1. Home
  2. cables
  3. 199009-187721

Nordost vs Shunyata speaker cables- and the winner is . .

I purchased a pair of Nordost Heimdall 2 speaker cables for a different system but this weekend compared them back to back in my ref system cables - Shunyata Alpha V2. 

System is Wilson Watt Puppy 50th Anniversary spkrs , McIntosh amp/preamp, Jay’s Audio CDT2 MkIII transport and Revox B77 rtr.

Switching back and forth between the 2 the Nordost bested the Alphas in several key areas but mainly overall resolution with no tradeoff losses (aside from the substantial cost difference).

It wasn’t day and night,  but to my ears it is a noticeable incremental gain in transparency.  I’d be happy with either cable but the Nordost are staying with the WWPs. 

Perhaps I’ll try the same comparison with the other system (KEF Blade 2s, Burmester, Revox, Jay’s). 

So it seems spkr cables do make a difference afterall- who knew.

(I’d like to post a pic of the 2 cables - how do I do that?) 

ritter06
swede58's avatar
swede58
200 posts
 

@ritter06 Did you hear any difference in the bass and midrange between the two cables? You often hear that Nordost is supposed to sound thin and analytical compared to Shunyata, but I don’t know if that’s really true, as I thought an Alpha V2 XLR sounded exactly like that when I tried it (Compared to my SR Accelerator XLR).I am interested in the Alpha X and Frey 2/Tyr 2 speaker cables between a Gryphon Diablo 300 and Magnepan 3.7x.

hjdca's avatar
hjdca
257 posts
 

What length cables did you test ?

PS. fyi,  I am also under the impression that thicker gauge speaker cables sound thicker and less analytical. 

ritter06 OP
69 posts
 

Bass had same punch with slightly better articulation - same with midrange.

My system is very revealing, which I prefer. These just reveal incrementally more of just about everything. 

The only other complaint is the somewhat  cheesy appearance to non-audiophiles- "you paid how much for this??" At least with the Shunyata the firehose appearance looks like you got your money's worth even though its mostly dielectric shielding. lol

ritter06 OP
69 posts
 

they are 2m and too long for this rig- 1m would have been enough. Guess I'll get a another shorter set.

ritter06 OP
69 posts
 

"Thicker" cables may be mostly dielectric shielding. The Nordost have none but I hear no noise or hum so is it even necessary ? My limited testing says no.

As always YMMV.

More to discover