I had a chance to play with those cable for several days. I had 4 Odin PCs in total at my disposal, but due to my system arrangement, I was only able to try one on my DAC. The lengths I got did not allow me to simultaneously wire the DAC and both monoblocks. I could at most wire the DAC and ... one monoblock – which didn’t make any sense. So I have stayed with the DAC only.
I have to admint I had great expectations borrowing the Odins (astronomical price, rave reviews) even though my past experiences with Nordost cables, were less than stellar. I didn’t exactly develop a liking for the Nordost Valhalla (mk 1) power cords which I once had. Yes, they were smooth and fast, but they did something strange with the sound, which was unnaturally thin and lifeless.
First surprise: to my ears the new Odin 2 is devoid of this lethal Nordost gene. Overall balance is suprisingly similar to AQ Hurricane. No mids suckout. The Valhalla might have been all bones and no meat, but the Odin is a far more complete sounding cable.
Still not as warm as Acoustic Zen Gargantua for example, but the AZ is clearly on the warm side of neutral, with a pronaunced upper bass and lower mids, so hardly a neutral performer.
On the other hand, we have everything that people liked in in the Valhalla – that 'infinite' HF resolution, decays that are almost endless, combined with the incredible speed and smoothness of the sound.
This really is a great power cord – probably the best I have tried in my system. I could easily recommend it to anyone with pockets deep enough. However, a quick change to AQ Hurricane, clearly showed that changes, although audible, did not give a step increase in performance. The cable was better, no doubt about this, but not 20 or 30% better than the Hurricane. More like 5% better. And that is ... not a lot really, considering $22k extra over the Hurricane.
For comparison, inserting the Jat USB Isolator and W4S Recovery USB reclocker (along with the proper power supply) to my system, makes the sound (using the same, arbitrary scale in %) around 10-15% better. In other words – makes much greater difference. And the whole USB setup I’ve mentioned is around $1200, not $24.000.
One can argue, that a person who wants to spend $24.000 on a power cord, has taken care of the USB side of things long time ago. Which is probably true. I am only giving this example to show a proper perspective on things and what kind of changes one can expect.
I went back to my AQ Hurricane with a sense of relief. I knew I didn't have to take a second mortgage on my house. The sound quality didn’t get a big hit. There was a small downgrade compared to AQ, but nothing major, nothing that would take away the pleasure of listening to music.
And in an unexpected twist, two days later, I have swapped the AQ Hurricane for the Acoustic Zen Gargantua on the DAC and came to the conclusion that ... on the DAC I acutally like the AZ cord more than both the Odin 2 and Hurricane! Go figure.
opcorn:
