Vibration is both a blessing and a curse in the high-end audio world. While vibration is the main reason we can enjoy this hobby of ours (it is, after all, through vibrations that we can hear!), it is also one of the most notorious culprits of sound degradation. Adverse effects of vibration on an audio system include confusion of imagery, timing errors and musical distortion. There are three increasingly popular methods of dealing with harmful vibrations: isolation, coupling, and resonance control. 

Isolation devices are de-coupling devices, meaning that their objective is to separate (or isolate) the component from its surface. When employing a de-coupling device, one must assume that all of the harmful vibrations are coming from the outside. These products absorb external energy before it can get into the product.

Coupling devices, on the other hand, merge the component to the surface it rests on. If you are using a coupling device, you adhere to the belief that the most powerful and damaging vibrations that occur are generated from the components themselves, which vibrate as they operate.

Resonance control addresses both the internal and external vibration at the same time. Resonance control devices act as a mechanical diode—allowing a one-way escape route for the extraneous energy produced from electronics. The construction of resonance control devices, like Nordost’s Sort Kone and Sort Füt, simultaneously prevents any external vibrations from traveling back into the component being protected.

Once the vibrations are eliminated from your audio components (amps, DACs, CD players, loudspeakers, etc), a whole new layer of tonal and textural details will be unveiled to you, as well as a transformed soundstage.  

For more information on vibration control, including purchase-free tips on how to reduce harmful vibrations from your own home system, see our NEW download: The Importance of Vibration Control.

Some cable manufacturers outfit their products with boxes containing filters intended to prevent high frequency oscillation and tailor sound: not Nordost. Although the frequency range of human hearing is 20 to 20,000 Hz, we are still aware of frequencies at far higher and lower extremes. By filtering-out these peripheral signals you are affecting what you hear- impacting the vivid, tonal balance that comes from the true performance. In lieu of altering and coloring sound through filters, Nordost opts for a high-speed, phase-coherent, low-loss approach to cable design, allowing for a perfect reproduction of sound.

The most important cable in your sound system is the power cord. At the risk of stripping away any magic from your tunes, the music enjoyed from your hi-fi system is little more than AC power, transformed by components to reproduce a melody. The quality of this reproduction is directly determined by the caliber of power cord which is facilitating this transfer of raw electricity to the equipment. By simply upgrading the AC cable in your set up, the audible difference is remarkable. Unlike other cables, a power cord does not transmit a signal: It conducts AC power. The success of this cable is gauged by its capacity to deliver a sturdy, instantaneous current as well as its ability to reduce the effects of electromagnetic interference (EMI) and radio frequencies (RF) coming from outside sources. A poorly constructed AC cord will actually attract EMI and RF, or noise, to your current, affectively polluting the raw material feeding your system and raising the source impedance of the AC supply. An optimally built power cord, on the other hand, is designed to be less prone to, and reduce, any EMI and RF influences resulting in a faster rise time in the 50/60 Hz cycle. For the Nordost solution, see our website to learn more about our power cords ranging from our Leif to Supreme Reference ranges.