Munich HIGH END Show Report 2016
High End Society Munich Germany

Nordost Heimdall 2 Headphone And Ethernet Plus Norse 2 Cables

  Nordost room had their awesome cables, yes including their Ethernet, plus the VPI Industries Avenger turntable. The reason for two tone arms is to compare standard tonearm cables versus using Nordost monofilament Litz cabling.

This year at the High End 2016 Nordost featured an outstanding five products that were launched earlier this year at CES 2016. Show attendees could see Nordost's new Ethernet cables and see samples of their digital interconnects and new headphone cable, which Enjoy the Music.com has reviewed a complete system and another of their Heimdall 2 headphone cables. Nordost's new Blue Heaven and Heimdall 2 Ethernet cables are the solution that digitally-driven hi-fi enthusiasts. These easily work with Network Attached Storage (NAS) devices and music streaming to help improve your system's sonic performance. These are fully shielded cables, terminated with high quality 8P8C/RJ45 connectors. Nordost's new Ethernet cables meet the demands for high-speed data and increased bandwidth, achieving speeds of up to 600 MHz for the Blue Heaven, and 1000 MHz for the Heimdall 2. Demonstrations comparing these two cables, both with each other, as well as to a standard issue Ethernet cable, were conducted with dCS' Rossini. Retail price of the Blue Heaven is $400 for a one meter length (additional meter increments is $100). Nordost's Heimdall 2 is $700 ($150 for each additional meter length).

Nordost's Norse 2 family has been further expanded with the introduction of their new Tyr 2 Digital Cables. Available in both the 75 Ohm S/PDIF and 110 Ohm AES/EBU configuration, they are constructed using silver-plated, solid core conductors, suspended in Nordost's patented Dual Mono-Filament technology. Additionally, both cables benefit from the implementation of mechanically tuned lay and length. The combination of these technologies yields cables with the extreme bandwidth necessary to accomplish zero-loss data transfer. The Tyr 2 75 Ohm Digital Interconnect employs a coaxial design and is terminated with gold-plated, Neutrik BNC connectors for correct impedance matching. All Tyr 2 75 Ohm Interconnects are supplied with gold-plated RCA adapters to accommodate their function. The Tyr 2 110 Ohm Digital Interconnect uses a twin-axial design and is terminated with gold-plated Neutrik XLR connectors, ensuring that it maintains constant impedance throughout the cabling, as well as across terminations. Pricing is $1500 (each additional 0.5 meter is $120).

What i found truly interesting was that Nordost was conducting a unique demonstration to benefit vinyl lovers! Tonearm and internal tonearm wires were actively compared on the lustfulicious dual arm VIP Avenger turntable. You can hear the impact that internal tonearm wiring has on the performance of a state-of-the-art hi-fi system. Keep in mind that teeny tiny signals that these small wires deal with are the most fragile in your audio system and are critical to realizing high-quality analog replay.

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