Nordost Odin 2 Interconnect

Odin 2 is the second generation of the cable Nordost introduced in 2008 as the summit of its range, and it was built to a brief that most cable makers do not set themselves: measurable, mechanical reasons for every change. Nordost's approach to a cable is that it is a transmission line whose job is to move a signal from one end to the other with the least loss, the least storage of energy in the dielectric and the least mechanical disturbance of the conductors. Odin 2 pursues all three. The ten conductors are 23 AWG solid cores of 99.999999% oxygen-free copper, each plated in silver, so there is no strand-to-strand interaction and the current path at high frequencies runs in a continuous silver skin. Each conductor is wrapped in two fine FEP monofilaments wound in a helix, Nordost's Dual Mono-Filament, so that the conductor touches its FEP tube only at the points where the filaments cross and is otherwise insulated by air. Air has the lowest dielectric constant and dielectric loss of anything a cable can be built from, which is why Odin 2's capacitance is 18.5 pF per foot and its velocity of propagation 90% of the speed of light, against under 70% for conventional PVC-insulated interconnects.

What Odin 2 added to the original Odin is TSC, Total Signal Control, and the HOLO:PLUG connector. TSC is a system of shielding and spacing tubes that holds the send and return conductor groups in a fixed mechanical relationship along the cable's length, so that the geometry Nordost tuned on the bench is the geometry in the listening room, and each conductor carries its own shield for 100% coverage. The HOLO:PLUG, developed for Valhalla 2 and refined here, is a low-mass connector with a gold-plated solid brass-alloy pin and a dual-ring design: every conductor is terminated at a precisely aligned point around the plug's circumference rather than crimped into a single lug, which Nordost says lowers eddy currents and vibration at the one place in a cable where the signal must change conductors. The RCA and XLR versions of the plug were designed with the Odin 2 cable rather than bought in, and the cables are hand-terminated in Nordost's factory in Massachusetts.

Jacob Heilbrunn reviewed the Odin 2 line for The Absolute Sound and wrote that "the Odin 2 takes transient speed to a new level" and that "one of the most striking attributes of the Odin 2 is its vanishingly low noise floor"; the magazine has kept the Odin 2 interconnect on its Editors' Choice list, most recently for 2026. Alan Sircom in Hi-Fi+ found that "Odin 2 simply has more in reserve and makes this a natural part of the audio replay process", summing the effect up as "your system, only better", and Hi-Fi+ gave the Odin 2 an Editors' Choice Award in 2024. Those descriptions match what the design is meant to do: a cable that stores less energy and disturbs its conductors less lets transients start and stop on time, and the result reads as speed, quiet and a sense that the electronics have more headroom than they did.

Odin 2 is a cable for a system whose electronics and loudspeakers are already at the level where the interface between them is the remaining variable. In practice it is bought first for the shortest, most critical run, between a dCS Varèse or Vivaldi and a preamplifier, or between a Boulder 2110 and its power amplifiers, and extended through the system afterward. The balanced version is the choice for Boulder, dCS, Burmester and Linn electronics, all of which are designed around balanced interfaces; the RCA version suits Luxman and single-ended tube equipment. Lengths from 0.6 m to 7 m in half-meter steps are listed above; a long balanced run to monoblocks at the speakers is the case where Odin 2's low capacitance and shielding matter most.

Within Nordost's analog interconnects the Valhalla 2 below it is the Reference series cable with ten 24 AWG conductors, Dual Mono-Filament and HOLO:PLUG but without TSC, and the Odin Gold above it replaces the silver plating with gold. The matching cables are the Odin 2 Speaker Cable, Odin 2 Power Cord, Odin 2 Digital Cable and Odin 2 Tonearm Cable +; Nordost designs each for its task and tunes them to work together, so a full loom is the intended end point.

We plan Odin 2 interconnects in systems built around dCS Varèse and Vivaldi APEX, Boulder 2100 and 3000 Series, Burmester Reference Line and Magico S7 and M-series loudspeakers, and we lend cables for home evaluation against the Valhalla 2 so the difference can be heard in your own system. Ask us about lengths, terminations and a cable loan.