Power and interconnect cable review.

Nordost

Nordost know and understand their product very well. They set up and have picked products that best suit the sound of their cables for audio shows etc. I know a cable company who once challenged them to a shoot out Lars said okay and the Nordost cables won, because they suited the set up, not that they were necessarily better.

Like all products you either like what it does or you don't, this assuming that the system you try this/ these product/products in is optimised for them.

Regards D Louth 77

 

FWIW, my view is that it would be hard to refute repeatable and statistically significant empirical results from a well designed experiment be that double blind or single blind (which would probably suffice given the impracticability of double blind and sufficient control over experimenter/listener interaction). You would want to pick subjects, however, that were used to hearing differences I would think.

I've never seen any such results myself, but would be curious if some were around.

Me personally, I doubt very much I'd ever be bothered with the hassle. Plug it in; listen; if you like it and can afford it, buy it. Go back to enjoying music.

 

This certainly bears fruit - many CD players and amplifiers sound (and measure) similarly.

With a DVD player - I would be both pleased and suprised to discover a player I owned had a better picture than an equivalent model.

With CD players there's an audiophile presumption that differences will necessarily be evident.

 

Shocked and surprised

Hi Guys

This comment is meant with all due respect so don't shoot me.

I am constantly amazed that a lot of you say you can't hear the differences in cables mains or otherwise and now CDP's as well.

I truly wish I was like you lot, but I, sadly can hear the differences and improvements, though sometimes they are small but on other occasions are huge. I would have saved myself a bundle of cash.

There is of course the possibility, you do and can, but just don't want to say you do. Though for the life of me I don't know why that would be the case

Regards D Louth 77

 

Google "placebo effect" for a full explanation of what you believe you are hearing.

 

Placebo is the self-titled debut album by alternative band Placebo, released on the Virgin Records label on 16 July 1996. In 1998 Q magazine readers voted it the 87th greatest album of all time. The album was remastered and reissued on 18 September 2006 for the tenth anniversary.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wine_tasting

 

Another pointless cable war....excellent!!

....er...

How does any one really know what some one else has or has not heared?

As someone said, science doesn't have all the answers.

Cables DO differ....in my experience.

 

i recently had a coherant demo in my system which uses various mains cables from virtual dynamics. the biggest improvement to the system in terms of the speakers seeming to open up in sound and more notes were heard, was replacing the vishnu supplying the isotek sigmas with a coherant 4d mains.

 

Nobody has ever been able to hear any differences in mains cables under blind conditions. So, er, yes we do know since you ask.

There are three things "on test" here: a pair of mains cables and the human brain. I would contend that the human brain is the most complex known object in the universe, and agree that "science" has a lot to learn about its workings. Having said that, we do know about the power of suggestion, and the placebo effect.

In contrast, mains cables are extremely simple things, and we have nothing more to learn about those.

In the absence of any evidence that mains cables differ, further discussion is pointless.

 

And was bloody good......Far more interesting than DBT are God discussions.

 

No you don't know....

You are saying that using a DBT test shows that... But it also shows that amps and CDs sound the same and that is not true.

The human brain is ...not really a galaxy is pretty complicated etc...

Three things on test only if you do a decent DBT and I am going to guess (but I know little about you) that very few people here have the resources to carry out a statistically significant DBT. Could it not be possible that DBT misses small effects and therefore you expect zero, get zero and therefore conclude there is zero. The problem could be the DBT.

Wow there is some supreme arrogance about nothing more to learn about mains cables... AC mains transmission is not easy and there are some areas still needing work.

 

I'd be really interested to read the reports on those tests, do you have any good links to them?

 

Interesting:
https://www.virtualdynamics.ca/uploads/files/documents/VDCableNoiseSlewRevised2007.pdf


Nice review D Louth

 

Oops!

How rude of me - sorry DLouth, forgot to say thank you! Good write up - nice one.

Thanks Deaf Cat - good link.

 

Unfortunately your total arguement is inherently undermined by your statement.

Nobody knows everything about everything.

Agreed, further discussion IS completely pointless.

 

No (obviously) because there is absolutely no positive (peer reviewed) data, as I have stated.

I see the cable believers are asking me to prove a negative, just like really dumb religious people do. The onus is on them to prove that they can tell any difference unsighted. Holding breath optional......

 

David, you cannot show that mains cables audibly differ. Why don't you fix that first? Until then you have no argument at all, just noise and hyperbole.

Paul

 

I recently set up a blind cable listening session and found:

- It was impossible to detect a cheap giveaway cable inserted into the amplifier tape loop no matter how many times the listeners flicked between source direct and the cable.

- Nobody could hear a difference between Nordost, Klotz or Deltec cable in this blind test.

- Listeners noted a considerable difference between the Nordost and Deltec on a sighted session. However, this was a trick and the cables were not actually swapped over - I just fumbled behind the amp and reconnected the same cables.

Go figure......

 

All I remember is this