Nordost Tyr 2 Review (USB Cable)

[respice finem]

...if they do it is because someone is buying it.

Certainly. But then, better if the "silly money" is wasted for something as harmless as a cable.

 

[xaviescacs]

However, sometimes I'll look at a window of any store, maybe with horrible objects, and I wonder: how does it sell? And yet then I say to myself: if they do it is because someone is buying it.

I was following @Blumlein 88's joke on the service where the nordost site is hosted. GoDaddy is known to be the cheapest.

 

[Sharpi31]

I’m not surprised @amirm couldn’t measure any differences. He would need a Tyr 2 power cable on his APx555 to do that

 

[thorvat]

This is a review and detailed measurements of the Nordost Tyr 2 USB cable. It is on kind loan from a member and costs US $1,400 (no typo).
View attachment 192553
As you see, the cable doesn't look all that fancy but still has a premium feel to it. It highly resists rotating so when you try to align the USB cable, you may have to work hard at it. I think this is due to use of solid conductors.

I thought I start by quoting top line advertising from one of their resellers:

View attachment 192554

It would be wroth it if it did all of that....

Nordost Tyr 2 USB Cable Measurements
We don't listen to USB cables but rather, the analog output of our audio devices, in this case, a DAC. I usually use my Schiit Modi 2 DAC for USB cable testing because its USB implementation is poor and highly dependent on the computer activity and to a minor degree, USB cable. Alas, today it would not produce a stable output with its SINAD jumping between 85 and 90 dB. It did the same with every USB cable so I put it aside and instead chose the Topping DX3 Pro+ that I had pulled out recently for other testing. This is a $200 DAC and headphone combo with superb performance.

For comparison, I chose to use my usual 6 foot Amazon Basics USB cable. I really like this cable due to its flexibility and durability having been plugged in and unplugged probably 1000 times in my system as I test various USB device. It costs all of $6.83 including Prime shipping!

Let's start with our usual dashboard, first with Amazon Basics:
View attachment 192555

Exceptional performance with distortion near -130 dB (15 dB better than threshold of hearing). SINAD is therefore determined by noise level which is around -115 dB (at threshold of hearing). Now let's swap the Amazon Basics USB cable for Nordost Tyr 2:
View attachment 192556

All we see are incredibly small run to run variations. Output voltage is the same to three decimal places. Frequency is the same to 5 decimal places. Noise floor is the same. SINAD is the same. We could stop here but let's keep going, testing with 32 tones at much higher sampling rate of 192 kHz (hence more traffic on USB cable):

View attachment 192557

Again we see both measurements being the same. We are digging deep down to -150 dB and can't find a difference. Notice how the top of the tones is the same indicating identical frequency response as well.

Maybe noise floor has changed. Let's measure that difference:
View attachment 192558

Just random run to run variation. Notice the super wide bandwidth of this test going 25X than maximum hearing range! And we still can't find a difference.

Let's widen our analysis of noise and distortion for 1 kHz tone:
View attachment 192559

Worst case noise and distortion is only -120 dB at around 50 kHz. The instrumentation has no problem digging so deep but is not finding a difference between these USB cables.

Ah, what about "timing?" OK, let's run a square wave through the system. We up the sample rate to 768 kHz to allow the edges to resolve well:
View attachment 192563

No difference at all even if we highly zoom on the edge:
View attachment 192564

I did some testing for mains hum immunity by holding a transformer next to the USB cable. Neither cable caused any rise in mains hum into the DAC output. Doing the same by the way near its unbalanced RCA output did so proving that the test is valid. It is just that the DAC doesn't care about mains hum on USB or none was induced into either.

Nordost Tyr 2 USB Cable Listening Tests
I plugged in my Dan Clark Stealth headphone ($4,000) into the output of the Topping DX3 Pro+ to perform my listening tests. Stealth has one of the lowest distortions of any headphone I have measured and being closed back, nicely isolates outside noise allowing me to hear lower level detail better.

I started with Amazon Basics cable and my reference test tracks. Sounded great as usual. I then switched in the Nordost Tyr 2. The quick impression was that the sound became more compressed and congested. To confirm, I went back to Amazon Basics. It indeed sounded better. A bit later I switched back to Nordost. Now the Nordost sounded more clear and detailed! Listened for a bit more and switched back to Amazon. Now the Amazon sounded more detailed and clear! Continue to listen and these differences faded within a few seconds. Needless to say, none of this is real. The cables are not making a difference. It is me that is varying my perception as I go through plugging and unplugging stuff and music keeps playing.

Here was the kicker. I was listening to the Nordost and my wife comes up from the kitchen and asks, "what did you do to your system? It sounds so much better!" I told her not this time. And that I was wearing headphones so no way she could have observed that! Disappointed that she didn't score a point with me and hence couldn't cash it for something else, she went back down letting met to this review....

Conclusions
We could have concluded a priori that such a cable can't and won't change anything in the output of an audio device. Still, it is always good to put solid facts behind an opinion. And those facts are strong. There is not even a remote hint that the Nordost cable is impacting the performance of our DAC. We all know that it can't change the binary values going over the wire. All it could do was change the nature of noise it lets through and we measured that: it did nothing in that regard.

I know someone will say, "but you tested one device." Yes but given the sensitive nature of our instrumentation, if this cable had made any difference we would have seen it. If it can't possibly make a difference on some DACs, then it better say so. Statements of benefit are unconditional. From Nordost advertising for this cable: "The Tyr 2 USB 2.0 Cable is guaranteed to take your computer audio system to the next level. "

Well, the guarantee failed. I measured no difference let alone taking my system to the next level. Listening tests showed the same past the vagaries of such tests.

Needless to say, I can't recommend the Nordost Tyr 2 USB cable. Save your money and buy more music with it.

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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'm now wondering if Nordost is affiliate of PS Audio.

 

[respice finem]

I was following @Blumlein 88's joke on the service where the nordost site is hosted. GoDaddy is know to be the cheapest.

It must be due to the high production cost, you know, elves braiding the copper strands during the right moon phase and such...

 

[VintageFlanker]

View attachment 192569

"...the use of hifi audio-specific USB cables is critical to the fidelity of sound reproduction..."

Why? Because we say so.

 

[Jas0_0]

Four people bought this cable and can't face their mistake.

 

[NYfan2]

A lot of comments are made towards the companies who produce the cables, but we have to realize that the reviewers who promote these cables are also to blame. If they were not telling that cable A is so much better then cable B (often B is significantly more expensive then A) people would not buy the expensive cables.


Of course, there are a lot of snake oil reviewers but even reviewers that are more serious in their reviews with measurements etc. are reviewing cables and claim to hear differences between USB cables, power cables, interlinks, speaker cables. etc. they even claim that it is important to match the right cable with your speaker and amplifier!

 

[xaviescacs]

It must be due to the high production cost, you know, elves braiding the copper strands during the right moon phase and such...

Their cables are so well made, the electrons are so free, that tidal forces become relevant.

 

[Sal1950]

To determine that they intentionally deceive or are not providing something they expense the customer for is difficult.

The problem with starting any legal action is that any lawyer with a brain will bring in 500 audiophools to swear on the bible they can hear the differences. Then comes all the rest of the delusional testimony about how they can hear things that can't be measured yet and all the usual BS we've heard a million times from the believers.

 

[JSmith]

the reviewers who promote these cables are also to blame.

Agree completely, however I would add some consumers of these cables are also to blame as well. Once the expectation bias is fully activated, the consumer often becomes an unpaid shill for the product... I assume since they need to maintain the bias to justify the expense of the purchase. The veils being lifted effect must be perpetuated by telling everyone and anyone how amazing the cable is.

View attachment 192581

Four people bought this cable and can't face their mistake.

These members should be doxxed...


JSmith

 

[Koeitje]

It is not false claims. You only cannot measure sound quality.

Ok, so things like harmonic distortion, linear distortion, channel separation, jitter and noise are not measures of sound quality? If accurately reproducing the source material is not a measure of sound quality, then what is your definition of sound quality?

 

[respice finem]

Of course objective paramaters can be measured, but what someone hears or believes to hear (=what his brain makes of it) is another story.
Some people hear voices or see ghosts - they're real, for them...

 

[Blumlein 88]

Ok, so things like harmonic distortion, linear distortion, channel separation, jitter and noise are not measures of sound quality? If accurately reproducing the source material is not a measure of sound quality, then what is your definition of sound quality?

Sound quality can only be determined in the mind of the listener. To paraphrase Descartes ,I hear therefore I am.

 

[NYfan2]

One of the best speakers I ever heard was wireless, it's from a small company here in the Netherlands and they built an active speaker that uses a WISA connection for the audio signal.
Guess that made it magical, the sound signal travelling through the air!!

(The good design with cardioid behaviour, top of the line speaker units, Ncore amplification and good DSP were just a small part of the sound quality )

 

[solderdude]

It is not false claims. You only cannot measure sound quality.

The sound quality claim is merely hidden behind a magic screen.

 

[Vict0r]

I don't mind a pretty cable and I don't mind spending a pretty penny on one, just to have it sit there and do nothing but look pretty, but this thing doesn't even look pretty. What a scam.

 

[respice finem]

...Guess that made it magical, the sound signal travelling through the air!!

Somebody's going to market an audiophile air filter soon, I guess

/edit: I'm late to the party https://www.soundguys.com/axa-hifi-music-air-purifier-cleans-air-listen-4536/

 

[JSmith]

audiophile air

This is pretty close;

Stuff

www.stuff.co.nz

JSmith

 

[ZolaIII]

IF "Descartes" THAN start thinking ELSE stick with what you know AND stay in dogma. Descartes brought back us as the mesure from divine whatever. In the mean time we progressed quite when it comes to measurements and tools all do more hand work (kraftwerk) wouldn't hurt.