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Nordost Odin 2 cables

Nordost technology

The engineering behind Nordost

Nordost gives its technologies names because each one solves a specific problem. Here is what each does, where it came from, why it matters in a system, and what you may hear.

The conductor suspended in airSince 2001

Micro Mono-Filament and Dual Mono-Filament

Nordost's patented construction winds a thin FEP thread in a spiral around each conductor before the insulating tube is extruded over it, so most of the conductor's surface touches air rather than plastic. Air is the best practical dielectric, so capacitance and dielectric absorption fall and signal speed rises. Read the deep diveClose

What it does

Every insulator stores a little of the signal and gives it back late, which is what engineers mean by dielectric absorption, and the only insulator that does not is air. Nordost introduced Micro Mono-Filament with the original Valhalla in 2001: a single FEP monofilament wound around the conductor, with an extruded FEP tube over it, leaves about 80 percent of the conductor suspended in air. Dual Mono-Filament, introduced with Odin in 2007, twists two thinner filaments together and winds them in an open spiral, raising that to about 85 percent; Stereophile put the remaining contact at roughly 15 percent of the surface. In the current range Micro Mono-Filament is used on the Leif 3 power cords and digital cables, all the Norse 3 power cords and speaker cables, and the QKORE wire; Dual Mono-Filament on the Norse 3 interconnects, the Tyr 3 power cord, Valhalla 2 throughout, and Odin 2 and Odin Gold throughout. The Leif 3 interconnects and speaker cables are the exception, with plain FEP extrusion.

Why it matters in a system

Lower capacitance and less stored energy mean a cable that passes transients without smearing them, which is the quality Nordost owners describe as speed. It is also why the ranges sound related: the same construction, applied with more conductors and more filament as the price rises.

What you may hear

Art Dudley's summary of the idea was that the next best dielectric after nothing is good old-fashioned air; reviewers of Valhalla 2 and Odin 2 describe the result as transient speed and a lack of editorial character.

Where Nordost began, in 1991Since 1991

Extruded FEP and the flat speaker cable

Nordost's first product, the Flatline of 1991, laid flat copper conductors side by side in pressed Teflon, a construction derived from aerospace cable. The flat ribbon, with FEP extruded over each conductor to tight tolerances, is still how every Leif 3 and Norse 3 speaker cable is built. Read the deep diveClose

What it does

Nordost began in Massachusetts in 1991 with the Flatline speaker cable, four flat copper conductors per run separated by clear Teflon pressed flat; it fitted under carpets and in walls, and on the bench it showed lower capacitance than round cables. FEP, a Teflon-family fluoropolymer, has become the company's one insulator: it is extruded over each conductor by Nordost's own process, it does not degrade with age, and it is the material of the Mono-Filament threads as well. The flat geometry keeps the conductors precisely spaced in one plane, which Nordost credits with faster signal transfer, less interaction between conductors, reduced skin effect and consistent spacing from one cable to the next; the company says it is the only audio cable maker to achieve a flat geometry in its speaker cables. The Blue Heaven 3 speaker cable carries 18 conductors of 24 AWG, the Red Dawn 3 22, the Heimdall 3, Frey 3 and Tyr 3 18, 22 and 26 conductors of 22 AWG with Micro Mono-Filament. Valhalla 2 and Odin use round, hollow-core geometries in the same class-1.1 FEP.

Why it matters in a system

A speaker cable's capacitance and inductance are set by its geometry, and the flat ribbon gives Nordost low, repeatable figures: 7.0 picofarads and 0.18 microhenries per foot for the Blue Heaven 3. It is the reason a Nordost loom has a recognizable character from the Leif series upward.

What you may hear

Clarity, flow and dynamic ease, the words Art Dudley used for the Flatline in 1996 and that reviewers still reach for. Steve Dickinson wrote of the Red Dawn 3 that you are never left feeling the cable has edited the musical experience.

Six nines to eight ninesSince 1997

Silver-plated solid-core copper, and Odin Gold

Nordost conductors are solid, not stranded, oxygen-free copper with a heavy silver plating: 99.9999 percent pure in the Leif series, 99.99999 in Norse, 99.999999 in Valhalla 2 and Odin, with silver 60 to 85 microns thick. Odin Gold replaces the silver with gold from conductor to connector. Read the deep diveClose

What it does

A stranded cable is many small conductors rubbing against each other, each strand a tiny circuit; a solid core has none of that interaction and, held in Mono-Filament, none of the hot spots or carbonization Nordost attributes to strand contact. Silver is the best conductor there is, and high-frequency current travels on the surface of a conductor, so a thick silver layer puts the best metal where it is used: 60 microns on the first Heimdall, 78 on the original Valhalla and Odin 2, 85 on Valhalla 2. The copper beneath rises in purity with the range. Nordost first used heavy silver plating on the SPM Reference of the 1990s, and in 2021 Odin Gold took the idea to its end, with gold plating on the conductors, the shielding and the HOLO:PLUG connectors, and a tiered termination in the speaker cable that narrows 28 conductors of 20 AWG to eight of 14 AWG to match the mass of conductor and connector. The one exception to the solid-core rule is the Leif 3 power cords, which use stranded copper of 105 and 168 strands for flexibility at the wall.

Why it matters in a system

Conductor metal and plating are what separate the ranges once the construction is the same, and it is why the step from Frey 3 to Valhalla 2, which Marc Mickelson called audibly significant, is a step in copper and silver as much as in design.

What you may hear

Brian Damkroger in Stereophile called Valhalla 2 the best cables he had heard; Jacob Heilbrunn found Odin 2 took transient speed to a new level.

Why Nordost cables come in the lengths they doSince 2007

Mechanically tuned lengths and lay

Nordost treats a conductor as a mechanical object with resonances of its own. It cuts conductors to specific lengths, and sets their spacing and twist, by a formula it says minimizes microphony and high-frequency impedance resonance; the standard lengths follow from it, and the QBASE and QKORE housings are tuned the same way. Read the deep diveClose

What it does

The emphasis began with Odin in 2007 and ran down through the Leif and Norse ranges: Nordost analyzes the natural resonances of its conductors and uses a proprietary formula to set the length that performs best, and it says that cutting Norse 3 conductors to those lengths maximizes their performance and eliminates timing errors. The speaker cables specify mechanically tuned spacing, the power cords a tuned lay and length, and the QBASE distribution blocks and QKORE ground units are built in extruded aluminum housings described as mechanically tuned. Nordost publishes no measurements for the claim, and we present it as the company's method; what it means for an owner is that the standard lengths are not arbitrary and that custom lengths are cut to the same formula.

Why it matters in a system

A cable carries vibration as well as current, from the floor, the rack and the loudspeaker, and microphony in a cable is noise added to the music. Treating the cable's mechanics with the same care as its electrical values is of a piece with the Sort System footers and the rest of Nordost's attention to resonance.

What you may hear

Lower noise and a cleaner, quieter background, the effect Nordost owners report when a loom is completed and that Joe Reynolds summarized as getting the noise out of the system.

The cable's geometry carried into the plugSince 2013

HOLO:PLUG connectors

HOLO:PLUG is Nordost's own family of low-mass, gold-plated connectors, RCA, XLR, spade, banana, BNC, DIN and AC, designed and patented so that each cable's conductor arrangement continues into the plug rather than collapsing into a generic terminal. It is fitted to Valhalla 2, Odin 2 and Odin Gold. Read the deep diveClose

What it does

A connector is the one part of most cables its maker does not design, and the point where a carefully spaced set of conductors is soldered to whatever the plug provides. Nordost introduced HOLO:PLUG with Valhalla 2 in 2013, patent pending then and patented by the Odin 2 launch of 2015: connectors with 360-degree, low-eddy-current terminations, a rear grounding ring, a tight fit that wipes the contact as it is made, and a mass low enough that the plug does not hang on the socket. The RCA version has a dual-ring ground that Nordost describes as asymmetrically balanced, and the Odin Gold plugs are gold-plated throughout. The Norse 3 and Leif 3 ranges use gold-plated Neutrik Profi RCA and XLR connectors and Nordost's own Z-plug bananas and spades, with the Norse 3 speaker terminations welded ultrasonically rather than soldered.

Why it matters in a system

The connector is in series with everything, and a plug matched to the cable's geometry is why the Reference and Supreme Reference ranges keep their advantage all the way to the socket. Nordost's own description is the perfect marriage of electrical and mechanical tuning.

What you may hear

Alan Sircom's verdict on Odin 2 was that it does nothing to the sound of a system, and does that nothing better than almost every other cable.

Every conductor shielded on its ownSince 2007

Total Signal Control

In the Supreme Reference ranges, Odin 2 and Odin Gold, each conductor is shielded individually and spaced by its own tube, so the cable has complete shield coverage without the stiffness of an overall braid, and the shield continues into the HOLO:PLUG. Read the deep diveClose

What it does

Odin, announced in May 2007, introduced two things: Dual Mono-Filament and Total Signal Control. TSC gives each of the ten conductors in an Odin 2 interconnect its own shield and spacing tube, which Nordost says approximates the performance of a solid copper pipe without its rigidity and provides 100 percent coverage; the shields are carried through the connector, and Odin Gold plates them in gold. The Norse 3 and Leif 3 interconnects use conventional individually shielded twisted pairs with 97 percent braid coverage instead; Valhalla 2 uses two layers of silver-plated shielding. TSC is reserved for the top of the range, which is part of why Odin 2 took seven years to develop.

Why it matters in a system

Shielding is how a cable keeps the noise of the modern home, switching supplies, Wi-Fi, lighting, out of the signal, and a per-conductor shield does it without changing the cable's geometry or its flexibility. It is the difference between Valhalla 2 and Odin 2 that owners can feel in the hand as well as hear.

What you may hear

Marc Mickelson called Odin 2 the most sonically far-reaching and consequential cables he had used.

Power distribution without a filterSince 2009

QBASE star-earth distribution

A QBASE is a passive distribution block whose outlets are all grounded from one central point, with the ground impedance raised on every outlet except the one designated Primary Earth. It has no filtering and no active circuitry, which Nordost argues is what keeps the dynamics that conditioners compress. Read the deep diveClose

What it does

Most power conditioners reduce noise by putting a filter in series with the current the amplifier draws, and Nordost's position is that the filter costs bandwidth and dynamics, a compromise it refuses to make. The QBASE instead uses a star-earth topology: every outlet connects to the input from one central point, so the components share a single ground reference, and the impedance to ground is raised on all but the Primary Earth outlet, which the preamplifier or source usually takes, so ground noise drains through one path. The Mark III of 2023 added a dual-level circuit board that separates the ground from the line and neutral traces, enlarged traces, Mono-Filament internal wiring and a resistance sink to damp eddy currents, in a mechanically tuned extruded aluminum housing. The QBASE Reference of 2023 has ten outlets and a 20-amp input; the QBASE Supreme Reference of 2026 is wired internally with Odin 2 and uses 32-amp powerCON connectors. The QKORE ground units attach to the QBASE's ground post.

Why it matters in a system

Joe Reynolds's rule is that the most important cable in the system is the power cord, and Roy Gregory's that a star-grounded distribution block should be the next priority after it. The QBASE is the center of a Nordost loom: every power cord plugs into it, and every ground reference starts there.

What you may hear

The Absolute Sound's Neil Gader found the QBASE Mark III restorative; Positive Feedback called it as neutral as the day is long; the Mark III was a TAS Product of the Year for 2024.

A manufactured clean earthSince 2017

QKORE grounding

The QKORE ground units give a system an artificial clean earth: a passive circuit and Low-Voltage Attractor Plates of a proprietary alloy, built with Nordost's Mono-Filament wire, draw stray high-frequency noise and the magnetic fields generated by voltage to a manufactured ground point instead of letting them circulate between components. Read the deep diveClose

What it does

Launched at Munich in May 2017, the QKORE comes in three versions: the QKORE1 with one post for the primary side, the ground post of a QBASE; the QKORE3 with three posts for the components themselves, connected to an unused input or ground terminal with QKORE Wire; and the QKORE6 with both, including posts for monoblocks. It is entirely passive, sits on recesses for Sort Kones, and is never connected to a loudspeaker. Nordost's Michael Taylor described it to Stereophile as a resonant sink as well as an electrical-noise ground sink. Jason Victor Serinus found that the law of diminishing returns did not apply, that each addition was cumulative and anything but subtle; the QKORE won a hi-fi+ award in 2017, The Absolute Sound's Golden Ear in 2018 and a Positive Feedback Writers' Choice in 2020.

Why it matters in a system

Modern components leak high-frequency noise into their grounds, and the household earth is noisy itself; a clean reference that the system shares is one of the few upgrades that lowers the noise floor of every box at once. The QKORE3 on the sources and the QKORE1 on the QBASE is the combination we install most.

What you may hear

Quieter backgrounds and more low-level detail; Marc Mickelson wrote that he knew of no upgrade more profound and economical than adding a QKORE system.

A switch built for audioSince 2022

QNET and QNET7 network switches

The QNET is a five-port Ethernet switch designed from the ground up for audio, with six separate power supplies, a low-noise oscillator for its clock, two ports fixed at 100 megabits for audio devices and an aluminum housing that is both heat sink and shield. The QNET7 of 2025 adds seven ports including optical, nine supplies and eight boards. Read the deep diveClose

What it does

A streamer is only as quiet as the network feeding it, and an office switch is built for throughput, not noise. Nordost's QNET of 2022 is a Layer 2 switch with six dedicated power supplies so that no section contaminates another, an extremely low-noise, stable oscillator as the main clock, and ports 4 and 5 fixed at 100BASE-TX full duplex, the mode most audio devices prefer. The QNET7 of 2025 separates the design further: seven ports, including gigabit, an ultra-low-noise 100 megabit port and SFP optical, nine independent power supplies across eight boards. Both are powered from an external 9 volt supply, and the QSOURCE linear supply, with its internal QRT module, is the partner Nordost intends. We run the QNET7 ahead of the dCS, Linn and Aurender streamers in our rooms.

Why it matters in a system

Network noise reaches the DAC through its Ethernet port no matter how good the DAC is, and a switch that isolates, reclocks and powers each section separately is the cleanest fix. It is the first thing we change on a streaming system that sounds hard or flat.

What you may hear

Stereophile's Jason Victor Serinus gave the QNET what Nordost quotes as a standing ovation; Alan Sircom wrote that network audio had taken a leap forward in listenability; StereoNET gave it an Applause Award in 2024.

Quantum Resonant TechnologySince 2009

QRT: QPOINT, QSOURCE and the plug-ins

QRT began as a California company whose field-generating devices Nordost distributed and then absorbed as its own brand. Today it covers the QPOINT resonance synchronizer, the QSOURCE linear power supply, and the QSINE, QKOIL, QVIBE and QWAVE plug-ins that condition the mains from a spare outlet. Read the deep diveClose

What it does

Quantum Resonant Technology of Santa Monica made the QX2 and QX4 field stabilizers; by 2009 it was largely owned by Nordost, its production moved to Massachusetts, and QRT became the name for Nordost's power and resonance products. The QPOINT of 2019 is a 127 mm disc placed under or beside a component; Nordost says it emits a subtle field that brings the electromechanical resonances nearby into unison, with two modes that emphasize different musical characteristics, and it runs from 5 volts, ideally from the QSOURCE. The QSOURCE is a fanless linear power supply built for audio: four 5 volt outputs for QPOINTs, two variable outputs for streamers, switches and other small components, 75 dB of supply rejection and an internal QRT module. The plug-ins divide into passive field generators, the QSINE, which reshapes the mains sine wave, and the QKOIL, with a coil wound in Micro Mono-Filament, and active AC line harmonizers, the QVIBE of 2011 and the QWAVE of 2023, which inject pulsed frequencies clocked from the mains. Nordost publishes no measurements for these and describes them as a family best used together; we demonstrate them in and out of the circuit so you can judge.

Why it matters in a system

They address the noise that remains after the cables and the QBASE are in place, and they are the part of the Nordost system that owners can try at the lowest cost, a plug-in at a time, in a spare outlet of the QBASE.

What you may hear

Jacob Heilbrunn described the QPOINT's effect as a photo going from blurry to sharp; Neil Gader found backgrounds marked by a dead-calm silence with the plug-ins in place.

Mechanical diodes under the equipmentSince 2011

The Sort System

Sort Kones are three-piece cones, a post, a coupling ball and a base, that act as a one-way path for vibration: energy drains out of a component into the rack and is resisted on the way back up. Sort Füt does the same under loudspeakers and racks, and Sort Lift holds cables off the floor on a titanium spring. Read the deep diveClose

What it does

Nordost has machined its Sort Kones in Massachusetts since at least 2011. The post, ball and base are made in four combinations, aluminum with a steel ball, aluminum or bronze with a ceramic ball, and titanium with ceramic, 56 mm tall, and three or more go under a component, beneath its transformer, power supply or transport. The Sort Füt is a threaded aluminum and bronze foot with three ceramic balls, rated at 200 pounds each and adjustable over about 70 mm, for loudspeakers and racks, with Sort Kup and Sort Lock accessories. The Sort Lift lifts a cable 24 mm from the floor on FEP-coated titanium-alloy spring wire in an anodized aluminum base, a patent-pending floating spring design. All are described by Nordost as mechanical diodes.

Why it matters in a system

Vibration in a component is noise, in a transport, a tube or a transformer most of all, and draining it through a hard, one-way path is what distinguishes the Sort System from soft feet that store it. They are the mechanical counterpart of the cables' tuned lengths.

What you may hear

The Absolute Sound's reviewer found the Sort Füt the most impressive of the three and gave the system a qualified recommendation.

How the ranges are builtSince 2024

Leif, Norse, Valhalla and Odin

Nordost's cables come in four families named from Norse mythology, each built on the same principles with more conductors, purer copper, thicker silver and more Mono-Filament as the price rises: Leif 3 (Blue Heaven 3 and Red Dawn 3), Norse 3 (Heimdall 3, Frey 3 and Tyr 3), the Valhalla 2 Reference and the Odin 2 and Odin Gold Supreme Reference. Read the deep diveClose

What it does

The Leif 3 series of 2024 is the entry: Blue Heaven 3 with 18 conductors of 24 AWG in its flat speaker cable and two shielded pairs in its interconnect, Red Dawn 3 with 22 and three, both in 99.9999 percent copper with FEP extrusion, and power cords of stranded copper in Micro Mono-Filament. Norse 3, announced in October 2026, steps to 99.99999 percent solid-core copper with Micro Mono-Filament in the speaker cables and power cords and Dual Mono-Filament in the interconnects: Heimdall 3 with 18 speaker conductors of 22 AWG, Frey 3 with 22, Tyr 3 with 26 and the only Norse 3 power cord in Dual Mono-Filament. The tonearm, digital, USB and Ethernet cables of the Norse range remain Heimdall 2. Valhalla 2, the Reference range since 2013, uses eight-nines copper with 85 micron silver, Dual Mono-Filament on every cable, round hollow-core speaker geometry and HOLO:PLUG connectors; Odin 2 adds Total Signal Control and heavier conductors, and Odin Gold replaces the silver with gold. Nordost's advice, and ours, is to buy within one range and complete the loom from the wall outward, power cords first.

Why it matters in a system

A single-brand loom is Nordost's founding argument: cables that share a construction add nothing different to each other, so the system sounds like the components rather than like a mixture of cables. The ranges exist so that the same approach is available from a few hundred dollars a cable to Odin.

What you may hear

Jay Garrett on the Blue Heaven 3 loom: a cable family less interested in flattering a system than in revealing what it is already capable of. Roy Gregory on the same loom: if its performance does not get your attention, its price differential should.

Burned in before you hear itSince 2005

The Vidar burn-in machine

A new Nordost cable needs burning in, and the way to do it is on the Vidar, the wideband burn-in machine Nordost supplies to its dealers: 168 hours for most cables, 336 for the Reference ranges. Pearl Audio runs one, and every cable we sell is burned in before it is delivered. Read the deep diveClose

What it does

Nordost's explanation is that extrusion traps gases and charges in the FEP, and that the Vidar, which drives a very wide band signal of varying amplitude through the cables, neutralizes those charges and conditions the surface of the conductors; the company recommends at least 168 hours for most cables, 336 for Valhalla 2 and Odin, and a repeat after a month of disuse or once a year, and it does not offer burn-in from the factory. Art Dudley, a skeptic about break-in in general, was surprised by the extent of the change in the first hours with a Nordost cable. The company's other principle is that its claims should be checked: Nordost's trainers travel to dealers to demonstrate, it co-hosted 59 events in 2025, and we hosted An Evening with Nordost in our main listening room in June 2026. Every cable we sell has been through the Vidar before it is delivered, and we keep a case of burned-in Leif 3 and Norse cables so a comparison, power cords first, is made on cables that are already settled.

Why it matters in a system

A cable auditioned raw tells you little. The Vidar and the case of burned-in cables remove that problem, and they are why we are confident recommending a loom before you have bought one.

What you may hear

What the comparison usually shows, in Joe Reynolds's order: the power cord first, then the interconnects, then the speaker cables.

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