Nordost SuperFlatLine Speaker Cable Review

[GradyBeach247]

It's a perfect match for a tube amp.

Pair this with an old crystal AM radio for the full effect (as the antenna of course).

 

[kklarqvist]

A % of speed of light is a now a measure of propagation delay (time)? What if I place my speakers on the moon? What is the delay then? 91 % the speed of light?

cable length in units of lightyear/91% will give you the delay (in year)

 

[fpitas]

I 'spose if somebody absolutely wants to run his cable under a rug, or glue it to a baseboard and paint over it so as to hide it, then maybe a flat cable would be useful, but Nordost or some other manufacturer has cheaper stuff than this that will obviously work every bit as well or perhaps even better at least for in wall use.

Yeah, flat cable is nothing special. No need to apply oil of serpent.

 

[phoenixdogfan]

cable length in units of lightyear/91% will give you the delay (in year)

So if you ran this stuff to another planet in a spiral arm of the Milky Way exactly opposite our own (around 100 k light years) it would take another 10,000 years longer than a run of Valhalla to hear the newest Pink Floyd remix of Dark Side of the Moon?

 

[Travis]

I do! They asked for it back a while ago. I said sure, send me a shipping label but never heard back. So I put them in storage. Just saw that they will be attending the local audio show. Was thinking of taking them back them.

“Not responsible for Items left over thirty days”, perhaps a fundraiser is in order

 

[bogart]

I'll confess to having owned a pair of these or their close relatives. Three things to say about them:

1. Flat profile made it really easy to route them where they needed to go, tucking under some very small woodwork gaps and such. I was always super afraid of creasing them, though.
2. Sighted bias is such a real thing. It always seemed like these speaker cables added emphasis at the higher octaves, and it was not something I was hoping they'd do. Who knows why and how I got that suggestion in my head (probably a comment made in passing by a salesperson) but I was always sure I heard it. This test and common sense tell me it's imagined, but back then I knew I heard it.
3. I was very pleased with how well they held resale value. I sold them off 3-4 years ago for about what I paid 10 years before that. The guy who was buying them was really stoked, and I felt a little guilty for selling them. I hope he also just had some really flat spaces he needed to route through.

 

[ObjectiveSubjectivist]

cables added emphasis at the higher octaves

I think that potentially it could be real, as we see they pick noise and maybe in some circumstances it could be heard.

 

[Overseas]

Do they sell with the rug, cause I do not have one?

 

[BlackTalon]

I hope he also just had some really flat spaces he needed to route through.

If nothing else his wallet became flatter. So no way 'regular' cables could be routed through it anymore.

 

[Overseas]

No measurement for TELLURIUM flat cables? They have a long semi-secret complicated story on their presentations.

 

[bogart]

I think that potentially it could be real, as we see they pick noise and maybe in some circumstances it could be heard.

Even if real, this noise should be at too low of a level to change the much higher-voltage signals from the amplifier. I appreciate you giving me a graceful exit from my illusion, though

 

[CapMan]

It’s a GREAT cable ….

… if you have orange carpet and don't want to see the cable

 

[hansik]

Maybe the cable needs a firmware upgrade.

 

[D700]

Paint them gold for that sweet warm sound and raise the price (and cables) 100 %

Would you like to be VP of Uplift Marketing? I'll pay you in polyphonic elastomer cable ties.

 

[D700]

Too cheap won't sound good. I mean they are maybe enough for mid priced gear. I need something for about 2-5k per piece to match my 80k speaker cables.
Sorry

We proudly serve the aspiring mid-upper-lower tier of Audiophiles.

 

[D700]

Maybe the cable needs a firmware upgrade.

Laughed out loud

 

[ocinn]

I mean kudos to Nordost for finally making a cable that performs differently than a generic option. I mean, it's way worse, but still a valiant effort.

 

[ocinn]

Well, that was easy. This is the supplier of the bulk cable. Identical down to the red stripe on one side.

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256803179825007.html?

So WORST case: $22 of cable, $5 of plugs and heat-shrink, and 30mins of labor. Selling for $360 . Incredible.

 

[CapMan]

Well, that was easy. This is the supplier of the bulk cable. Identical down to the red stripe on one side.

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256803179825007.html?

So WORST case: $22 of cable, $5 of plugs and heat-shrink, and 30mins of labor. Selling for $360 . Incredible.

Oouch!

 

[craigenputtock]

This is a review and detailed measurements of the Nordost SuperFlatLine speaker cable. It is on kind loan from a member and costs US $360.
View attachment 292605
As you see, the cable name is fully descriptive with parallel copper traces running from one end to the other. The edges of the cable are somewhat sharp and overall the cable feels somewhat delicate (think flex PCB if you are an engineer). The terminations were surprisingly loose as I inserted them in the banana jacks of my Audio Precision analyzer.

Company provides a set of "specifications" which are hardly useful:
View attachment 292606

Nordost SuperFlatLine Speaker Cable Measurements
I tested the cable as if it were an interconnect (and hence with higher impedance than it would see in real life). There, the SuperFlatLine showed transparency with analyzer's internal bypass:
View attachment 292607
Seeing the large surface area of the cable and audiophiles always worrying about noise intrusion in cables, I put my usual test transformer at 90 degrees to the cable. This induce fair bit of mains noise:
View attachment 292608

I then switched the cable to a generic 12 gauge I bought form Amazon a while ago:

View attachment 292609

As you see, the induced noise level is much less now. The SuperFlatLine cable was so sensitive that having the transformer 12 inches away from it still induced fair amount of noise.

Note again that these are high impedance tests. With typical low impedance amplifier and speakers, it will be much harder to inject noise into a speaker cable. Still, all else being equal, the Nordost cable is much worse in this regard due to simple physics of its construction.

I also ran the classic frequency response test showing no difference between the cables (and no cable):
View attachment 292612

For grins, I set the analyzer to 1 MHz and pumped a 10 kHz squarewave into the cables:
View attachment 292613
As you see, there is not the slightest difference even though this signal is "illegal" in 44.1 kHz or even higher sampling rates.

Conclusions
The Norodost SuperFlatLine cable clearly falls in the category of paying more and getting less. It is much more susceptible to noise pick up, and its physical construction is a bit of a pain to deal with.

Needless to say, I can't recommend the Nordost SuperFlatLine cable.
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So how does this compare with OFC 12GA speaker wire? I don't know what "Swell 3" cable is.