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NORDOST TYR 2 Review (Coax Cable)

Rate this audio cable

  • 1. Waste of money (piggy bank panther)

    Votes: 279 93.0%
  • 2. Not terrible (postman panther)

    Votes: 6 2.0%
  • 3. Fine (happy panther

    Votes: 5 1.7%
  • 4. Great (golfing panther)

    Votes: 10 3.3%

  • Total voters
    300

AudioSceptic

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Ok. there is a lot of misconceptions on products made in China. Most of all of the high end quack stuff is made cheaply in China. After the American company specs out a cheap but quality item like say a $50 Shunyata cable that will sell for thousands, the Chinese then have a nearby factory make the same product with as many shortcuts as possible, They then sell that $2000 cable for $500. It will look exactly the same name for example as Shunyata or Sunyata depending on how the the Chinese manufacturer wants to market it. Most now and listen guys "most" now use the EXACT same company name. the "nearly" the same name is old school from around 15 to 20 years ago. So, there is a reason a lot of good merchandise comes from China with strict QC control (think like Apple etc.) and also gigantic quantities of fake product that dwarf the legit product also from China. So, it becomes a crap shoot on what you will get. I would not be surprised if they start making fake Topping gear with horrible performance. We as a country have really closed our eyes to being ripped off. Walmart and Amazon are the two largest sellers of Chinese fake products. I know because I was in the Federal Govt for years and you learn a lot about a lot of things. So, always try to be careful when buying!
Has anyone sourced the "ingredients" of a Nordost Odin cable, especially the actual wire?
 

Here2Learn

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Has anyone sourced the "ingredients" of a Nordost Odin cable, especially the actual wire?
Not Odin, but when they released monofilament cable in the original Valhalla, I tried to source the same construction monofilament cabling with conductors of same diameter, silver annealing , electrical properties and so forth. I think it came from Temp-Flex Cable Inc as I found what appeared to be the same stuff in one of their catalogs. It was not expensive given it's going to be trickier than standard jacketed cable to make. But it was nowhere near audiophile prices.

It was primarily aimed at microwave RF applications and they wouldn't sell it to just anybody. IIRC, they wanted to see a design for a use-case and a patent or patent application first. They were extremely guarded over it.

None of which means it has any benefit at audio frequencies.
 

Koeitje

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Sorry, but why Amir wastes his time with this?
To build a big and comprehensive collection of data that proves these cables are nonsense. It helps battle the "you haven't tested this cable" argument.
 

Sal1950

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This contracting out to Asian interests is for the birds. :D American know how and ingenuity abound. Otherwise for consumer/domestic mass produced items yes Asian contracts are beneficial. :D It's still for the birds though.
Amen, Your my hero @Doodski!

I take it you use some type of special propriety printer to print on shrink tubing?

My gear sounds fine on cheap Mogami cable but I like my AQ and Nordost more.
Why, because it looks more purdy? :facepalm:
Keep hanging out, one day your start to learn.

Not at that tiny fraction of the "real thing" price. I'm even tempted to get one "just for a laugh".
A link please
 

AudioSceptic

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Last edited:

Sal1950

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Doodski

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I take it you use some type of special propriety printer to print on shrink tubing?
I've used a dot matrix with tractor feed with the heat shrink precut and pre-adhered to a typical 8.5 x 11 page of tractor feed paper. Some of the reels of heat shrink are smaller or continuous feed like the yellow stuff below. Then there are newer more capable heat shrink printers that have 600 dpi and even color printing if the budget allows for that.
wire_markers_white.jpg

PS-C-125-YL.jpg
 

Cars-N-Cans

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My Citizen (Crystron) wall clock is +/-5 seconds a month or less and it's nearly 40 years old. Not a 'Mega' (MHz) crystal XO either. One 'C' size battery lasts nearly 3 years. I think she's just a very tight tolerance 32768Hz Xtal.
I got a Holly mock-up NOS pressure gauge clock as a “gift” with an order from Summit Racing years ago that ~1ppm accuracy over the span of a year. It was more accurate than the system timer on the central telecom system that showed up on my desk phone. I guess it’s all down to luck of the draw as far as crystals go.

With respect to audio, I’ve always wondered how janky the clock can get before you notice it? On a frequency counter 1 kHz is never quite 1 kHz, but it’s still impressively close even on inexpensive things. It’s funny as I always get the mental image of a record player set to the wrong speed when jitter is mentioned, but in reality it will be a bunch of spurious junk that one would potentially hear due to the clock’s peregrinations I would surmise.
 

Sal1950

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I've used a dot matrix with tractor feed with the heat shrink precut and pre-adhered to a typical 8.5 x 11 page of tractor feed paper. Some of the reels of heat shrink are smaller or continuous feed like the yellow stuff below.
That's some pretty kool stuff. A bit too pricey for home use but if you had them at work you could make ID tags for all your cables.. ;)
 

Thomas_A

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Been there, done that…
Yes for sure it has been done. I just don’t get the point of testing ”normal” cables, scientfically.
 

restorer-john

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I got a Holly mock-up NOS pressure gauge clock as a “gift” with an order from Summit Racing years ago that ~1ppm accuracy over the span of a year. It was more accurate than the system timer on the central telecom system that showed up on my desk phone. I guess it’s all down to luck of the draw as far as crystals go.

True, there's just some crystals that are just right and their temperature drift fits perfectly with the seasons.

I currently have a 31 year old Radio Shack (Japanese) Alkaline battery in that clock. The only alkaline batteries that just never leak- ever. That set of four batteries came out of a desktop DMM where they lived for 25 years. I think I have two unopened packets still.

As the clock lasts so long (3+ years) on a single battery and the clock will run that cell down to essentially nothing, leakproof batteries are a must. That rules out practically anything you can buy other than those metal cased Panasonic 'industrial' cells. I like to use those in my various meters/test gear as there is nothing worse than cleaning up a battery compartment in a multi hundred dollar Fluke.
 

Cars-N-Cans

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True, there's just some crystals that are just right and their temperature drift fits perfectly with the seasons.

I currently have a 31 year old Radio Shack (Japanese) Alkaline battery in that clock. The only alkaline batteries that just never leak- ever. That set of four batteries came out of a desktop DMM where they lived for 25 years. I think I have two unopened packets still.

As the clock lasts so long (3+ years) on a single battery and the clock will run that cell down to essentially nothing, leakproof batteries are a must. That rules out practically anything you can buy other than those metal cased Panasonic 'industrial' cells. I like to use those in my various meters/test gear as there is nothing worse than cleaning up a battery compartment in a multi hundred dollar Fluke.
The Japanese batteries really last. Like, forever. :) I have a Sharp calculator from the early 80’s that still has its original AA batteries, and even now they are still over 1.5V. I popped it open and they are Sharp branded cells with a 1983 date code. If only they still made things like that! I had a set of brand-new in the box Rayovacs almost destroy my Agilent meter. I don’t think it took more than a week for one cell to burst and dissolve the plastic enclosure from the inside-out. Bad cell was still ok voltage wise. The lithium cells seem to be ok so far. Don’t think I could fix Humpty Dumpty again if that happens.
 

restorer-john

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I don’t think it took more than a week for one cell to burst and dissolve the plastic enclosure from the inside-out. Bad cell was still ok voltage wise.

That's the issue of course. Old cells went flat and only started to leak much later. Modern alkalines leak whilst they are still functionally serviceable. How can anyone know unless you are removing the case/battery cover every time you use something, in order to keep an eye on the batteries!

I've just given up on batteries in anything I am not actively using. How many remotes have I had to rebuild? Probably hundreds. And simply do not buy Duracell or Energizer batteries- just don't do it.

Losing an Agilent or Fluke to festering batteries would be enough to make someone go absolutely postal.
 

Labjr

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That's the issue of course. Old cells went flat and only started to leak much later. Modern alkalines leak whilst they are still functionally serviceable. How can anyone know unless you are removing the case/battery cover every time you use something, in order to keep an eye on the batteries!

I've just given up on batteries in anything I am not actively using. How many remotes have I had to rebuild? Probably hundreds. And simply do not buy Duracell or Energizer batteries- just don't do it.

Losing an Agilent or Fluke to festering batteries would be enough to make someone go absolutely postal.

Will Duracell or Energizer pay for the damage?
 

restorer-john

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Will Duracell or Energizer pay for the damage?

That's the thing, they will, but it's a tortured path you have to take and they will try to blame the person.

I still have a letter in my battery tub from Energizer where a brand new Maglite (5 D cell) expensive torch was ruined by leaking batteries when it wasn't even flat. It was the torch I had next to my bed for, you know, 'intruders'. They wanted me to buy a new torch and send them my old one plus the receipt to get reimbursed. Screw that, I just never bought another Energizer. That letter has to be 25 years old now (I keep it to remind myself), so it cost them a fortune in sales. Duracell is no better. I've tried the 'german made' Varta alks in the last decade and they leaked like a sieve too.

I stick with dry Panasonics or Alkaline Industrial/Powerline now and I've never had a leak event in 20 years.

 

AndreaT

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Let's propose to Nordost to build non-leaking dry cell batteries, as the market for their high-end cables might be shrinking dramatically after Amir evaluation of their claims vs. his review.
 

restorer-john

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Let's propose to Nordost to build non-leaking dry cell batteries, as the market for their high-end cables might be shrinking dramatically after Amir evaluation of their claims vs. his review.

Oh wow. That's a great idea. Audiophile batteries for remotes. They could have rare earth particles, ceramic dust etc.
 

Garrincha

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The funny thing with fake counterfeit Nordost cables is, if reasonably well made, there is no measureable, visible or otherwise difference between the original and the fake. I once bought an used Sennheiser IE 800 IEM (that was before I was aquainted the FR and all that stuff!) and only after 2 month I suspected that it was fake, which was later confirmed and I was able get my money back. Bass was lacking, which finally raised my suspicion and let me research a bit and dive into this matter. In the case of a well made counterfeit Nordost cable, how would you ever be able to discover that it is fake?
 
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