Nordost Red-Dawn Rev. II
Speaker Cable

Nordost Red Dawn Speaker Cable

Nordost Red-Dawn Rev. II

The Red Dawn is one step below the previously reviewed SPM cable, once the top-of-the-line (Nordost has recently introduced a new and expensive cable named Quattro Fil which is now the company's top-of-the-line model). For those of you who haven't yet heard of the Nordost Company, here is a quick recap. The company is headed by Joe Reynolds and has been in business since 1992. Office and production facilities are in Framingham, Massachusetts with offices and distribution centres in Europe and Asia. We used a 'Flatline' cable way back in 1993 when the earlier Canadian distributor shipped us a sample. Now distributed by Sonic Integrity in Canada, we have reviewed both the speaker cable and the interconnect SPM Reference models in Volumes 10, #2 and 10, #3 of TIER. Now to the job at hand . . .

Appearance

The Red Dawn bi-wire speaker cable, just like the SPM Reference, is flat, about an inch wide, and neatly terminated with Nordost's banana plugs two at the amplifier end and four at the speaker end. Its colour is silver with red highlights. The interconnect is the same colour and width but sports Nordost patented RCAs. Being flat, it is easy to hide the cables under a carpet or in a crack in the wall, but if you want to impress your audiophile friends, show it blends very nicely with a listening environment.

Technology

Nordost designs all its cables to address the usual parameters, which include capacitance, inductance and impedance. Capacitance is measured in fractions (millionths) of farads and depicts the electrical characteristics of the cable, including its impedance. The speaker cable's capacitance is 7.0pF/foot, the interconnect's is 5.8pF/foot.

Inductance tells us about the electromagnetic properties of the cable which include DC resistance and the electrical inaction of a conductor which resists the current flow. The speaker and interconnect cables' inductance is 0.09 uH/foot.

Impedance describes the opposition of the AC current flow and its effective resistance between the signal conductors. The speaker cable's impedance is 110 ohms, the interconnect's is 123. The speaker cable has 38 conductors, each conductor separately enveloped in extruded Teflon. The conductors are made of 99.999999% silver-plated copper. Our sample came with Nordost's split gold-plated, self-adjusting banana plugs.

The interconnect uses 20 conductors of the same purity as the speaker cable but each conductor size is different and proportional for the best signal delivery. The RCA terminals at the end of the interconnects are also patented and feature a spring-loaded, gold plated design that offers optimum fit. Both cables conduct signals at over 90% the speed of light <1.20 nano seconds.

The Sound

In order to determine the interconnects' and speaker cables' interaction with various components, we connected them between the Opal preamplifier and a Bryston 8B-ST, an OCM 800, a Topaz and a Celeste Moon amplifier. All these components had been auditioned and reviewed in earlier reports and all of the components had been previously connected with Nordost's more expensive SPM cables. Thus, the auditioning sessions were also comparative evaluations to determine what, if anything, is missing in the delivery of sound. The Angstrom Obbligatos and the Focus Audio loudspeakers (reviewed in this issue) were used for the listening sessions. The burning in period was less than we expected-about three days of continuous use.

With the Opal/Topaz system, the Red Dawns managed signal transfer almost as quickly as the SPM and resembled the sonic signature in the high, mid and bottom frequencies. "Almost", of course, is the operative word, as the all-round performance doesn't equal the pinnacle of focus, the utmost air around instrument and voices and the height of resolution at the top and bottom frequencies. However, these slight weaknesses were more noticeable with the Topaz amp the best we had in-house-than with the other amplifiers (we used the Opal preamplifier for all the evaluations). The Bryston responded favorably to the Red Dawn cables in the extreme treble and bass regions. The OCM literally shone in the high and midrange areas, but indicated a little less determination at the bottom end, when compared to the the SPM Reference. The most receptive amplifier was the Moon W-3, reviewed in this issue. The Red Dawns offered a pleasant, smooth sound across the audible frequency range without diminishing inner detail, focus, imaging and resolution. While a couple of our panelists still noticed dissimilarities, they pointed out that these cables are about 90% of the SPM. With the Opal as the amplifier, the Red Dawns came about 80% within the performance parameters of the SPM. The Bryston and OCM amplifiers came up to about similarities, the Red Dawns offer the characteristic we all heard and liked when we auditioned the SPM Reference cables-transmission speed.

Synpsis & Commentary

You may have noticed that we didn't draw a distinction between the speaker cables and the interconnect in our description of the sound. We feel that there is no need for this, as both cables' personalities are the same. Now a little about the above-mentioned transmission speed.

It is difficult to explain the speed of cables as our ears can only trace it at a leisurely pace. We believe that, rather than documenting statistical values for speed, listening is the only method to establish the character of sound; and speed, in this example, is more a sensation comparable to a flash-when it's over, it is too late to get ready for it. Still, all our panelists called it "a sense of speed" for lack of a better description.

Here are cables which compare favorably with the SPMs when it comes to sonic complexion. There is that speed, a sense of clarity and resolving across the audible frequency range and accurate depiction of a sound stage. Two of our panelists took the Red Dawns home to their systems and, guess what? They are keeping these cables-one for an elaborate home theatre system and the other for an all-tube and Quad system. This illustrates that the Red Dawns are compatible with different system configurations and fulfill their assignments with a constant sonic property, relative to the value and caliber of the electronics to which they are connected. Thus, if you have spent a bundle on electronics, you'll be well advised to spend the extra bucks and get the SPM Reference cables. If, on the other hand, you blew your hard-earned bucks on the electronics and have a small(er) budget for the cables, the Red Dawns are a logical alternative.