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1 Attachment(s)
Battle Royale: AQ Hurricane vs Nordost Odin 2 powercords
I have just borrowed the latest Nordost Odin 2 PC. Let's see how it fares against my own reference: AQ Hurricane HC.
https://www.audioshark.org/attachmen...id=24760&stc=1
AQ is 1m long and Nordost 1.25m.
It is a bit difficoult to compare the prices exactly, as AQ gives the prices in 1m increments and Nordost 1.25m ones, but here they are:
Nordost Odin 2: $21,998 for 2.5m lenght
AQ Hurricane HC: $2,199 for 2.0m lenght
I have connected them between the wall and my Lampizator Pacific DAC.
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Re: Battle Royale: AQ Hurricane vs Nordost Odin 2 powercords
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Re: Battle Royale: AQ Hurricane vs Nordost Odin 2 powercords
I think this will interesting, it appears to me they share similar build methods.
I just put in an Odin 1. While I see differences, between the Odin and the Valhalla 2, it’s a real tough decision to spend that kind of money especially since the gain is not in multiples.
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Re: Battle Royale: AQ Hurricane vs Nordost Odin 2 powercords
Quote:
Originally Posted by
UltraFast69
I think this will interesting, it appears to me they share similar build methods.
I just put in an Odin 1. While I see differences, between the Odin and the Valhalla 2, it’s a real tough decision to spend that kind of money especially since the gain is not in multiples.
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Can you explain what you mean by that? I see nothing similar in their build methods.
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Re: Battle Royale: AQ Hurricane vs Nordost Odin 2 powercords
Adam, I will be interested to know your findings. Try to get a AQ Dragon if you can.
To quote KeithR from another forum:
“Nordost is artificial, hifi sound. All that “detail” is fake as you’ll discover and comes at the expense of natural tone and timbre. Then again, just one mans opinion.”
- I totally agree!!
I had some Valhalla and Odin products on loan. Not a fan. Everything sounded diffused as well. They didn’t fair well in our power cord shootout either.
And $22K for silver plated (about 1%??) and copper?
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Re: Battle Royale: AQ Hurricane vs Nordost Odin 2 powercords
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Mike
Adam, I will be interested to know your findings. Try to get a AQ Dragon if you can.
To quote KeithR from another forum:
All that “detail” is fake as you’ll discover and comes at the expense of natural tone and timbre.
- I totally agree!!
I had some Valhalla and Odin products on loan. Not a fan. Everything sounded diffused as well. They didn’t fair well in our power cord shootout either.
And $22K for silver plated (about 1%??) and copper?
Kind of what I thought the first time I heard MQA files. Back to comparing two power cords that are worlds apart in price and construction.
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Re: Battle Royale: AQ Hurricane vs Nordost Odin 2 powercords
Quote:
Originally Posted by
mep
Can you explain what you mean by that? I see nothing similar in their build methods.
Its their silver plating around solid copper and how they insulate this along with grounding to reduce noise. While the sum of the parts make things whole, IMO wire and its inductance is a main driver in supporting the in and outs of power and subsequently sound.
I have played with Audioquest, Shunyata, Ansuz and Nordost and have noticed while cables make a difference, once they settle this becomes a part of your system for listening enjoyment and at these prices, change for the sake of change becomes too expensive. Despite my accumulation of purchases, I do not believe cables that are more expensive are a guarantee of helping bring the most into and out of your system.
I look forward to what Adam discovers.
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Re: Battle Royale: AQ Hurricane vs Nordost Odin 2 powercords
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Mike
Adam, I will be interested to know your findings. Try to get a AQ Dragon if you can.
To quote KeithR from another forum:
“Nordost is artificial, hifi sound. All that “detail” is fake as you’ll discover and comes at the expense of natural tone and timbre. Then again, just one mans opinion.”
- I totally agree!!
I had some Valhalla and Odin products on loan. Not a fan. Everything sounded diffused as well. They didn’t fair well in our power cord shootout either.
And $22K for silver plated (about 1%??) and copper?
I got taken to the woodshed for those comments. Yikes
And you aren’t the only dealer who has said similar things. Ironically, I’m intrigued by the Hurricanes
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Re: Battle Royale: AQ Hurricane vs Nordost Odin 2 powercords
Adam I too look forward to your findings. I'm hoping to compare my Ansuz D-TC to the AQ Hurricane in a couple of weeks. That said I would think the Dragon might be a better comparison for me. I can't wait for my own shootout in my home with my system. That's all that matters to me. I personally give more credit to others opinions than I do to specs on paper. In the end it's my opinion that counts the most as it should be as with everyone else.
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Re: Battle Royale: AQ Hurricane vs Nordost Odin 2 powercords
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.
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Re: Battle Royale: AQ Hurricane vs Nordost Odin 2 powercords
5% here 10% there will add up. I will agree for the $$ spent it will add up fast. It's whatever works best for you.
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Re: Battle Royale: AQ Hurricane vs Nordost Odin 2 powercords
Thanks Adam. Try the Dragon and it will leap frog the Nordost.
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Re: Battle Royale: AQ Hurricane vs Nordost Odin 2 powercords
So, Hurricane is 95% of Odin 2. Given the huge price disparity, that in itself is a remarkable achievement.
I myself have 4 Hurricane’s in the system and they are staying for long term.
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Re: Battle Royale: AQ Hurricane vs Nordost Odin 2 powercords
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Elberoth
[... Odin] 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.
[...]
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.
Thanks for sharing your observations Adam.
Given the price difference a good result for AudioQuest.
It’s too bad the cable lengths did not permit connection to your VITUS SM-103 Monobloc amps as the demands of high current electronics can highlight cable characteristics.
I have to agree with George that a 5% performance difference don’t sound like much for a single cable – but over a full cable loom that number has the potential to swell.
In the context of my audio system I upgraded my AudioQuest cables (earlier generation) to Nordost reference and supreme reference and more recently upgraded again from Nordost to Ansuz Acoustics. A mid-level Ansuz PC was better in every way than Nordost Odin.
I can easily believe the Acoustic Zen Gargantua kicked AudioQuest Hurricane ass on the DAC, because despite cable loom theories sometimes it just seems specific electronics respond best to our ears with specific power cables. For example, I liked my Esoteric K-series CDP/DAC far better with a Kubala-Sonsa Research ‘Emotion’ power cord because the PC delivered qualities the Esoteric was deficient in.
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Battle Royale: AQ Hurricane vs Nordost Odin 2 powercords
Quote:
Originally Posted by
kiwi_1282001
Thanks for sharing your observations Adam.
Given the price difference a good result for AudioQuest.
It’s too bad the cable lengths did not permit connection to your VITUS SM-103 Monobloc amps as the demands of high current electronics can highlight cable characteristics.
I have to agree with George that a 5% performance difference don’t sound like much for a single cable – but over a full cable loom that number has the potential to swell.
In the context of my audio system I upgraded my AudioQuest cables (earlier generation) to Nordost reference and supreme reference and more recently upgraded again from Nordost to Ansuz Acoustics. A mid-level Ansuz PC was better in every way than Nordost Odin.
I can easily believe the Acoustic Zen Gargantua kicked AudioQuest Hurricane ass on the DAC.
Despite cable loom theories sometimes it just seems specific electronics respond best to our ears with specific power cables. For example, I liked my Esoteric K-series CDP/DAC far better with a Kubala-Sonsa Research ‘Emotion’ power cord. The PC delivered qualities the Esoteric was deficient in.
That’s a stretch. He said he preferred the AZ to the Odín and AQ on the DAC. I’m not surprised as the Pacific is forward sounding and I myself prefer Shunyata Sigma NR with it.
The Dragon I’m certain would be a whole new level.
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Battle Royale: AQ Hurricane vs Nordost Odin 2 powercords
Quote:
Originally Posted by
kiwi_1282001
I have to agree with George that a 5% performance difference don’t sound like much for a single cable – but over a full cable loom that number has the potential to swell.
Hi Ralph, I’ll have to disagree. What you said maybe true if two cables are comparable in price. But for the price disparity between Odin 2 and Hurricane, this simply won’t hold true. One can get to Dragon, which is still much cheaper than Odin 2, to not only have performance gain but also could pocket $$$.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
kiwi_1282001
I can easily believe the Acoustic Zen Gargantua kicked AudioQuest Hurricane ass on the DAC.
Can you kindly explain why?
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Re: Battle Royale: AQ Hurricane vs Nordost Odin 2 powercords
YMMV, but I find power cords to be more system dependent than other cables. Odin 2 may perform even better (or worse) on other components, in other systems, who knows.
All I'm certain for now is that AQ Hurricane is an exraordinary cable for the price - judging from my own success, people on this forum and my friends who have tried it.
And $2000 is really max I'm willing to spend on a PC, without questioning my sanity. Which is why I have no imediate plans to bring in the AQ Dragon.
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Re: Battle Royale: AQ Hurricane vs Nordost Odin 2 powercords
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Elberoth
All I'm certain for now is that AQ Hurricane is an exraordinary cable for the price - judging from my own success, people on this forum and my friends who have tried it.
And $2000 is really max I'm willing to spend on a PC, without questioning my sanity. Which is why I have no imediate plans to bring in the AQ Dragon.
Hi Adam,
I wholeheartedly agree. I have Hurricane power cords and they sound wonderful, a value engineered product. Dragon power cord pricing is absurd. Buy new speakers or amps instead.
Ken
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Re: Battle Royale: AQ Hurricane vs Nordost Odin 2 powercords
Hurricane is definitely the sweet spot. I have some Dragons in the store and they are definitely a step up. Great separation and micro detail retrieval and very smoooooooth while never being harsh or losing any detail. But at home, I have a combination of Hurricane and Shunyata Sigma NR. Hurricane is definitely the sweet spot in the AQ lineup.
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Re: Battle Royale: AQ Hurricane vs Nordost Odin 2 powercords
I loved the Hurricane as well... I did recently put a dragon on my Lumin X1 and it made an immediately noticeable positive difference across the board... then even better with break in. Power cords on dacs seem to have a real affect and there does not seem to be that much forum style talk about this fact. I have spoken with a few dealers who immediately agree with the concept, and I know that Garth from Audioquest has done some demos here and there to demonstrate this. Argue as you may, but I surely noticed the difference right away.
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Re: Battle Royale: AQ Hurricane vs Nordost Odin 2 powercords
I noticed Vodka is made in China; is Hurricane and Dragon made overseas as well?
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Re: Battle Royale: AQ Hurricane vs Nordost Odin 2 powercords
The box says Engineered and Perfect Surface Metals made in the US. Cable manufactured in China.
So it sounds as if they shipped a raw wire (or even raw copper/silver pellets) to China to make the cable. That would not be a surprise, as chineese nowadays have the most advanced cable manufacturing plants in the world.
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Re: Battle Royale: AQ Hurricane vs Nordost Odin 2 powercords
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Mike
Thanks Adam. Try the Dragon and it will leap frog the Nordost.
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Hello Mike,
iI asked a AQ Dragon vs Odin 2 question in other thread, but came upon your post. Wondering if you could share more details?
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Re: Battle Royale: AQ Hurricane vs Nordost Odin 2 powercords
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Alectiong
Hello Mike,
iI asked a AQ Dragon vs Odin 2 question in other thread, but came upon your post. Wondering if you could share more details?
Not really. We haven’t had an Odin2 in the store to compare. I’m sure they are both great and it comes down to synergy.
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Re: Battle Royale: AQ Hurricane vs Nordost Odin 2 powercords
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Mike
That’s a stretch. He said he preferred the AZ to the Odín and AQ on the DAC. I’m not surprised as the Pacific is forward sounding and I myself prefer Shunyata Sigma NR with it.
The Dragon I’m certain would be a whole new level.
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You prefer the Shunyata Sigma NR over the Dragon on Pacific?
What do you prefer on Extreme?
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Re: Battle Royale: AQ Hurricane vs Nordost Odin 2 powercords
Quote:
Originally Posted by
fathead
You prefer the Shunyata Sigma NR over the Dragon on Pacific?
What do you prefer on Extreme?
Upon Emile’s insistence, I use the Dragon HC. He was adamant that the Dragon HC (not source) was his favorite PC for the Extreme.
I don’t have anything Lampizator anymore.
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Re: Battle Royale: AQ Hurricane vs Nordost Odin 2 powercords
I also love the Dragon HC.
One HC is powering my AQ Niagara 5000 power conditioner.
The other HC is powering my EMM Labs DV2.
Couldn't be happier!
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Re: Battle Royale: AQ Hurricane vs Nordost Odin 2 powercords
When is audioquest going to retool their power cord line?
Wondering if anything new coming out soon? :dunno::dunno:
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Re: Battle Royale: AQ Hurricane vs Nordost Odin 2 powercords
Quote:
Originally Posted by
HumbleHiFi
When is audioquest going to retool their power cord line?
Wondering if anything new coming out soon? :dunno::dunno:
No plans. IC’s are next.
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