• WANTED: Happy members who like to discuss audio and other topics related to our interest. Desire to learn and share knowledge of science required. There are many reviews of audio hardware and expert members to help answer your questions. Click here to have your audio equipment measured for free!

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

N Fowleri

Member
Joined
Jul 27, 2022
Messages
27
Likes
37
A heavier cable could save your life if you have nothing else to grab for self-defense. Isn't your life worth a few extra dollars? :)
 

Keith Conroy

Member
Joined
Jan 23, 2021
Messages
79
Likes
115
A heavier cable could save your life if you have nothing else to grab for self-defense. Isn't your life worth a few extra dollars? :)
Yes agreed, but at 100 bucks (Plus) a foot it's a pricey weapon?? The hardware store sell chain at a couple bucks a foot:rolleyes:
:rolleyes:
 

Powerbench

Member
Joined
Mar 8, 2022
Messages
79
Likes
69
This is a review, listening test and detailed measurements of the Nordost Tyr 2 BNC terminated 75 ohm coax cable for S/PDIF use. It is on kind loan from a member and costs US $1,800.
View attachment 216734
As BNC cables go, the Nordost is flexible and feels good hand. I also like the termination where the plastic strain relief can also be grabbed to turn the connector. My everyday coax cable has this as well and it is so much nicer to use when the termination is harder to reach. The heatshrink printing seems low quality and already starting to degrade. Not that it changes electrical characteristics but for this price, I am sure a better a job could have been done.

Nordost Tyr 2 Measurements
The main claim here is reduction of jitter so let's focus on that. My Audio Precision APx555 has a special mode where it extracts the jitter from digital stream and then you can perform any analysis you want on it. So let's run an FFT to see the spectrum of the signal on it using different coax cables. Ideally there would be no spikes anywhere and noise floor as low as it can get. Here is a comparison of Tyr2 against my everyday RG6 video Coax cable:

View attachment 216738

We have two jitter components (I am playing the J-test signal and hence the 12 kHz component). The response is basically the same in both cables although the sideband is a hair lower with Tyr 2.

Just to show how sensitive this test is, let's look at an RG58 50 ohm cable at 2 meters:
View attachment 216739

As you see in the orange line, now we have a bunch of jitter sidebands due to nature of J-test signal (it has a 250 Hz bit toggle). So the test is definitely revealing. It is just that my reasonable video cable is as good as Nordost Tyr2. But you could do worse with as is the case with RG58.

Let's use the cables as intended by feeing a Topping D70s as the DAC, decoding its coax input with different cables. To really stress the role of the coax cable, let's up the sample rate to 192 kHz which D70s nicely accepts (technically max sample rate is 96 kHz). Here is the RG76 (RG58 was the same):

View attachment 216740

And now Nordost TYR 2:

View attachment 216741

There is not a hair difference between them even though measurement bandwidth extends to 90 kHz. Importantly there are no sidebands around on main tone in either test which would indicate jitter.

To do away with the criticism of just a 1 kHz tone above, let's run the 32 tone test, again at 192 kHz sampling:

View attachment 216742

As you see, the two responses land right on top of each other even though I picked the "worst" BNC cable, the RG58.

We could keep going but I can assure you all the rest of the tests will be identical as well.

Nordost Tyr2 Cable Listening Tests
I fed the output of the Topping D70s into Topping A90 Discrete. The latter then drove my Dan Clark Stealth headphone. This is as transparent of a chain as you can get. I then swapped between RG58 coax cable and Nordost TYR2. Switching time is long for super accurate assessment but I detected no difference whatsoever. My reference tracks sound as beautiful with either cable.

Conclusions
I know we can predict the results of these tests but it is always to run the test just in case there is degradation instead of improvement in a premium product. Good news is that there is no such problem with TYR 2. It produced the same low jitter as my reference cable. The problem is, my reference video cable cost only $20 and comes with RCA termination at one end, eliminating the need for an adapter. The tax alone on TYR 2 would be $144 in our state! So no comparison on price yet performance is the same.

I also performed listening tests and none of the benefits people attribute to cables was there.

If the TYR 2 was price at $100, I think it would have been a good buy given its nice feel and good performance. At US $1,800, it goes beyond any sensibility. You can buy so much more music instead of it and hugely increase your enjoyment of such.

Needless to say, I can't recommend the Nordost TYR 2.
-----------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.

Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
I find when shopping for audio equipment there is a slight whisper and rustling … the whispers of “you really need this” and the “rustling of a stack bills leaving me in haste…
 
Top Bottom