you can borrow cables and audio accessories and try them in your system. You can find a Nordost dealer near you in the Where To Buy section of the Nordost website.
Q: How
should I do an at-home cable audition?
A: There
are several things that you can do in order to maximize your at-home audition experience. Some of these things include refamiliarizing
yourself with your system before you start to make any changes. Do some
critical listening (rather than passive) so that you can appreciate the
improvements you are about to hear. Another thing you could do is identify your area of interest. It’s better to concentrate
your audition instead of doing a system-wide
change (as tempting as that is!). For more pointers and greater detail on ways
to enhance your at-home demonstration, read our previous blog, Six Steps to
Successfully Audition HiFi Cables in Your Home Sound System.
Q: What music should you use when auditioning cables?
A: When
auditioning cables, we suggest that you play whatever tracks that you are most
familiar with! One of the most enjoyable aspects of comparing and upgrading
audio components and cables is discovering nuances that you’ve never heard
before in a piece of music that you have listened to a countless number times.
However, if you’d like recommendations for tracks that will help you identify
specific sonic changes, such as imaging, harmonics, bass
definition etc., we have created some playlists with specific songs that will
help you do that. You can listen to these tracks here: Qobuz, Tidal, Spotify.
Q: What
type of audible changes should you expect when auditioning cables?
A: At Nordost, we have a wide-range of audio cables. Each cable has a certain set of technology and manufacturing techniques that are integrated depending on where they stand in our line-up. Each one of these technologies and production practices has a sonic impact on the cables. In order to help you during the audition process, we have listed how these cable design elements can be identified from a sonic perspective, which you can read here: Sonic Perspectives of Nordost Technologies. We have done a similar thing for those of you who would also like to audition our QRT products, here: What to Expect from a QRT Demonstration.
Recently, many of you may have seen systems that use cable lifters. But what purpose do they serve? Are they just aesthetically pleasing? They may highlight the cables, and make them look organized, but do they make a sonic difference?
Sure cables have the potential to create quite a “mess” when just thrown behind the rack, and organization is always a good thing… but there are more to cable lifters than meets the eye.
Organization: This is the easy one. By utilizing cable lifters you can create organized pathways for cables to follow. The big benefit here is that you can create these pathways so that the cables are sufficiently spaced apart to avoid noise contamination between them. Also, by creating these pathways, you can avoid coiling excess cabling, which actually hurts the performance of the cable by changing its electrical properties.
Dielectric charge: Another lesser known issue cables face is a buildup of a charge on the dielectric (the cable jacket). The outer jacket can actually store an electrical charge that it can pick up from laying on a floor, especially if they are set on carpet or rugs. Sometimes you can help control the impact of this charge depending on the material from which the cable jacket is made. For example, Nordost uses FEP as our chosen dielectric, which stores less of a charge than other materials (like PVC). The larger the charge on the dielectric, the more the electrical signal traveling beneath it is affected. By lifting the cables off the floor (i.e. stopping the contact between dielectric and an electrically charged surface) you minimize the possibility of building up that charge, lessening any negative effects on the electrical signal.
Resonance: Cable lifters actually improve the overall sound of the cable itself. This doesn’t work for some cable brands (especially brands that utilize stranded cable designs), but it does benefit the sound of Nordost cables! When you build a cable that is designed to resonate in a specific way, cable lifters can help facilitate that desired resonance. If you look at the Nordost Sort Lifts in particular, you can see that the design is intended to suspend the cable so that movement is possible, allowing the cable to naturally resonate. Whereas, when cable is simply laying on the floor, that contact “deadens” or “compresses” the signal.
Even though it’s a new year, we still have some great reviews to share with you from 2021! This articles spends some time on an often overlooked, but important upgrade. Marshall Nack takes readers through the process of trading up their QKOREs by swapping out our original QKORE Wire for the Premium QKORE Wire. According to Nack, the improvements were immediate and impressive.
“The major impact of the Premium QKORE wires is purity of the high frequencies. Secondary effects include increased image mass, a boost in dynamics, and dialing in focus. On the subjective side, there’s more drama and impact… If you’ve already invested in the Nordost QKORE solution, this one’s a no-brainer.” – Marshall Nack, Positive Feedback.
As another crazy year comes to a close, we can’t help but celebrate the success that we have enjoyed throughout 2021. We are very happy to share that over the past year, Nordost has been presented with awards from publications spanning the hifi industry in categories that include Best Products, Most Recommended, Star Components, Innovation Awards, and more!
As a company, Nordost strives to provide hifi enthusiasts with the means to bring life into an audio system in order to truly enjoy music as it was intended. We take a lot of pride in the audio cables, power products, and audio enhancers that we produce, so we are always honored to be recognized by reviewers, industry leaders, and prominent publications for our work. We thought that you might like to celebrate with us!
“The Blue Heaven certainly lives up to its manufacturer’s claims of offering accurate signal transfer at a relatively affordable price… with especially impressive detail and sound staging. Value-wise it punches well above its weight, so it is well worth auditioning.” – StereoNET
“The Norse 2 [Bi-Wire Jumper]…matches its task very well, offering all the refinement you would expect from a set of high-end cables and so is a sensible upgrade to the metal links fitted to so many speakers.” – Hi-Fi Choice
“The timing, transparency and resolution of the cables are astounding. So, while everything in the orchestra is laid clearly before you, the sheen and tactile effects from the V2’s design, construction and materials make every musical choice a delicious event. This is playback way beyond technique.” – Audiophilia
“For the last 30 years, Nordost has been at the zenith of cable design and development, and throughout that time it has stayed true to its core; producing low-mass cables with optimal signal transfer speed and ideal impedance matching.” – Hi-Fi+
“So, transparency, precision, purity, depth, texture, openness, expansiveness… Nordost’s Tyr 2 loom brings all of this and more to the listening experience. Yet as I wrap up these thoughts another word now pops to mind that perhaps best sums up my analogy between wine and audio: transformative.” – StereoNET
“The Nordost AC SORT KONES are far more than a tweak, and that to even consider them tweaks denies their stunning music-freeing abilities. ” – AudioKey Reviews
Nordost products are designed to allow you to enjoy your favorite performances as they were intended to be heard. All of us here are passionate about great music, and want to share our passion with you. Each one of us has our own style… We listen to a wide variety of artists and genres but, in a way, we appreciate them all. We thought that we would share a few of the songs on our own personal playlists with you each month. Some may be classics, some may be brand new, some may not even be to your tastes, but we hope that there is something here for everyone.
Here are some of the songs that we will have on rotation this January.
You can now listen to our monthly playlist here: TIDAL | SPOTIFY | QOBUZ
Bottle Tops—Ritual Feat. Mononoke—Every Night Another But Not You
Stimela (Coal Train)—Hugh Masekela—Still Grazing
After Hours—The Velvet Underground—The Velvet Underground
Delores’ Boyfriend—Allen Toussaint—American Tunes
Cotton Fields—Harry Belafonte—Belafonte Sings The Blues
Love Ain’t Enough—The Barr Brothers—Sleeping Operator
cloud castle—Luna Li—jams EP
Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?—Bing Crosby, Lenny Hayton & His Orchestra—They Essential Bing Crosby
When we were thinking of a nice way to start 2022, we thought…why not give the people what they “liked” most throughout the past year, all in one spot! This 2021 blog round-up includes our posts from this past year that received the most engagement, whether it be likes, shares, comments, retweets, Instagram reactions, or however you feel like measuring now-a-days. Here are our favorite blogs, back by popular demand!
Nordost’s QRT products are easy and effective to demonstrate in any system. But while their performance improvements are immediate, we recognize that people appreciate knowing what to listen for when they sit down to a product audition. In this blog, we list some of the sonic effects that you can expect to hear when introducing each of our QRT products into your sound system!
Did you know that not all ground is not created equally?!? Well, it turns out that there are two typs of grounds in your system: Natural and Artificial Ground. This blog explains what both types of grounds are, as well as how you can address them when making improvements to your sound system.
Bi-Wired Loudspeakers can be tricky to set up correctly. However, when done right, they could mean a wonderful audible enhancement for your system! This blog tells you what having bi-wired loudspeakers mean, describes three different ways they can be wired, and lets you know the advantages or disadvantages of each option.
Correctly mounting and aligning your cartridge is a multi-step process that involves several tools and some patience…but the results are well worth it! In this blog, we have simplified this process to six easy steps so that you can minimize tracking errors and achieve the most accurate sound from your turntable.
We all know that cable design makes a difference. But what aspects of cable design should you pay attention to when looking for a digital cable upgrade? This blog highlights the top four characteristics high performance digital cables must have, and explains how each of these characteristics affect the cable’s performance.
There are several simple tweaks and changes that you can make to improve the performance of your turntable. This blog shares five easy adjustments and modifications to upgrade your turntable in order to get the best sound from your analog system.
The spotlight continued to shine on our Blue Heaven range last month, thanks to a new StereoNET review on the Blue Heaven Tonearm Cable +. In his article, Jay Garrett used our entry-level tonearm cable between the VPI Prime and YBA PH1 phono stage, working his way through the different grounding options possible with this versatile cable. Once he found the optimal grounding solution for his system, Jay found a BIG payoff and was able to get much “more than usual when playing LPs…”
“Right from the off, this Blue Heaven tonearm cable proved an improvement over the original. It produced an even more musical, engaging and detailed soundscape, no doubt in part due to the lower noise floor, which encourages you to turn the music up, as well as making listening at lower volumes much more rewarding.” – Jay Garrett, StereoNET
