background image

Then, as noted earlier, we recommend treating 
the outside of your cables with Nordost Eco3X 
static dispersant for even better performance.

In addition, a little care in installation will reap 
further performance dividends:

Keep signal cables away from power cords, 
and where they do cross, try to space them 
as much as possible and cross them at right 
angles. Avoid running signal cables alongside 
power cords.

Try to let interconnects hang free of contact 
with walls. Lifting speaker cables off of the 
floor does improve their performance, but 
may not always be practical. If you do lift your 
cables, always use the minimum number of 
risers possible.

Do not coil spare lengths of speaker cable; you 
will increase its inductance and affect your 
speaker’s bass performance. If speakers are 
bi- or tri-wirable, replace the supplied jumpers 
with Nordost’s dedicated Norse Series Micro 
Mono-Filament designs.

You can find additional details on how to 
optimize system cabling and performance in 
the Downloads directory at www.nordost.com.

Considerable changes take place in a cable or 
component when it is first used. When your 
new cable is first installed in your system the 
sonic benefits will be very apparent. However, 
the musical performance will significantly 
improve as the cable is used, the greatest 
change coming in the first 100 hours, 
with smaller improvements continuing to 
accumulate thereafter. In order to accelerate 
this process, Nordost has developed the Vidar, a 
dedicated cable burn-in machine. This puts an 
extremely wideband and complex signal directly 
through the cable, significantly accelerating the 
conditioning process.

This essential service is available through your 
local Nordost dealer or distributor.

For logistical reasons this service is not 

available from Nordost’s factory.

A WORD ABOUT BURNING IN

Most Norse Series 2 cables employ the 
breakthrough combination of Micro Mono-
Filament construction and silver-plated solid-
core conductors. These conductors are drawn 
from high-purity, oxygen free copper, and then 
heavily plated with silver. They are then highly 
polished to achieve surface consistency, before 
being wrapped in a thin, helical coil, the 
FEP Micro Mono-Filament that supports and 
spaces the extruded FEP outer jacket, reducing 
dielectric contact by over 80%. These complex 
processes achieve the cable designer’s Holy 
Grail of excellent mechanical stability, precise 
geometric accuracy and an incredibly low 
dielectric constant of less than 1.38.

But in addition to its electrical sophistication, 
Norse Series 2 adds significant mechanical 
refinements to the mix. The dimensions, 
spacing, number and topology of each cable 
have been mechanically tuned to further 
optimize musical performance. These new 
cables are then combined with specially 
modified, lightweight connectors, embodying 
the same mechanical and geometrical 
approach.

The result is a range of cables with 
unprecedented transmission speed and phase 
accuracy, wide bandwidth and remarkable 
levels of musical detail. More importantly, 
because that detail and dynamic information 
arrives in the right order and at the right time, 
the performance is much more natural and 
intelligible, or – to put it another way – it’s 
much easier to hear who’s playing what, which 
makes your music and your system much 
more enjoyable.

TECHNOLOGY

Reviews: