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RMAF 2016: Nordost

amirm

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CFO (Chief Fun Officer)
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I love going to Nordost booth. Not to learn about their products of course. But because they usually have a superb system with great demo clips and this show was no exception.

First track I heard was by one of my favorite artists with superb recording fidelity: Beat Hotel by Allan Taylor. http://shz.am/t40458035


If you don't have his work, you need to rush out and get it!

Reproduction here was superb and reference quality!

This was used to demonstrate little pyramids you put under the gear. They did an AB test but surprisingly, they did not pre-bias people before putting them under. To my ears then they sounded no different. After the fact the presenter asked for confirmation from crowd that it had made a big difference and unlike past shows when they pre-bias, I didn't see many heads nodding.

By the way, he said the most important tweak order was:
1. Power Cord
2. little cones or isolated cabinet/shelves
3. Interconnects
4. Speaker cables

He went so far as saying putting in their most expensive speaker wire before doing #1 and #2 was a waste of money.
 
I Heard It Through The Grapevine by Bill Frisell. http://shz.am/t41350637


This was a Qsound recording (multi-channel music in stereo format). It was incredible how it would ping sounds to left and right in a precise manner. Very fun clip.

Reproduction was Superb.

This was with an AB test of cheap USB and their $500/meter cable. Again I heard no difference.
 
Morph The Cat by Donald Fagen. http://shz.am/t43799609


This was an LP. Nice and dynamic but the highs were distorted to my ears.

They were doing an AB demo of their older tonearm cables to new. (Or was it whatever the turntable used to use). They did this with two tonearms which of course cannot be made to sound the same. And they did sound different. "Their cable" sounded less bright but also more dull.
 
Suzuki: Aqua Marine by Isao Suzuki Quartet. http://shz.am/t129379873

This was a customer CD and was superb. I think the above link may be wrong as I seem to recall it was a sampler from Reference Recording (???)
 
I love going to Nordost booth. Not to learn about their products of course. But because they usually have a superb system with great demo clips and this show was no exception.

First track I heard was by one of my favorite artists with superb recording fidelity: Beat Hotel by Allan Taylor. http://shz.am/t40458035


If you don't have his work, you need to rush out and get it!

Reproduction here was superb and reference quality!

This was used to demonstrate little pyramids you put under the gear. They did an AB test but surprisingly, they did not pre-bias people before putting them under. To my ears then they sounded no different. After the fact the presenter asked for confirmation from crowd that it had made a big difference and unlike past shows when they pre-bias, I didn't see many heads nodding.

By the way, he said the most important tweak order was:
1. Power Cord
2. little cones or isolated cabinet/shelves
3. Interconnects
4. Speaker cables

He went so far as saying putting in their most expensive speaker wire before doing #1 and #2 was a waste of money.
Just bought this.. Thanks amir! The best part of these trips of yours from my PoV is the music you come back with.

All his cd's are mega expensive on Amazon though, you got expensive taste my lord.
 
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This was used to demonstrate little pyramids you put under the gear. They did an AB test but surprisingly, they did not pre-bias people before putting them under. To my ears then they sounded no different. After the fact the presenter asked for confirmation from crowd that it had made a big difference and unlike past shows when they pre-bias, I didn't see many heads nodding.

By the way, he said the most important tweak order was:
1. Power Cord
2. little cones or isolated cabinet/shelves
3. Interconnects
4. Speaker cables

He went so far as saying putting in their most expensive speaker wire before doing #1 and #2 was a waste of money.
Looks as though the hanky panky demos have been dialed back by the cable crooks. They've been called out with their magic shows at a few prior demos and people are watching much more closely now.
 
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