The Nordost Blue Heaven has almost no shielding which makes it very sensitive to any interference. I use the the Blue Heaven and Red Dawn in my audio system, but found that the system had to be well away from any tv, antenna wire, etc. I called Nordost at the time and they said to keep the cables away from such sources of interference and also listed external speaker crossovers as an interference source. A local Vandersteen and Nordost dealer has told me the same thing. When I moved the interfence sources away from the audio gear, the problem went away. I also once tried using Red Dawns for interconnects between a turntable and phono stage. That didn't work either and resulted in the same type of hum.
Cables and Loud Hum
I've got a Vandersteen subwoofer in my system -- still using the adjustable x-over box. I'm replacing my cables with Nordost Blue Heaven cables and got my 1st pair last week and hooked them into my system last night -- from the x-over box to the amp (VTL MB 185). Left the Monster cable connecting the pre-amp (VTL 2.5) to the x-over box in play. Powered up and before I started playing any music there was a loud hum coming from the system. I immediately powered down and removed the Nordost. I'm guessing it was stupid for me to assume that I could run the pre-amp to amp connection in this set up with two different cables, but here is my question: What is the technical explanation for the problem I expereinced? I've got another Blue Heaven coming, which presumably will solve the problem. Thanks in advance for sharing your thoughts/expertise.