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Nordost Tyr 2 Review (USB Cable)

Rate this product:

  • 1. Waste of money (piggy bank panther)

    Votes: 495 96.7%
  • 2. Not terrible (postman panther)

    Votes: 4 0.8%
  • 3. Fine (happy panther)

    Votes: 3 0.6%
  • 4. Great (golfing panther)

    Votes: 10 2.0%

  • Total voters
    512

Nicolaas

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Some 2 years ago I experienced regular dropouts especially when playing 24b-96k music via my USB dac. So I decided to buy a ca 100 euros Audioquest USB cable. And of course this did not solve my dropout problem. The real problem was my 13 years old laptop that could not handle high res music without dropouts. The intermediate solution was to switch off ethernet while playing high res music via my USB dac.
And the end game solution was buying a new Intel NUC with USB 3 ports. Since then I am a very happy 2 year user of my Topping D90 DAC.
But I must admit the Audioquest cable looks great with that black and red woven textile!
 

KxDx

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Why? Could this mean that at some level, despite all your engineering expertise, you desire and seek the outcome that different (properly functioning) USB cables have different intrinsic sonic qualities?
He's being open minded enough to allow the possibility. Points for that!
 

Dennis_FL

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Trouble shooting can be a pain sometime, and I don't doubt your finding that in the end swapping the cable made it work, but I can guarantee to you that there is no "bandwith" issue with streaming DSD over a USB 2 connection across 1 feet. The spec allow for much much more DATA than that. There is just something odd that happened. Not to say that cable issues can't happen, it may, but it's a perturbation, an interference an oddity, not simply that one cable allow more bandwith than the other, certainly not over one foot.
I read somewhere that unlike Ethernet, streaming digital music has no error correction (no resend of the data stream if errors are encountered… ). Correct?
 

AudioSceptic

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Worst part about the logic here, is assuming whatever "cheap cable" came in the box with the product, is defective in the first place. Maybe someone here in product development can correct me if I'm wrong. But please tell me how big of a fuck-up would it be if you were for instance a television manufacturer, and for whatever reason, the team tasked with finalizing the product and it having the proper accessories needed for operation - somehow let slip by them not any fault with the TV, but instead the power or video data cable.. The user not naturally assuming something like defective cabling to be an issue (since this is never the issue in my experience with any product ever) instead will assume the display is somehow defective. And then your company is now on the hook with the consumer confusion mess, all over some stupid cables that a bit of QC would have easily taken care of.

A functional issue over some brand-new processor or software that runs an entirely new function within the television, that's something no sane person would go crazy over and looking someone to blame or fire. But imagine borking a product release because the cable you included in the box is botched... Heads would roll if that were to happen just due to the level of negligence that had to be present during the testing phase.

So in fact, if one stops to think for a moment, they would see that the cable that comes in the box with a product, almost certainly stands to to reason is in fact a completely proper cable to be using.

I'd wager anything things like power or data cables, are something big manufacturers absolutely make sure is something that works reliably and safe for typical operation. Far more than any of these little luxury cable sellers. Last time I seen negligence on this front, was when Samsung let loose fire-catching batteries on their Note series of smartphone (so bad in fact, it led to bans on things like airplanes, and now we learn, essentially canceling of the entire Note line by name in virtue of this forever tarnished reputation that will be brought up anytime the phone is mentioned). Not a single person writing articles on the issue sympathized with a hypothetical notion that incident was somehow an unavoidable situation, it just was a gross design/testing failure of negligence. Also, anyone that knows ANYTHING about batteries, especially the Li-Ion or LiPo sorts used in phones know these things can physically distort the more they are pushed either through charging or discharging rate.
Exactly! And yet we've been served garbage since the 80s (or perhaps late 70s) that cables that come with a product are just barely adequate "zip cords" that should be discarded and replaced with "something better" immediately. Perhaps it would have helped if the manufacturers had clearly stated in their installation instructions something like:
"The cables that are included with this product are perfectly adequate to allow its full performance to be realised in all normal situations. If this seems not to be the case, it is possible that the cable may be faulty, so please contact your supplier for a replacement."

Now, if a "better" cable actually did improve performance to a noticeable degree, wouldn't the manufacturer be stupid beyond belief not to include that cable and maximise the product's performance? This would apply to power cables as well as audio/video/data, of course.

Yes, I've wasted money on fancy SCART cables that made no visible difference, and the same with analogue audio, but at least the prices were still in the "sensible" range (mostly "low-end" QED).
 
Last edited:

PeteL

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Some 2 years ago I experienced regular dropouts especially when playing 24b-96k music via my USB dac. So I decided to buy a ca 100 euros Audioquest USB cable. And of course this did not solve my dropout problem. The real problem was my 13 years old laptop that could not handle high res music without dropouts. The intermediate solution was to switch off ethernet while playing high res music via my USB dac.
And the end game solution was buying a new Intel NUC with USB 3 ports. Since then I am a very happy 2 year user of my Topping D90 DAC.
But I must admit the Audioquest cable looks great with that black and red woven textile!
Yes USB ports in computers are not all created equal and some are problematic, along with config and weaknesses in the way OSes allow priorities. Just don't assume thart you needed USB 3 to solve that. No Dacs that I am aware of make use of USB 3 speeds.
 

JSmith

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Cyclic Redundancy Code (CRC)
A CRC is a value calculated from a number of data bytes to form a unique value which is transmitted along with the data bytes, and then used to validate the correct reception of the data.

USB uses two different CRCs, one 5 bits long (CRC5) and one 16 bits long (CRC16).


JSmith
 

Zensō

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D825472C-4E57-4BAC-98AC-CA73D30611AA.jpeg


That looks much fancier than the Nordost cable!
If they want it to appeal to audiophiles, they need to move the decimal point two places to the right. ;)
 
Last edited:

PeteL

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"Cyclic Redundancy Code (CRC)
A CRC is a value calculated from a number of data bytes to form a unique value which is transmitted along with the data bytes, and then used to validate the correct reception of the data.

USB uses two different CRCs, one 5 bits long (CRC5) and one 16 bits long (CRC16)."


USB Audio class 2 uses CRC and it has provision to detect errors, but not to correct them.
 

antcollinet

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Wow... let's see if I understand this...
Step 1 - just got to start a youtube channel and build up 20,000 subscribers somehow
Step 2 - buy some of their cable to test - let's say two six foot lengths of the 12 guage at over $100k
Step 3 - test it - at first they say "by any method" I like but in the next sentence it specifies "listening" as what they will accept
Step 4 - try to claim the million dollars as the cable is no better than a cheap but adequate alternative - but then I'm sure the cable is not bad so get hit with the argument that it IS the joint best cable I've ever heard and being stupidly overpriced does not affect that
Step 5 - attempt to at least return the cables under the 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed Warranty, only to discover that the warranty only covers cables which have been run in for more than 250 hours in less than 10 days. As I have foolishly neglected to do my testing while travelling at close to light speed, I'm out of luck. And $100k.
Not to mention - they want a channel with 20K+ subscribers to post a video about their cables. They're just looking for free advertising.


And that 10day 100% refund after 250hours run in makes the site look like a parody.
 
OP
amirm

amirm

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Not to mention - they want a channel with 20K+ subscribers to post a video about their cables. They're just looking for free advertising.
It is comedy/joke said with very straight face. It is not real.
 

Katji

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Yep, but that don’t surprise me that much, the power of the greed is strong in this world. Me I was more trying to imagine this guy at the Nordst boot at a trade show hustling this stuff… Damn, how can you keep a straight face…
That's why we say "...laughing all the way to the bank."


I think it's disgusting that snake oil products like this exist, with all the unsubstantiated claims of improvements, and even worse that there are idiots who buy them. But 100 percent those folk are not your audience.
I dunno... 7 people voted Great (golfing panther).


1647448334410.png
 

Katji

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Well, yes you can. What you cannot measure is the perceived sound quality.
Exactly. We can't measure the psychology. However, next will be measuring the neural network activity. We'll get there. Next generation COMSOL.
 

Katji

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Note, car wax products have been somewhat superseded by snake oil stories like nano-crystal-ceramic coating and so on.


btw, the GIF repetition there makes it look a bit pervy. ...or maybe it's just the effect tv is having on me. :rolleyes:
 

Mnyb

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Exactly! And yet we've been served garbage since the 80s (or perhaps late 70s) that cables that come with a product are just barely adequate "zip cords" that should be discarded and replaced with "something better" immediately. Perhaps it would have helped if the manufacturers had clearly stated in their installation instructions something like:
"The cables that are included with this product are perfectly adequate to allow its full performance to be realised in all normal situations. If this seems not to be the case, it is possible that the cable may be faulty, so please contact your supplier for a replacement."

Now, if a "better" cable actually did improve performance to a noticeable degree, wouldn't the manufacturer be stupid beyond belief not to include that cable and maximise the product's performance? This would apply to power cables as well as audio/video/data, of course.

Yes, I've wasted money on fancy SCART cables that made no visible difference, and the same with analogue audio, but at least the prices were still in the "sensible" range (mostly "low-end" QED).

I actually think QUAD did that in early manuals to the ESL63 .

They did other things to way back that deserve respect, for example they did not come out with new models every year but only if it made sense to upgrade the design for some reason.
Made preamps with tone controls for a long while after regular high end had gone the idiotic minimalist route of removing actual preamp functionality from preamps and make them more expensive .
 

SuicideSquid

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Exactly! And yet we've been served garbage since the 80s (or perhaps late 70s) that cables that come with a product are just barely adequate "zip cords" that should be discarded and replaced with "something better" immediately. Perhaps it would have helped if the manufacturers had clearly stated in their installation instructions something like:
"The cables that are included with this product are perfectly adequate to allow its full performance to be realised in all normal situations. If this seems not to be the case, it is possible that the cable may be faulty, so please contact your supplier for a replacement."

Now, if a "better" cable actually did improve performance to a noticeable degree, wouldn't the manufacturer be stupid beyond belief not to include that cable and maximise the product's performance? This would apply to power cables as well as audio/video/data, of course.

Yes, I've wasted money on fancy SCART cables that made no visible difference, and the same with analogue audio, but at least the prices were still in the "sensible" range (mostly "low-end" QED).

This will never happen, because the same people who are selling the hardware are also selling maybe not the insane $100,000 cables, but the $200 cables with 70% margin on them. Manufacturers don't want to alienate dealers so they're never going to tell the dealers not to push Monster or Audioquest or whatever other "upgrade cable" nonsense the dealers are pushing to pad their bottom lines.

Part of the problem too is that fierce competition has pushed margins way down - televisions are sold at basically zero margin, and it used to be the case that dealer markup was around 50% on speakers and audio gear, but I believe it's about half that now. Many of the value-add attaches that dealers used to make money on are dead or dying - fifteen years ago you'd buy a new TV for $2,000 and the dealer would make nothing, but you'd also buy a DVD player, a set of component cables, and a universal remote for another $400 and the dealer would make 50% on that. These days, TVs typically go out the door with *zero* additional sales, or maybe a soundbar at a 10% markup.

If boutique dealers want to stay in business against big box stores and online retailers, they have to pad their margins and make money somewhere. Unfortunately, they're making it by ripping off their customers, rather than selling actual value-add products like room treatment.
 

Doodski

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televisions are sold at basically zero margin
markup was around 50% on speakers and audio gear

Average mark-up for video departments was about 15%-17% at best when I was in the the retail business. For home audio at the end of the year a very good audio salesperson can produce average about 37% but the sales are about 1/2 the volume when compared to video gear. Speakers sell at about 40% when sold separately and when sold in packages they get discounted down to maybe 37%-38% when sold by a good salesperson.
 
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