Nordost Heimdall 2 Headphone Cables Discussions | Drop

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Nordost Heimdall 2 Headphone Cables

Audiophile

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audioadvocate

Mar 1, 2018

These cables DO make an audible difference when A/B-ing balanced low level interconnects. I compared their low level cables to some older Straightwire Rhapsody cables made with silver....the resolution through a Krell preamp and a Krell KSA 250 into Thiel CS5i loudspeakers demonstrated about a 15% improvement. We didn't have their speaker cables though...just the old Straightwire ones. My only concern is that I'd want to make sure these fit my Sennheiser HD800s headphones. The photos sure look like they do. These are priced very well compared to the list price that Nordost gets. If I could be sure these were the 2HEHP-1 cables, I might consider them. Wow!

Mar 1, 2018

RayF

22218

Mar 2, 2018

audioadvocateSo far, that makes 4 1/2 of you; four that have joined the drop (assuming those four aren't MD shills) and one half of you--still undecided at this point. Not exactly a Massdrop barn-burner. Someone's going to have to do a better job of enlightening those of us who are still a little leery of spending next month's car payment on a set of cables. I'm not sure 15% is going to get us over the line.

Mar 2, 2018

Cablenut

Mar 2, 2018

audioadvocateSomething funny that I noticed long ago as I went up the audio fever is the the law of diminishing returns does not exactly hold true beyond a certain level of setup (full scale home setups, not headphones). There is a kind of inversion point... when the last percents become more and more profound, where a small tweak will change the whole character & perception of the system presentation. A very fine balance point where contradictions exist. Dark yet immediate, warm yet transparent. when that magic moment happens not once in a blue moon late playing at night unexpected but everytime within the first moments of turning on your system. Within this fine balance line, I am constantly refining with different brands/styles of cables, room and mechanical tuning tweaks. A slight change and edge/hashness/loss of focus/depth rushes in. That was when the total list price of my main setup is about the cost of a first home, I was extremely satisfied and thought I am close to the top for some time till I went to a friends place in Japan who is a member of the tokyo audio society and his system was his house literally. He built his house from scratch with horns built into the basement as part of the walls and the ALE/GOTO drivers in the garden shed. I listened to his system and my standards were shattered. It was beyond my imagination and a new experience. You cannot experience acrophobia just by reading or imagining it if you have not felt it before. It took a while before I could go back to enjoying my system again. Good Sound cannot be descrbed, it has to be experienced. It just takes one seating to reset your whole reference. Keep your mind open. Sorry about the useless ramble.

Mar 2, 2018

SGva

Mar 2, 2018

audioadvocateYes, you are offered the option for choosing the 2HEHP-1 during checkout (listed ther as simply HD800). These fit the Sennheiser HD-800. The 2HEHP-3 is also available (listed as HD6XX) which fits the HD580/58X/600/6XX/650 series, Plus, there are options for 4 pin mini-XLR (Audeze LCD-3, -2, X, XC) and other terminations available such as for HiFiMAN (4XX), AKG812, MrSpeakers and so forth. You can see the various available terminations when you click on "Join Drop". As you probably know, clicking Join Drop doesn't commit you to making the purchase until you fill everything else in so don't be afraid to do so to see the options.

Mar 2, 2018

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audioadvocate

Mar 2, 2018

SGvaThanks for the info. I just saw a Stereophile review of Nordost...they love 'em. Apparently their low-level balanced connectors and their unusual flat, speaker cables make a significant difference at the very high end. I realize that these cables are expensive, but I have personally witnessed how cables that represent a capacitive or inductive load to an amplifier's output transistors can change the overall sound. While these effects may be less significant with headphones, depending on the headphone amplifier you are using, you may experience a palpable improvement. The Litz wire configuration is well-known to reduce inductive effects on an amplifier's outputs, and it's my personal experience that tube outputs are more susceptible to inductive and capacitive effects than bipolar transistors.

Mar 2, 2018

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