Hi-Fi+ Reviews the Purple Flare USB Cable

Posted on December 23, 2019 by Nordost

When Michael Mercer from Hi-Fi+ reviewed Nordost’s Purple Flare USB Cable, he was so impressed that he nominated it for the Digital Audio Cable of the Year (an award that it won, of course!). While the Purple Flare USB Cable is Nordost’s entry-level USB cable, the only thing entry-level about it is its price-point.

“Transparency and coherence are the name of the game with Purple Flare USB. Hi-hats glisten and dissipate effortlessly into a black background. Drums are authoritative and lifelike. Vocals are realistically rendered in size and tonality. Transients race across the soundstage with precision and flare (pun intended). Purple Flare gives you top-tier performance at an incredibly affordable price.” – Michael Mercer, HiFi+

As the only USB cable in Nordost’s line-up to offer Standard A (2.0) or Standard B (2.0) to Mini B (2.0) or Micro B (2.0) termination options, they are the perfect solution for hifi audio enthusiasts trying to accommodate DACs that require micro-B and mini-B connectors!

Michael’s review is available to read here: Nordost Purple Flare USB Cable

You can find more great Nordost reviews on our Reviews Page.

Dealer Spotlight: Audio Synthèse

Posted on December 16, 2019 by Nordost

By Dennis Bonotto

On the right bank of the river Seine, between the bohemian Le Marais and the large Bercy park, the Quinze-Vingts neighborhood in Paris has seen the Bastille fall and is to this day home to many great authentic French spots. It was here that Audio Synthèse settled a couple of decades ago to become the largest and most respected hifi shop in France.

Twice a year, at the beginning of the summer and at the beginning of winter, Audio Synthèse hosts a 3-day Nordost-exclusive event to an engaging audience.

Several sessions per day allow customers and hifi enthusiasts to check out for themselves both the new products and the fundamental concepts of putting together an audio system from the ground up. This year of course we focused on the new QSOURCE and QPOINT which were an immediate hit in France.

If you really needed any new reason to visit Paris, make sure to catch us next time at Audio Synthèse. Frédéric Vedel and the team will make sure you have a great time, and if you’re lucky you might even meet Michel Roger, our local distributor who seems to hang out there all the time and is an expert in the local delicatessen.

Audio Synthèse

8 Rue de Prague

75012 Paris

+33 01 43 07 07 01

https://www.audio-synthese.fr

Tonearm Cable + now available in Blue Heaven, Heimdall 2, Frey 2, and Tyr 2!

Posted on December 10, 2019 by Nordost

The tonearm cable is the most critical and sensitive cable in any vinyl-sourced hifi system. The delicate signals generated by pick-up cartridges in these systems demand purpose-built, low-capacitance cables, in order to protect from signal loss and image smearing. However, to truly get the most from a tonearm cable, proper attention must be paid to grounding as well. Without proper grounding, the noise that could be picked up could render a system virtually unlistenable. To combat this, Nordost’s new Tonearm Cable + redesign optimizes every aspect of tonearm cable construction, from conductor layout and shielding to grounding capability, in order to ensure the fidelity of signal transfer and reveal subtle musical nuances, while completely eliminating noise from the signal chain. Nordost’s Blue Heaven, Heimdall 2, Frey 2, and Tyr 2 Tonearm Cable + provide the best analog connection for every system, no matter the price-point.

The design for Nordost’s new line of tonearm cables comes directly from the recent Valahalla 2 tonearm cable redesign. As with the V2 Tonearm Cable +, which was released in the summer of 2019, Nordost’s new tonearm cables are constructed using four, silver-plated, solid core OFC conductors, arranged in a twisted pair design. Using a twisted pair design on its own naturally helps to minimize noise. However, Nordost now goes the extra mile, separately wrapping the left and right channels with silver, braided shielding, in order to completely eliminate inter-channel cross-talk.

One signature trait that all Nordost cables share is extremely fast signal transfer speed. We achieve this, in part, by implementing our patented Mono-Filament technology. This technology is found in our new Tonearm Cable + designs, starting with the Heimdall 2 Tonearm Cable +. This requires each conductor to be intricately and uniformly wrapped in either a single “Micro” strand or two twisted “Dual” strands of FEP Mono-Filament, before being encased in an extruded layer of high-quality FEP. By using this technology, insulation contact with the conductors is reduced by 80% or 85%, respectively.

The most exciting feature found in all of Nordost’s new tonearm cables comes in the form of a new, comprehensive grounding solution. This two-part design is guaranteed to provide proper and complete grounding, offering a solution for every combination of components and connections found between all the different turntables and phono stages on the market. Part one is a completely isolated, silver-plated bond wire. This bond wire is wrapped in Micro Mono-Filament before being extruded in FEP insulation and separately shielded within the cable jacket. Part two consists of two, detachable, silver-plated ground whips, complete with Micro Mono-Filament technology, which are included with each cable. When needed, these ground whips connect to the cable’s shielding, totally eliminating any noise that could be introduced during signal transfer.

Each Tonearm Cable + is available with straight or 90० low-mass MoonGlo® 5-pin Din, RCA, or XLR terminations. All ground whips and bond wires are terminated with gold-plated 5mm spades. Like all Nordost cables, the Blue Heaven, Heimdall 2, Frey 2, and Tyr 2 Tonearm Cable + are handmade in the USA, ensuring a superior level of production quality and precision– all necessary requirements when manufacturing the most crucial signal cables in a sound system.

HEIMDALL 2

Insulation: Fluorinated Ethylene Propylene (FEP)
Conductors: 4 x 28 AWG
Construction: 2 Twisted pairs individually shielded. Mechanically tuned lay and lengths. Micro Mono-Filament.
Material: Silver plated 99.99999% OFC Solid Core Conductors
Bond / Grounding Whips: 24 AWG silver-plated, stranded OFC, Micro Mono-Filament.
Termination: MoonGlo® Straight or 90० low-mass 5-pin Din, RCA, or XLR connectors. Whips and bond wire terminated with gold-plated 5mm spades.

FREY 2

Insulation: Fluorinated Ethylene Propylene (FEP)
Conductors: 4 x 26 AWG
Construction: 2 Twisted pairs individually shielded. Mechanically tuned lay and lengths. Dual Mono-Filament. Twisted pairs individually shielded.
Material: Silver plated 99.99999% OFC Solid Core Conductors
Bond / Grounding Whips: 24 AWG silver-plated, stranded OFC, Micro Mono-Filament.
Termination: MoonGlo® Straight or 90० low-mass 5-pin Din, RCA, or XLR connectors. Whips and bond wire terminated with gold-plated 5mm spades.

TYR 2

Insulation: Fluorinated Ethylene Propylene (FEP)
Conductors: 4 x 25 AWG
Construction: 2 Twisted pairs individually shielded. Mechanically tuned lay and lengths. Dual Mono-Filament.
Material: Silver plated 99.99999% OFC Solid Core Conductors
Bond / Grounding Whips: 24 AWG silver-plated, stranded OFC, Micro Mono-Filament.
Termination: MoonGlo® Straight or 90० low-mass 5-pin Din, RCA, or XLR connectors. Whips and bond wire terminated with gold-plated 5mm spades.

Nordost Playlist – December 2019

Posted on December 6, 2019 by Nordost

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 December.

You can now listen to our monthly playlist here: TIDAL | SPOTIFY | QOBUZ

The Very Thought Of You-Live—Jon Batiste, Rachael Price—Anatomy Of Angels: Live At The Village Vanguard
Oiseau Sauvage—Dom La Nena—Oiseau Sauvage
everything i wanted—Billie Eilish—everything i wanted
Riding For The Feeling—Bill Callahan—Apocalypse
Stronger Magic—Leslie Odom Jr.—Mr
Soul Sista—Bilal, Raphael Saadiq—Queen & Slim: The Soundtrack
Time Machine—Alicia Keys—Time Machine
Uneventful Days—Beck—Hyperspace
Pantomima—Greg Dulli—Pantomima
Play the Ponies—Jo Blankenburg—Clandestine

Pictures from Nordost Nation! November 2019

Posted on November 27, 2019 by Nordost

Nordost is lucky to have such incredibly loyal and enthusiastic customers! One great way that our fans let us know that they are happy with the work that we do is by sending us pictures of their Nordost products in action. Here are a few photos that have been shared with us recently. Feel free to send us pictures of Nordost in your system, via Facebook, info@nordost.com, or #nordostcables on Instagram, so that we can continue to share them with the whole Nordost family!

@cultoffonza has a nice man cave set up with Hegel, Dynaudio, and Nordost cables and QRT!

@garosi_hifi is showing off their new QPOINT in a system wired with all Nordost cables

@ludokongen has a great looking set-up with Blue Heaven! (And some great looking guitars too!)

@tommystereoplus – “amazing day to listen some good music!”

@chadrphoto – “Lazy afternoon listening to the legendary Ahmad Jamal…”
Made possible by Red Dawn loudspeaker cables 😜

@z.caraudio showing off some old school Blue Heaven cables

@brendanvyner is getting his music room set up with some Frey 2!

Nordost’s Ax Angel cables are in full effect for @MarcUrselli’s recording session with Josh Dion

@storm_srt is up in Toronto, spinning some records on his system wired with Nordost!

@indoaholic experiencing “Audiophile Nirvana” with Focal and the Heimdall 2 Headphone Cable

@felipe.rolim92 is kicking back, listening to some music with his reference Nordost cables

@iamhearrr took this really cool shot of the Odin 2 Speaker Cable

@claud1e777 – “Fall is Tube Time!”

@jimmy_hifi is ready for a “Great Weekend Listening Session” with Hegel, B&W, and Nordost’s Heimdall 2

Nordost Customer Testimonial

Posted on November 12, 2019 by Nordost

Nordost is always thrilled to receive and share glowing reviews from journalists and experts in the industry. However, when we get testimonials from our devoted and satisfied customers, it means that much more!

Thank you to Rob from Alberta, Canada for sharing how he went from being a cable skeptic to a cable evangelist.

“Originally, I was of the thought that cables would not make much of a difference in an audio system, most notably power cables. My spouse and I attended a demonstration at our local audio store (where we had purchased the rest of the pieces for our system), and we were absolutely astonished at the difference we were hearing.

Needless to say, we upgraded our power cables shortly afterward. Probably the best way to put it was that our system had “woken up” and was brought to life in a way that we had not heard before. Crisper, more detailed highs, cleaner bass response…we are very pleased.

We currently are using three Nordost Red Dawn AC Power Cords, and three Nordost Heimdall 2 AC Power Cords on our system, and are in the process of working our way through the rest of the system.”

Rob is a happy customer of Absolute Audio Video. His system is wired with Heimdall 2 and Red Dawn cables.

Visit our Customer Testimonials page to see what more users like Rob have to say!

What’s your Nordost story?

Capital Audiofest 2019 Recap

Posted on November 7, 2019 by Nordost

We were thrilled to join our friends and business partners, VPI, in their reference rooms at the Capital Audiofest. This was an important show for VPI, thanks to the launch of their new flagship turntable, the Vanquish. A full loom of Odin 2 cables outfitted one of the “Vanquish” rooms, including components by Krell and an impressive pair of KEF Muon loudspeakers. The second vanquish room was supported by our V2 and O2 cables, Genesis loudspeakers, and Merrill Audio Components. Nordost could also be seen in the Gershman Acoustic room, where our Odin 2 Cables were sounding fantastic, as always.

Nordost Playlist – November 2019

Posted on November 5, 2019 by Nordost

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

You can now listen to our monthly playlist here: TIDAL | SPOTIFY | QOBUZ

Kanskje—Kari Bremnes—Det vi har
Slide—James Bay—Electric Light
Paint It, Black—Ciara—Paint It, Black
The Girl From Ipanema—Nat King Cole, Gregory Porter—Ultimate Nat King Cole
Main Girl—Charlotte Cardin—Main Girl EP
Grey—Ani DiFranco—Canon
Iron—Gundelach—Baltus
I Feel It Like You—Malia, Boris Blank—Convergence
Hurricanes—Dido—Still on My Mind
Burn the Witch—Radiohead—A Moon Shaped Pool

Questions and Answers: QSOURCE

Posted on October 29, 2019 by Nordost

We thought that we would take the opportunity to share some of our most recent and frequently asked questions about the QSOURCE Linear Power Supply here, so that everyone can get the answers they are looking for!

I have seen the QSOURCE used with the new QPOINT Resonance Synchronizer in reviews, but can it be used with other components too?

The QSOURCE serves as an upgraded power supply for Nordost’s QPOINT Resonance Synchronizers, and is constructed with four, 5V outputs designated specifically for QPOINTS. However, it was also designed as a replacement for the noise-inducing, inconsistent switch mode power supplies that feed music servers, network switches, routers, NAS drives, DC phono stages, DC DACs etc. To accommodate these devices, the QSOURCE provides two outlets that can supply “9V, 12V, or 19V” and “12V, 19V, or 24V” respectively, which can be chosen to match the requirements of your electronics.

Where should I place the QSOURCE in my system? Do I have to plug it into my distribution bar, or can it be plugged directly into the wall?

While you can certainly plug the QSOURCE into your distribution bar, if you don’t have any space available on your QB4, QB8, or whatever product you use in your system, you can plug the QSOURCE directly into the wall. In terms of placement, the QSOURCE can be positioned anywhere on or around your audio rack in a well-ventilated space. Just make sure that the vents both on the top and bottom of the unit are unobstructed at all times.

Is there a difference between the QSOURE DC Cables that you use to power the QPOINT and the QSOURCE DC Cables you use to power other components?

While the cable itself is the same, Nordost offers three termination options for the QSOURCE DC Cable: LEMO to LEMO, LEMO to 5mm x 2.1mm barrel connector, and LEMO to 5mm x 2.5mm barrel connector. The LEMO to LEMO connectors are intended for use with Nordost’s QPOINT Resonance Synchronizers. When connecting any other device to the QSOURCE, you have to verify the required termination for your device from its manufacturer.

Do you need to own a QSOURCE in order to use your QPOINT?

No, when you purchase a QPOINT it comes with a switch-mode power supply so that you can use it immediately, without any additional purchases. However, if you want to get the most out of the QPOINT, we suggest that you introduce a QSOURCE Linear Power Supply into your system for a significant upgrade.

Toronto Auidofest 2019 Recap

Posted on October 23, 2019 by Nordost

Nordost was proud to be represented by so many stellar systems at this year’s Toronto Audiofest. Our cabling, power products, and audio enhancers could be found in over eight rooms—all of them a sonic treat! We would like to say a special thank you to our partners in the Gershman Acoustic/Krell/VPI, Audio Eden, Woo Audio, Electronic Depot, Hegel, Goerner/Grandinote, Audio by Marc Jones, and Executive Audio rooms who all featured our cables in their set-ups. In the Nordost room, we had wonderful results demoing our new QPOINT Resonance Synchronizers and QSOURCE Linear Power Supplies in their Canadian debut. These award-winning new products were highlighted in an all Odin 2 system supported by the Gershman Acoustic POSH loudspeakers and Moon by SimAudio components. For those of you who couldn’t make it to Toronto this year, here are a few of our favorite images from the event.

NORDOST ROOM

GOERNER / GRANDINOTE ROOM

“Was I in a hotel room? Couldn’t tell, because the sound coming from a pair of Grandinote Mach 9 speakers with carbon fiber enclosures, a Grandinote 37Wpc Shinai integrated amp , and a Grandinote Volta music server, with cabling by Nordost, completely obliterated the walls around me. I was somewhere else… The sound was so spacious, with such luscious tone.” – Robert Schryer, Stereophile

AUDIO BY MARK JONES ROOM

GERSHMAN / KRELL / VPI ROOM

“This Gershman/Krell/VPI system hit all the right buttons for me: velvety flow, bloom, beauty, layered soundstage, natural sound, detail, and even ribcage-rattling bass. (I felt it!)” – Robert Schryer, Stereophile