Dynaudio and Nordost Blue Heaven

[nothelle]

I thought i would share my experience here.

Dynaudio is always my go-to speakers. Having Evoke 30 and smaller Emit 10 setup, unfortunately the Evoke is too big to fit into my new apartment, so leave that to for my dad's enjoyment at his house. The Emit is ok, but always have hear it somewhat baffled, not living up to Dynaudio standard. I had Audience series before, 20 years later Emit is a far improvement but still nowhere near my Evoke. So this is where the journey down the rabbit hole begins.

Original setting > upgrade path:
Musical Fidelity Puccini > Electrocompaniet ECI-1
Audioengine B1 bluetooth > Bluesound node 2 (as transport only)
After bluesound upgrade: Chord Mojo 1 > Chord Mojo 2

Cabling:
Power cord: Standard power cable > Nordost Blue Heaven (BH)
RCA: Atlas integra > Nordost White Lightning (WL) > Nordost BH
Speaker cable: Chord clearway > QED XT40i > Nordost WL > Nordost BH
Mini jack 3.5mm to RCA: Canare L4E6S > Chord Chrimson > Nordost iKable BH
Digital: Generic toslink > China brand toslink > Taiwan brand digital Coax (not sure what brands these are)

Almost gave up on Emit and auditioned for another smaller Evoke and Special 40. The Evoke almost had me, more detail and better staging, whilst the Special 40 is much brighter sounds and not easy to listen for longer than 30min. Never been a firm believer in cabling and wouldn't want to spend more on cabling vs. hardware, until:
Got a chance to acquire used Nordost white lightning cables in my previous setup, first word is wow! never thought it made the difference: staging, clarity, openness and all that snake oils that comes with it. Finally my Dynaudio is performing what it is supposed to.

Yet this rabbit hole never sees the end of it, after a while the Nordost WL did what they are supposed to do, but still hear that haziness and baffled sound on i.e. 50% of the songs i listen, especially those with bad and old recordings (recording = mp3, even at 320kbps). Was fine for a while, but chance struck again for yet other opportunities for used Nordost BH families: started with RCA, power, iKable then speaker cables. What the Nordost WL did to my system, double it for Nordost BH. Everything just opened up like a drain pipe just been flushed. Hearing sounds and detail cymbal, stroke of pianos i never heard before, even i can hear the trembling of the voice on some songs. Don't get me wrong the WL did that already at a much smaller scale, with BH it is just... Damn!

Final conclusion: yes, cables make difference, i believe! Whether it is worth the price, that depends like all matter in our endless hobby here. If those Nordost are selling at what they are supposed to, aka retail, i wouldn't even touch them and rather upgrade my speaker. Considering this is only been a month, i feel my system is more open, bright but precise (if those make any sense). All the instruments and vocals are more apparent and firm in all treble, mids, bass range, like marching down in a tight rail line. Downside is that the BH makes the EMIT sounds more like Special 40, which is too bright for a long period. But again my music collection is mix between good, normal and bad quality recordings so in the end i'm quite satisfied (for now)

 

[jjbomber]

I thought i would share my experience here.

Final conclusion: yes, cables make difference, i believe! Whether it is worth the price, that depends like all matter in our endless hobby here.

Welcome to the forum.

That's all that matters. YOU are happy with what YOU have bought. It doesn't matter what others think and whether or not they can tell the difference. All that matters is that you do what's best for you.

 

[WayneKerr]

Not another cable thread :sleep:

 

[nothelle]

Not another cable thread :sleep:

Whether is cable, speaker, amplifier and all in between, they are pretty much subjective. Some impact you can hear right away, some very subtle, or even some you are forced to believe the change is there because you've spent money on it.

I've had my share of hits and miss, but after all it's a hobby. Was satisfied with my Dynaudio Audience 72 + Krell kav-300i with whatever speaker cable lying around and old budget audioquest rca, that lasts me 20 years. Punchy for general listening and rock musics, not so much refine for jazz and instruments.

My view is interaction between different elements reacts differently among the hardwares and to your ear. I've heard and read all the reviews, but only when listening live, in your own room with your equipment, that's the ultimate truth. No amount of review and hearsay from others can fulfill this curiosity Addictive? Off course, but better than gambling, both cost you $$$, but at least i got to see and hear where my money is spent

 

[nopiano]

A true story. Many years ago, when Nordost was relatively new on the scene, I borrowed a decidedly upmarket tuner from a dealer, long before internet radio. I’m probably talking about 1998.

The tuner was a huge box from Accuphase. I was a big FM radio listener. Helpfully he supplied an upmarket Nordost cable to simplify swapping.

After the weekend the dealer rang and asked what I thought of it. (My comparison was a highly regarded Hitachi FT-5500 with Hitachi OFC cable that I’d had at least ten years). When he heard my description, he said “That’s a perfect review of how the Nordost cable sounds!”.

To my ears it sounded a bit bleached and lacking ‘saturation’ but it confirmed for me that audio cables do have their own flavour.

 

[abacus]

Its good to see that nothelle is saying what he believes and not claiming it as fact.

I wish more cable threads were this considerate instead of claiming opinion as fact.

Bill

 

[12th Monkey]

Consideration works in other ways too. A while ago, someone started a cable thread and requested that those who didn't think cables made a difference refrained from saying so. I'm not saying that his opinions were right or wrong by the way, just observing that his wishes were not respected - and it wasn't exactly a big ask given that it was his thread.

 

[nothelle]

Digressing a bit, someone asked me about my DAC Chord Mojo, wanted to buy my v1 as i upgraded to v2. Eventually he bought another brand but still curious with all the rave reviews on Mojo v1 and v2. I offered a test, no commitment on purchase, as at that time i have decided to keep both for different purposes. He swears that he can hear differences between both, an abvious one nevertheless and regretted his purchase. Honestly i could not hear any difference (another topic for debate ). Point is again different equipment, different ears, different music. In the end he came home knowing that if he were to buy one, at least he hears it, not read it somewhere.

 

[robdmarsh]

Consideration works in other ways too. A while ago, someone started a cable thread and requested that those who didn't think cables made a difference refrained from saying so. I'm not saying that his opinions were right or wrong by the way, just observing that his wishes were not respected - and it wasn't exactly a big ask given that it was his thread.

Yes, that was me. I've always found that the cable non-believers (or "objectivists" as like to be called) are more dogmatic and ready to impose their views on the believers rather than the other way round.

 

[12th Monkey]

Yes, that was me. I've always found that the cable non-believers (or "objectivists" as like to be called) are more dogmatic and ready to impose their views on the believers rather than the other way round.

In fairness, the weight of science doesn't seem to offer any reason why (beyond sufficient basic conduction) there should be any audible differences, so you could easily argue that the burden of proof rests on anyone claiming a difference is heard. But I'm not sure the whole gold standard double-blind notion could be made to fit into the domestic scenario, and I'm not at all convinced it's a reasonable ask - after all people telling their stories/experiences are not aiming to make a profit out of it, they are just discussing in an appropriate forum.

Now, companies that sell cables that they claim make a difference should hang their heads in shame if the can't provide either measurable differences or proper double-blind testing that validates their claims. I'm not aware of any - which doesn't stop me saying that on two occasions I have heard differences (or think I have, putting in a caveat that I think unnecessary but others may feel differently!).

 

[matthewpianist]

I'm unsure where I sit on cables.

I have 3 different complete cable looms - van den hul, Chord Company and QED. In all three cases it's midrange options I have. I do hear a difference between them, and find the van den hul set offers a the best balance overall in my system, but I could live with any of them so I ask myself how important it is. Between my turntable and amp I sue Project's own ConnectIT offering, and it does the job nicely. I certainly wouldn't spend any more money on cables.

I do still own a pair of Dynaudio DM2/6, and they too work very well with the van den hul speaker cables.

 

[Gray]

But I'm not sure the whole gold standard double-blind notion could be made to fit into the domestic scenario, and I'm not at all convinced it's a reasonable ask

Never mind the opinions of others - I've always thought that those reporting benefits would want to check for their own benefit that they are not fooling themselves.

 

[plastic penguin]

I'm unsure where I sit on cables.

I have 3 different complete cable looms - van den hul, Chord Company and QED. In all three cases it's midrange options I have. I do hear a difference between them, and find the van den hul set offers a the best balance overall in my system, but I could live with any of them so I ask myself how important it is. Between my turntable and amp I sue Project's own ConnectIT offering, and it does the job nicely. I certainly wouldn't spend any more money on cables.

I do still own a pair of Dynaudio DM2/6, and they too work very well with the van den hul speaker cables.

Pretty much the same.

I've hardly spent fortunes on cables. Usually they are around the same price point, my view is unless you increase the budget quite considerably they are quite samey. I would, however, avoid silver speakers as they can pick up sibilance - had that with my Chord Odyssey.

 

[12th Monkey]

Never mind the opinions of others - I've always thought that those reporting benefits would want to check for their own benefit that they are not fooling themselves.

There's that, too!

 

[robdmarsh]

It's odd, though. I've been having a ding dong with members of the "other" big forum (can you mention the name here?). Anyway, I'm of the belief that in the lower to mid-tier priced gear bluetooth is good enough SQ and good enough to be indistinguishable from lossless. Let me explain. I have an ifi Zen One signature DAC which I feed with Amazon HD over bluetooth LDAC codec from my phone. Sounds brill. I got a Wiim Pro, about the cheapest full streamer that's out there and connected to the very high quality DAC in my Zen One. Could I hear a difference? Maybe, but tiny really and not sure I wasn't imagining it and if I had to choose one I think I preferred the BT stream. But then upgrades (and I'm talking modest ones) I've made with interconnects, speaker cables and power supplies I've heard all the differences. Bring it on... (confirmation/expectation bias etc etc)

 

[WayneKerr]

Whatever floats yer boat

 

[12th Monkey]

It's odd, though. I've been having a ding dong with members of the "other" big forum (can you mention the name here?). Anyway, I'm of the belief that in the lower to mid-tier priced gear bluetooth is good enough SQ and good enough to be indistinguishable from lossless. Let me explain. I have an ifi Zen One signature DAC which I feed with Amazon HD over bluetooth LDAC codec from my phone. Sounds brill. I got a Wiim Pro, about the cheapest full streamer that's out there and connected to the very high quality DAC in my Zen One. Could I hear a difference? Maybe, but tiny really and not sure I wasn't imagining it and if I had to choose one I think I preferred the BT stream. But then upgrades (and I'm talking modest ones) I've made with interconnects, speaker cables and power supplies I've heard all the differences. Bring it on... (confirmation/expectation bias etc etc)

If you're happy, that's all that matters. I doubt that anyone has changed their minds about cabling in either direction* as a result of threads here, and I suspect that almost everyone here knows what others think, so live and let live, agree to disagree etc etc...

*Unlike cables, threads clearly can have a direction!

 

[Friesiansam]

First up, this is a criticism of marketing, not the OP’s equipment choices.

Quote from this site: https://www.renaissanceaudio.co.uk/nordost/p/blue-heaven-power-cable

“When you listen to your system, you are actually listening to the AC mains supply. This makes the most important cables in your system the ones feeding power into the equipment. They are responsible for the raw material that gets turned into the sound.”

Perhaps I should bypass everything else and, just plug my headphones straight into the mains socket?

 

[12th Monkey]

Perhaps I should bypass everything else and, just plug my headphones straight into the mains socket?

The distant scraping sound you hear is us all pulling up a chair!

 

[TrevC]

Pretty much the same.

I've hardly spent fortunes on cables. Usually they are around the same price point, my view is unless you increase the budget quite considerably they are quite samey. I would, however, avoid silver speakers as they can pick up sibilance - had that with my Chord Odyssey.

What if you get wood speakers. Do they sound woody?

 

[plastic penguin]

What if you get wood speakers. Do they sound woody?

My Dali drivers are wood. And no it doesn't sound wooden. Nor have I mentioned a silver speaker cable sound silvery. The Odessey cables are silver and tend to pick up more sibilance than a well-sorted copper wire.