We are extremely excited to start the New Year off right by sharing a 5 Star review with you! Hi-Fi Choice’s Neville Roberts was so “immediately aware” of the improvements that our Blue Heaven Power Cord made to his system that we were awarded the honor of being among the ranks of Hi-Fi Choice’s Recommended Products. While the Blue Heaven Power Cord may be in Nordost’s entry-level series of products, it is anything but a minor upgrade.
“The overall performance is clear and refined with a very low noise floor. The Blue Heaven is certainly a very good value-for-money, high-quality power cable option.” – Neville Roberts
Since their release at High End Munich in 2019, Nordost’s QPOINT Resonance Synchronizer and QSOURCE Linear Power Supply have been generating constant buzz within the hifi industry. Just recently, The Absolute Sound featured this revolutionary combination of products in a review to further explore the unbelievable impact that they have on two-channel systems, which, as author Jacob Heilbrunn even describes in the title of his article, is “Strange but True”. In the end, both separately and as a pair, Jacob concluded that there is no question about it, the QPOINT and QSOURCE provide “valuable sonic benefits in a high-end system”. Here is a glimpse of what he had to say about both products:
QPOINT: “With the introduction of the QPOINTS, the orchestra really snapped into place. It was like a photo that went from blurry to sharp in the blink of an eye. It was a sheer pleasure to hear the interplay between the harpsichord and orchestra…What a revelation!”
QSOURCE: “The QSOURCE [powering the Roon]…offered a substantial improvement in image density, resolution, and hall ambience.”
As this hectic year starts to wind down, it’s a good time to reflect on the high points that we have enjoyed. Luckily, Nordost has had SEVERAL this year: 13 to be exact! That’s the number of awards that Nordost has won for our outstanding products in 2020 alone!
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 Frey 2’s performance and general neutral and happy nature never disappointed. And they were wonderful in all sorts of repertoire from grandiloquent to introspective.” – Anthony Kershaw, Audiophilia
“Odin 2 takes your system to new levels of performance you might not have thought possible: in this respect, it’s like listening to great old recordings played back on top-notch new equipment – you end up asking yourself, “did they know how good this is when they made it?” Odin 2 does that to both music and the equipment upon which that music is played.” – Alan Sircom, Hi-Fi+
“The V2+ tonearm cable follows the house V2 sound of exceptional transparency and stunning transient playback, without ever falling to the temptation of over-sharing the treble content. The midband and top are deliciously open and see- through, seamless and nearly organic in naturalness, while bass is disarmingly honest and musical in its flow. This is a staggeringly insightful wiring upgrade to hear what’s hiding in the groove.” – Andrew Harrison, Hi-Fi+
“The instrument focus and clarity are both excellent and the soundstage is expansive…the bass is powerful and punchy and the drums and hi-hats are crisp, tight and engaging. The great energy is splendidly conveyed and the instrument focus of the hi-hats is particularly well defined.” – Neville Roberts, Hi-Fi Choice
“The overall performance is clear and refined with a very low noise floor. The Blue Heaven is certainly a very good value-for-money, high-quality power cable option.” – Neville Roberts, Hi-Fi Choice
“…connecting all elements in our system to the artificial ground is equivalent to replacing any of its elements with a superior one. But – and here it starts to be interesting – we get more of everything that we already have in the system, not something completely new.” – Wojciech Pacula, High Fidelity
“In advance of installing the QKORE Ground Units, I had imagined what such a product might accomplish. Those daydreams were prophetic—the only surprise was how significant it turned out to be…it did more to improve my sound than any alternative I can think of at that price.” – Marshall Nack, Positive Feedback
“…Purple Flare really shines in the midband with a slightly forward, driving energy that imparts a dynamic liveliness to all genres of music.” – Neil Gader, The Absolute Sound
2020 The Absolute Sound Editors’ Choice Awards: Heimdall 2 USB 2.0
“I experienced, in my own system, what others have been pointing out: USB cable can greatly impact sonic performance. The Blue Heaven USB cable was quite good, but I was impressed by how much more detail, texture, body, and spatial information came through with the Heimdall 2 USB cable in place. It all added up to a more life-like and enjoyable musical experience all around.” – Kirk Midtskog, The Absolute Sound
“Frey 2… has rebalanced the scales, taking the transient and micro-dynamic elements of the past and integrating them with richer mids and a brawnier, meatier bottom end that gives orchestral music more discernible, atmosphere and weight. In a word, there’s more fidelity to the live event.” – Neil Gader, The Absolute Sound
“…the outcome of using the Valhalla 2 is truly prodigious. Everything instantly improved as a result of using this dynamically unconstrained cable. It was easy to detect that the Valhalla lowered the noise floor, and that the bass notes became more defined and stygian…the bennies were evident across the sonic spectrum, in ways both large and small.” – Jacob Heilbrunn, The Absolute Sound
“With the Odin 2, the notes seem to leap out of the loudspeakers with the tiniest, low-level details excavated with remarkable fidelity…the Odin 2 played a vital role in bringing their magnificent performance to life.” – Jacob Heilbrunn, The Absolute Sound
“…the elegance, the poignancy, the fragility of a musical line is what conveys the emotion at the heart of music. This is what the Nordost QKORE does so well. I can’t help thinking that to achieve the most from any high-end stereo Nordost QKORE is an essential product to consider” – Jacob Heilbrunn, The Absolute Sound
We have another great review to share with you, and this time it’s on our QKORE Ground Units! Nordost’s QKOREs are parallel grounding devices which provide an artificial “clean” earth for hifi audio systems using both electrical and mechanical approaches, and people LOVE what they do to their systems. In fact, in his review in High Fidelity, Wojciech Pacuła went as far as to say that the QKORE is the “best-built device of this type on the market”.
“…connecting all elements in our system to the artificial ground is equivalent to replacing any of its elements with a superior one. But – and here it starts to be interesting – we get more of everything that we already have in the system, not something completely new. In other words, the sound we worked for, polished and refined, will be improved, not changed.” – Wojciech Pacuła, High Fidelity
We are happy to share that our Frey 2 cables have received some much deserved attention this month! In a glowing review, Anthony Kershaw of Audiophilia.com, spoke to the benefits that a Frey 2 loom brought to his sound system. In his article, Anthony applauded Frey 2’s synergy and loved how our cables “got out of the way of the music”.
“The Frey 2’s performance and general neutral and happy nature never disappointed. And they were wonderful in all sorts of repertoire from grandiloquent to introspective.” – Anthony Kershaw, Audiophilia
As usual, when people find something that works, they can’t help but come back for more! That is exactly what happened with Positive Feedback’s Marshall Nack. After being blown away by both our QKORE and QBASE, Marshall couldn’t wait to see what else our QRT technology had in store. In his most recent review, Marshall dives into the world of the QVIBE and QKOIL. He was initially skeptical when presented with these convenient system tweaks. Could they really provide assistance to both the bass and treble while enhancing overtones and helping the dimensionality and specificity of soundstaging? Marshall found that the QV2 and QK1 not only made good on their promises, but “produced the kind of sound that audiophiles dream about”!
“There’s no doubt the QV2s give you a generous mid-and-upper-bass assist, and the QK1s round and flesh out the treble range. From the hefty, well-defined low-end into the clear mids and the soft-edged, non-abrasive highs, frequency response and tone are beautifully rendered. The palpable illusion of instruments present is happening in the way the best audio systems do it.” — Marshall Nack, Positive Feedback
The final installment of NOVO’s 3-Part QRT review is here! Part 3 concentrates on our QVIBE AC Line Harmonizers and QKOIL AC Enhancers. In his most recent article, reviewer George de Sa systematically adds the QV2 and QK1 to his system, focusing on the improvements each one brings to the music. With the QV2, he notices a dramatic distinction in spacial awareness and details, imparting a substantial “lift in the level of realism”. The QK1, on the other hand, focuses on the music’s speed, offering “more clarity, speed and punch to the percussion”. Together, these symbiotic products are the perfect finishing touch to any hifi system:
“…bringing them together was another experience unto itself. With all four (two Qv2s and two QK1s) plugged into the QBASE, the best of both was achieved. There was greater warmth, yet also greater focus and pace. There was an increased sense of naturalness but also a greater measure of dynamics. And then, there was a significant increase in three-dimensional imaging and separation.” – George de Sa
You can now read all three of George’s QRT pieces here:
The Absolute Sound has published another fabulous Nordost review! In this most recent article, Nordost Tyr 2 Interconnect, Speaker, and Power Cables: Transparency, Purity, Texture, Wayne Garcia experiments with a full loom of Tyr 2 cables. No matter the genre of music he listened to, our Try 2 cables succeeded in convincing Wayne that he was listening to the “real thing”, his system vanishing so that he was left enjoying just the music.
“…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 throughs another word now pops to mind …transformative. That is perhaps the ultimate thing I can say about any experience. It takes us to another place, another level of understanding—and, in this case, another level of long-term musical pleasure.” – Wayne Garcia, TAS
Our recent tonearm cable upgrade has had reviewers eager for the opportunity to check out how the new internal design and revolutionary grounding options will impact their analog listening. This month, Positive Feedback’s Michael Corsentino introduced the Blue Heaven Tonearm Cable + into his system. While it may be Nordost’s entry level tonearm cable, the results were truly impressive! There is no doubt that Michael will want to know what will happen as he upgrades throughout our line of Tonearm Cable + offerings.
“With the Blue Heaven installed music had substantially more clarity, more detail, more refinement, more dynamic contrast, and more musicality. And, as mentioned above, hum gone in a flash! … the Blue Heaven made an appreciably positive difference, no if’s, and’s or but’s about it. I have no hesitation recommending it as a worthwhile upgrade. Once you’ve heard the difference, I doubt you’ll go back to your previous cable: I know I’m not!”
Nordost is happy to share yet another glowing review of our QKORE Ground Units. In this review, Positive Feedback’s Marshall Nack introduced QKORE to his system to find that it straightened out frequency balance, gained body and density in his system’s low end, and exposed a variety of accents and dynamic markings in his music. In fact, the sonic improvements that Marshall achieved in adding the QKORE to his system exceeded his expectations:
“In advance of installing the QKORE Ground Units, I had imagined what such a product might accomplish. Those daydreams were prophetic—the only surprise was how significant it turned out to be… it did more to improve my sound than any alternative I can think of at that price.” – Marshall Nack, Positive Feedback.
You can read Marshall’s review in its entirety here, or check out more great reviews on our reviews page!
