In my PERSONAL OPINION, the Nordost Odin is NOT A CABLE, but rather an additional component.Why? because the change is as big as if i had changed out a component in my system.
Anyhow, I have began to have consider Odin 1 speaker cables. No, i won’t be doing interconnects at this time. I plan on probably adding the speaker cables and staying with the same powercords for now, but i must confess, i LOVE how everything is sounding with just the powercord. I feel like i want to hear all my music all over again because i hear so much extra information that was never there before. Is it expensive? hell yes. It is a significant upgrade? HELL YESS.
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No powecord has ever made such a big difference as the nordost Odín. I’ve tried the sigma nr, wireworld platinum 7 etc but this is just on another level.
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Keith,
although I respect your opinion, can you tell me if you’ve personally owned or demoed nordos Odín cables in your one home to arrive at that conclusion? In my few years in this hobby, this has made the biggest impact for me. I don’t pick up any unnatural flavor as what you described. I detect tons of detail, more emotion and less noise. The ONLY thing I could knock this cable on (could be that it needs more play time) is that I might get my ears overwhelmed with the massive amount of detail.
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Economies of scales. I believe nordost must be doing something that involves processes and patents that nobody else does. Trust me, I don’t want to be spending so much money on cables either but when the difference is THAT SIGNIFICANT by using a single power cord, how could I go back to what I had? Your ears and brain won’t let you.
Think of it in terms of what your current set up consists of today. If you brought home a better speaker or amplifier or preamp and it blew you away AND you can afford to buy it, would you go back to your speakers ? Probably not right? It’s a hard thing to do because once you taste better sound, your ears won’t forgive inferior sound. Hell, I have that problem just by watching Netflix through my OLED lg and using its internal speakers. The sound is muffled, I can hardly understand at times what is being said in the movie, etc.
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Keith,
Many components are no different than a wife or a gf. Yes, it is harsh as hell what i am about to say, but YOU DON’T KNOW a woman unless you both live under the same roof. THIS IS EXACTLY how i feel about audio. Dating a girl is FAAAAR different than living with her under the same roof.
Right now, because i have been living with the Neoliths for about 2 months, i feel like i could go to a show, bring my entire rig and place it in a room that is treated and i would embarrass Martin Logan in the room next to me where they are showcasing the Neoliths with Mcintosh 1.25kw and c2600 with transparent cables. |
I would have to agree: I don’t need to crank things up as loud anymore since getting this powecord. |
Hyper detail can overwhelm anyone. Magico has hyper detail and some people can’t tolerate it because of that. It’s all very subjective but in my situation don’t forget I’m still with tubes in the mix so that allows things to never get out of control. I also need to get the rest of my cables to be nordost in order to have the full house sound. Mix and matching can also yield bad results. I’m impressed to say the least and although I still have the standard powecords on the blocks, I could easily not even care to replace them with aftermarket cables but you all know that I will.
For now, I just wanted to share with you all that I have placed an order for Nordost Odin speaker cables. I will move to Nordost PCs and speaker cables. Yes, I know I’ll take a lot of heat for doing so, but I heard something I couldn’t deny. I tried to let my ears decide and each and every time I continue to be impressed by this powercord. It’s almost like a component change rather than a cable swap. Some say that all this detail is fake, unnatural, synthetic, etc but if my ears are in shock each time I hear a song, then what am I to do? How can I convince my ears that what’s i am hearing isn’t natural? How can I force myself off the couch?
Stay tuned as I begin to play with Nordost Odin speaker cables at the end of the week. |
We will see guys. I’m not opposed to getting powercords from other offerings for my block audios and even better if they let you hear them without commitment. I still need powercords for my Monoblocks and ref10, rca interconnects and xlr interconnects. Still plenty of opportunity for me to try a different cable in my system.
Shunyata failed for me with my Monos and preamp. Yes I didn’t try it with my dac but with my other components it was average at best. All I got from Shunyata was a little less noise which also swallowed some of the highs with it. This is why had gone back to wireworld platinum 7. |
You all forget that i can’t just bring stuff on the fly like that ESPECIALLY when it comes to cables. Most dealers WILL make you buy it if you want to try it. When it comes to the mainstream brands, no dealer is going to order a cable for you and let you try to see if you like it in your system. However, i would be MORE THAN HAPPY to test drive any cable you have. Techno, if you have this cable then send it to me and i will pay shipping both ways or if ANYONE here has a cable that you believe would floor me more than the Nordost Odin then shoot me a pm and i can send you a shipping label with insurance so i can try it here in my own home.
i have been hearing from people who swear by the new expensive Audioquest power cords (dealers) and i ask them to send it my way if they believe it is THAT GOOD but all i hear are crickets and zero action. Remember, at the level where i am currently sitting, things are CRAZY EXPENSIVE. I need to be very selective to say the least.
Could you imagine if i bought every cable you all recommend? With cables, i plan on going about it in a very VERY different way. I will test drive as much as i can without having to pay upfront and if a 300 dollar power cable kills my Odin powercord, I WILL POST IT HERE. |
Techno,
the dealer that let me borrow the shunyata is not the same dealer that lent me the nordost.... he doesn’t carry nordost.
in addition to that, he doesn’t carry a 15a shunyata on hand so he would have to order it which means I have to buy it.
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Fsmithjack,
i would take the musical fidelity titan over the 160.8 and Mark Levinson 536. The Mark Levinson 536 was decent but bass was not there and the 160.8 won’t have any bass either and as you all know the magico s5 mk2 need an amp with outstanding bass control or each time a bass note hits, you’ll hear crickets instead of bass. I wish I had the s5 mk2 with my musical fidelity titan. When I owned the s5 mk2 I was looking for monster power with bass control and that is what the musical fidelity titan has in spades. |
Magico is like 86 dB... the 60.8s won’t even get the woofers to move lol |
ok Techno, so why dont you send me your cable and i will give you my opinion? don't you have it? |
I don’t have a clue about audioquest because most dealers praise it but don’t have it lol. Imagine if I was to go by what people recommend to me? You all have any idea how many people reach out to me asking me to try x, y, and z? |
Techno,
you are avoiding my proposition.... I’ve asked you to send me your cable so I can compare. As a matter of fact, I’m willing to send shipping labels to anyone willing to send me their cable so I can do a shootout here in my home. Any takers??????? If you believe in your cables being better then speak up and let’s do this. Let’s stop assuming stuff by reading specs or magazine reviews. You all know my opinion is based on gear I have my hands on. |
Techno,
the cable is not mine. The dealer lent it to me. |
Im interested Thomas. Let’s take this to a private conversation. |
All-
it is clear to me that some of my daily followers are very offended by strong opinions from people who formulate opinions based on the “expertise” they gather from reading magazine articles which are often times financed by the big audio companies needing marketing in order to push product out the door. Although at times there are indeed honest articles that are informative and can help in making a big purchase, my thread gives input/opinion with gear that I own and that I DO NOT NEED for the manufacturer to give me a special deal in order to promote their product. I know factually some reviewers are bribed and given perks. Hell I wish I was given perks. Audiogon doesn’t even give me a discount code to save me some money in order for me to list my gear once I’m done with it and yes I know my thread draws traffic to this site which they benefit from. I don’t get a free taco with all the effort, time and money I spent and some of you certainly appreciate the fact that I don’t expect anything from anyone but one thing: Keep this thread going by stating FACTS with evidence and without drawing conclusions by what you read or someone else told you. I think this is indeed what is ticking people off. Talking in depth based on pure speculation. If someone wants to debate me then I welcome it AS LONG AS YOU CAN SAY YOU OWN OR HAVE OWNED the product.
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Well I can say this to you: there’s NOTHING lean about Odin 1 in my set up and the highs are better than they were before and mind you I’m still using wireworld interconnects and speaker cables. I’m switching to odin speaker cables next week so I guess we will see what happens. Right now, my set up sounds the best I’ve ever heard it.
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So I’m not sure if some of you know, but there’s a big audio show going on this weekend in Tampa. It actually started today and I was told the Neolith are there and sounded awful.... well, then when I was sent pics and saw what they were using (check my virtual system and look at the red pair of neoltihs) and sooooo Martin Logan was showcasing neoltihs with a parasound stereo amp, parasound preamp and aurender as a source. ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING !!!!!!
This is a perfect example of what I’ve been saying all along. You CAN NOT do this to these speakers and I’m shocked that Martin Logan would do that. It’s almost like they don’t care to do this to their flagship speaker. Why in the world would they do this?????? Who buys a 80k speaker and uses 3k amplifiers, 2k preamp with it!!!!!
it just fires me up and this is why I said it a few pages ago that I wish I was there brought my full set up so I can embarrass them. It really is ridiculous what they are doing. How stupid do you have to be ? |
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I hate seeing those Neoliths in that environment. I would have fired everyone who put that together. It’s a disgrace to see their best speaker with Parasound gear. Please don’t take this as an insult to parasound but it’s in no way, shape or form at the level of a Neolith. That speaker is made for the “heavy hitters” such as Dag, constellation, soulution, block, etc.
Why don’t I go buy a corvette zr1 and order some Chinese tires to run 200 mph laps around the homestead speedway and then fill up the tank with 87 octane fuel? Gas is gas right ?
I am so happy I didn’t go to the show. I probably would have gone off.
ONE LAST THING FOR ALL OF YOU WHO GO TO SHOWS ALL THE TIME: this is the kind of garbage they do at shows. This is how SOME OF YOU judge gear.
Take THIS as an EXAMPLE that what you hear at shows isn’t always how a component should sound. You actually need to remember that there are idiots there connecting rca and xlr cables and pretending to create magic. This is why I do my own thing and don’t listen to magazines or stupid shows. It’s all polluted with lies and stupidity. |
He’s just making an observation. I don’t think he’s trying to sell me anything. This is feedback I’ve received from different dealers in the past.
i was also told the magico A3 sound like garbage in this show.
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Clx is an awesome speaker. It just lacks gallop and dynamics. The Neolith brings that to the table but if you have Amps with big balls. |
Feel free to come to south Florida techno and bring diapers too since I suspect you’ll need them once you hear mine. |
MY Top 4 amplifiers of 2018 in no particular order:
Block audio se
jeff Rowland 925s
musical fidelity titan
luxman 900u
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I don’t have any experience with the simaudio 870a. I owned the 860a and I have always been impressed. Great amplifier for the money which could Put to shame a lot of amplifiers our there.
As far as my list above, I could also add the pass labs xs150, pass labs 200.5, simaudio 860a. |
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Interesting greyhound.... I didn’t know the 880m had those issues |
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ALL,
So that everyone here understands WHY my opinion changes.
1. When i review an amplifier, i give my opinion right at that particular point and i am comparing to everything i have owned previously.
2. As i continue to push forward and bring other amplifiers, my ratings/opinion of previous amplifiers will change. Why? because i am trying new offerings that i had not tried before.
And to address the entire pass labs opinion, hell yes the statement above about the 250.8 was TRUE at that point in time before i tried plinius, luxman, hegel, block audio, jeff rowland, simaudio, etc, etc, etc. WHY would anyone think in their right mind that my opinion won’t change when i am continuing to try new high caliber amps? It is no different than you going to your room and declaring the Parasound A21 sitting in your room the very best amp ever. Of course you would say that because you haven’t tried luxman, hegel, simaudio, plinius etc. My thread evolves as new things are entering my living room.
Closing note: Yes, Pass labs is behind many amps right now. Unless you own the top XS amps, or possibly the 200.8, 200,5, you don’t know what you are missing out on. I remember trying the luxman 900u vs the 350.8 and it was just a shame how broken the 350.8 sounded. Huge monster amp and it has no way besting a 150 watt/channel amp.
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understood skoot58. Hey, i haven't heard the 60.8, but i owned the 160.8 and 200.5s. |
The only WAY to get REAL ANSWERS is for people to BUY all the gear they want to try rather than reading reviews from magazines or the HE/SHE SAID mentality. You all wanna know the issue? most people dont have the money or time to try all the gear i go through so what else can they do? follow my journey....that is all they can do... end of story.. |
Diablo is far better than the 585 Levinson. Not worth comparing. Same thing goes for the momentum integrated that’s collecting dust in my garage. It’s far better than the gryphon Diablo.
yes I’ve owned all 3 and this comes from hands on experience. For the money, the 585 is awesome but it is nowhere as muscular sounding as the Diablo. Levinson isn’t known for having dynamics but rather awesome mids. That’s what they are known for. |
You could be right viber. That said, I got some feedback from a reliable source of mine who said the 535 sound just a little better than the Belca to 600 Monos.
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c52 because it is in the same family. |
Nordos Odin speaker cables are here. New, fresh out of the box with zero miles here are my impressions:
1. Smaller soundstage when compared to my wireworld platinum 7
2. Presentation is congested
3. Some instruments are appearing that were not there before
4. Excellent separation of instruments
5. There seems to be more “rhythm” to the music.
More to come |
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Odin speaker cable and powecord update:
15 hours of playtime so far. I hear more decay with this speaker cable but the soundstage width is gone? I find things to be not as huge sounding as they did with the platinum 7. Instruments are better separated and have more articulation. That said, I’m now using a brand new Odin 1 on the dac so both the speaker cable and the powecord are with only 15 hours of playtime so it’s 2 components that are now breaking in. I’m also using the dac as a preamp. The ref10 has not been connected yet but I suspect that it will now really begin to show its true colors with these new speaker cables in the mix. |
Stick to the gryphon Diablo for those speakers unless you can afford the luxman 900u amp and preamp. Try not to mix and match with the luxman 900u amp. Use their 900u preamp if possible. |
We shall see with the speaker cables. Things are too new right now for me to give any final conclusion. They need 200 hours of break in so I’ll keep doing this throughout the weekend and next week. By the end of next week I’ll have over 200 hours on them and then I’ll be able to analyze. |
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There’s nothing wrong with stating an opinion, but CLEAR that this is based on what you heard or were told. The real issue here is when people give strong opinions making seem like they’ve owned the equipment when in reality they’ve only seen it on pictures. They’ve never even seen the equipment in person. |
Sooooooo I just plugged in the ref10 and threw it to sink or swim and it is now an entire different animal. The speaker cables have created more of a focused image and made the presentation totally different. The dac was sounding probably better with the platinum 7 speaker cables when used as a preamp but the ref10 seems to sound better with the Odin speaker cables. I still am getting slight shoutinness from the speakers when cranked up. Things are still a little bright right now. |
I’m going to not mislead anyone right now and say that I just realized I had the nordost speaker Odin cables connected the wrong way.... they are directional cables and unfortunately I wasn’t told. I had both cables connected the opposite way. The end that is supposed to go into the speakers was connected into the amps. Not sure how much of an impact this will have on things or if anyone in here has done a trial by using directional speaker cables and connecting them the other way. Will I notice a difference in the sound ? We shall see... |
Viber,
anytime you use car and women analogies I understand things better lol. Keep them coming. |
So with that said, do you all see WHY my impressions of these cables weren’t great? That’s HOW MUCH my ears are dialed in with my equipment. I know when something comes in and misses a beat. I can probably tell you if something is out of phase by listening to a song for 10 seconds or less. I have been playing this game for long enough that I can tell you when something isn’t right for a component (for the most part). For instance, i didn’t like the B&w d3 tweeter with luxman. It sounded too aggressive at times and I fatigued quickly. I did not like Mark Levinson with my Sonus Faber cremonese because they fall flat on their face. I love panels with tubes in the mix or class A. I hated classe audio and electrostatics. I liked pass labs with electrostatics and hated it with Wilson audio. This type of exposure to different components allows me to know when there’s something missing or not there. This is what keeps me going and going in order to keep adding an extra ounce of
this n that. I got my neoltihs pretty good given my room dimensions. That’s my bottleneck at this time. That said, I’ve heard big rooms with nice gear and I’m not going to say I was blown away. It will take a very well thought out system for me to acknowledge it as vastly superior. So far, the only systems that seem to be kicking a$$ at shows are Wilson with arc gear or agostino. |
I am not using the powecord in the mix right now. I’m burning it in using other components that use the same cable. |
So I’m listening to the Odin 2 speaker cables right now without the Odin powercord in the mix right now and I gotta be honest, the platinum 7 sounded far deeper and wider. Right now, at this very moment, I’d take the platinum 7 wireworld speaker over the Odin 1. Yep, you heard it from me. The Odin 1 pc on the dac with the rest being platinum 7 sounded SPECTACULAR here. Just clean sounding, zero harshness and huge HUUUUGE.
If the Odin 1 speaker cable doesn’t morph TREMENDOUSLY by next weekend, then I can say this experiment failed me and synergy begins to be the name of the game.
PS. I’m playing with the block audios in Class AB and yes they don’t sound anything like in class A. I remember some people saying that they heard zero difference in the Plinius sa103 in class a or Class AB. Well, let me tell you with these block audios you’ll hear quite a difference. It’s like in Class AB the amps are on 6 cylinders and then in Class A they are a v12 twin turbo engine. |
All-
the oppo 205 with the nordost Odín 1 powercord and the WireWorld Platinum 8 xlr sounds INCREDIBLE to say the least. I’m in shock how good it sounds as a dac. Wow. |
I need to give these cables a fair shot before I try to do anything. I’m going to take them back to my dealer and he will burn them for 210 hours. Time will tell what is going to happen.
That said, I’m shocked how amazing the oppo 205 sounds when streaming music using roon and the Odin powercord on it.
It is unreal how that cable can turn a 1200 Blu-ray player into something that can compete with far more expensive sources. |
Good morning gentlemen,
I’ve been missing in action due to work but I’ve been playing with equipment a few nights and specifically with the oppo 205 and lampizator. Tons of A/B comparisons between these have led to confusion. On certain nights I feel as if the lampizator distances itself and other nights like last night, it was a race where I couldn’t choose a winner. I also used BOTH components directly as preamps and as sources through the ref10. I cued the same songs through roon on both the oppo and lampizator and connected both of them on 2 different inputs on the ref10 and matching volumes perfectly on both sources so that when I switched inputs on the ref 10, the volume was the same on both. I proceeded to push play on both players and the same song at the very same exact second and went between input 1 and input 2 constantly and I couldn’t really hear a difference. I tried plenty of songs and the results were the same.
when I had the platinum 7 speaker cables, I picked up a difference when doing the experiment above. I heard the lampizator sounding sharper and the oppo just a tad less focused. The Odin speaker cables make both sources sound pretty much the same. Not sure if it is because they haven’t broken in yet. I still have to take these cables to my dealer but it’s hard for me to let go of this experiment and watch the system grow before my eyes as the cables break in.
Again, the experiment is indeed confusing to me. I clearly remember the lampizator sounding better when I was using platinum 7 speaker cables in the system. It was more liquid, more pure, more articulated but this doesn’t mean it doesn’t sound good right now. It was just easier for me to hear it shine better when comparing it to the ref10.
Today I will be introducing Shunyata alpha NR powecords on the amps and the ref10.
I’m somewhat pissed off that I took down the sound I was getting through the Odin 1 and lampizator with platinum 7 speaker cables. It was INCREDIBLE and possibly the best I’ve heard here.
I am getting the feeling that the speaker cables right now are the bottleneck because they are trapping the sound and turning it into whatever they want. I probably should have my dealer break them in but that is a long 10 day affair for me that is painful to endure. I’m the type that just wants to keep sitting and listening and writing down my thoughts. It is part of the journey of watching the system go up another level little by little.
That said, the oppo 205 with the Odin 1 pc and platinum 8 xlr cables is a sleeping giant that can creep up on you and begin to make you question things. It’s best that you all with expensive rigs don’t attempt to do this. I’m telling you it is no slouch and no I’m not saying that right now it is beating any source I own because I need to sort out my speaker cable issue but even when I had the platinum 7 sspeaker cables I heard great things through the oppo. Crazy but yes I won’t bs anyone here. One more thing, please remember that I’m using a 11,000 dollar powercord and 6,000 dollar xlr cables on it. Don’t think a naked oppo 205 with stock chords can come close to the big dacs.
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