Fantastic review. As a former exit counsellor getting people out of various cults, it's amazing to see so many similarities between audiophiles and cult members. Using logic, science and plenty of patience, I commend the work you are doing. The bad comments that you receive are just people using Ad Hominem as they have nothing of substance to answer you with. You're a credit to the industry. Thanks.

I find this cable greatly improves the resolution of the AUDIO IMAGE so I can see the boundaries of the SOUNDSTAGE down to the nanometer level. Without this cable, I can't tell where the SOUNDSTAGE boundary is and so I fall off the stage.

I'm so happy that you are here.

Thanks Amir, after watching most of your videos I have concluded that my experiences have been confirmed. Forget fancy cables, power regeneration and other snake oil treatments. DACs, speakers and rooms have the most to say about how music sounds as long as proper amplification is available and ground loops are eliminated. I greatly appreciate your efforts to provide solid educational reviews and electronics common sense.

These videos are a great service! Please keep them coming

More snake oil called out for what it is. The manufacturer should be ashamed of themselves. Thank you for what you do!

Thanks for such a THOROUGH testing!

You've more patience that me running these tests. I'd have probably used this cable to tie up the end of my garbage bags on bin night. Hopefully your tests will help someone save their money.

The philosophy of Nordost must be "There's a sucker born every minute."

Thanks again for putting the time into doing these reviews. You're doing the hi fi community a HUGE service. Anybody want to buy a cable?

Will this cable improve the print quality on my printer? :)

Excellent review! Thank you.

Another very informative, enjoyable and entertaining cable review Amir. Thank you. Already 12 pages of discussion on ASR in less than one day. Funny how some of these cables kind of look like snakes... 🐍

Thank you for taking the time to do scientific measurements on this! While I am happy to pay extra for high quality braided cables (my cat loves to eat rubber ones), this helps solidify that going above and beyond paying for construction quality makes no sense.

Спасибо Вам за честный тест. Куда катиться этот мир? УСБ провод за 1400$! -это катастрофа.

I just watched 20 minutes and 24 seconds of video, over I don't know how many devices, routers, disks, chips, and it all came out perfect. Nobody stuck a high end cable into the last meter to "improve" the experience.

how is it legal to make such claims about a product for sale when those claims are demonstrably false?

I need this to USB cable to plug into my Rechargeable Battery powered lawnmower so I can cut the lawn in half the time while limiting the engines DB’s for a cleaner power flow.. Does it come in 100 foot lengths then I can leave it plugged in so I can mow more than a 3 foot wide swath at a time?

"None of us listen to a USB cable" - I think this very simple sentence needs to be shouted at several people

Man, Im so glad I came to the light before decending into this level of audiophool madness

Much appreciated bro! Those ultrasonic tidbits really hit the spot :) Part of me wonders what ultrasonic transmutations occur further down the chain, maybe some intermodulation that occurs in a speaker’s crossover or reflective interference from minute impedance mismatches, or like you mentioned the tweeter’s resonant frequency which is also often pushed out into the ultrasonic (31khz) for a pair of older aluminum tweeter kefs I have. It feels rather intuitive to me that the tweeter would loose fidelity if it was in motion outside the audible band, if even just disturbing the stability of an otherwise calm magnetic flux. These are just loose hypothesis, but I’m pretty sure you’d still bounce on a vibrating trampoline, which feels like a fitting analogy for two logarithmically distant frequencies. But if the springs became warm from constant vibrating, it may be less dynamic of a bounce. Likewise the thin copper windings of tweeters may be susceptible to loosing some of their zip when there’s needless energy causing more heat and resistance for the frequencies we want to reproduce, as I do believe thin copper has a positive temperature coefficient of resistance. There’s also something to be said about starting motion from a place of rest, the difference of throwing something and striking something. Like when objects are in contact with each other they can transfer energy more efficiently than if they were bumping around. Perhaps this principle has some merit in the voice-coil/magnet relationship. I’ve seen some drivers have flux stabilizing rings built into them. And I wonder if ultrasonic noise may be stirring the waters of the pond, to the point that Fuji-San doesn’t reflect on it’s glassy surface. I suppose an analogy of water ripples and light would be more like subsonic interference. Which by the way, I also appreciated you expanding your scale into the subsonic, and doing the 60hz transformer test :D

Eye opener. Thank you.

Tyr ("teer") is the god of justice/war in Norse mythology. It's the root of Tuesday. It's not the most well documented deity. Some sources says he is Odin's son, while others implies they were brothers.

Great to get an engineering perspective on USB cable performance. One again claims by the audio industry for sonic improvements for expensive USB cables are shot to pieces. I really appreciate the time you put into these videos to remove the smoke and mirrors used to flog over priced USB cables.

Thank you for your reviews from an objetive and empiric perspective, are invaluable for all the people that we love the music, all the other things are marketing, simply smoke curtains and snake oil. I subscribe totally your point of view, take this money and buy music to enjoy with it. Thank you

You were gone from youtube for so long I was afraid that you gave up... So happy to see you back!

thanks for this review !

Products like this are a great help in sorting out who has too much money

I have a request. Please do a measurement of noise in speaker cables when they are laying on the ground vs placed on an audio cable riser!?

I bought my USB cable in my supermarket, a nice supple cable with a braided outside. Even sturdy connectors! Price: 8 euros for 2 meter :) Any advice on a DAC for a hifiset (not headphones) with multiple inputs? Preferably 3x optical (tv, cd, streamer). Budget probably somewhere between 1k and 2k. I preparation of my trusty Marantz AV 8003 preamp, which is getting old. Still sounds amazing though!

Apart from basic audio tests, the only way to properly test USB cables (and HDMI, etc.) Is with a cable tester that measures impedances, signal reflections, signal dispersion in the time domain (with eye diagrams), screen connectivity, and so on. Provided that those criteria are satisfactory, a $5 cable will sound the same as a $1000 cable. If it sounds different then it is the USB DAC that is having problems where it should not if it is correctly designed.

The DX3 pro plus is a very resolving DAC. What measurements do you use to show that one DAC has a higher resolution than another DAC? Also what measurements do you use to show one set of headphones is more resolving than another set? Are there objective measurements for soundstage and imaging?

I hope the member offering that cable for review got it on a discount big enough to count on one hand.

Oh... I was enjoying your reviews. Didn't know we believed in cable magic here.

Does anyone know if Amir has tested the USB connection to a DAC vs I2S? This is something reviews always comment on as well as the manufacturer saying the I2S always sounds better. I2S is not common and therefore some people would then buy a DDC to convert which is added cost. I’d love to see something on this if it exists or perhaps in the future.

Amir, the mythbuster of audio equipment!! Thanks for what you're doing!

Well to be honest I have bought slightly expensive cables occasionally nothing more than $100 and all I have for that money are well-built cables that look good and I am happy with. That should be enough. Great video

Good review. Never be afraid to tell the truth. Subscribed.

Do you think there was any slight variations in the volume of the cables even small?

Got one question. If digital signal cable makes no difference in transferring digital data, then should there be any difference in different CD player(SPDIF out)? Or like, different digital devices transferring the same data via different usb out put system？（ie. notebook direct usb out vs roon nucleus with a good usb bridge out)

I nominate you for 'Debunker Of The Year'. There's not even a plack yet but the honor is real.

Can't wait for the wiim mini review. Can you run the tidal test tones you were going to do through the chromecast audio.

I was wandering will that cable make my old black laser printer print in colour?

I saw 20k USD cable. This amount of money can feed a village in third world country for a long time. Everyone decides how to spend their money, but the ethics of companies like ps audio, dragon quest, etc. are very very questionable. Old audiophiles like to claim that there is "something" that measurements can't catch it is like saying "can you measure how music sounds on MDMA". You are the nicest and most articulate person in this hobby, yet I've seen all kinds of shady people attack your credibility and saying inaccurate stuff about ASR. It is sad and funny at the same time.

Well done Amir! Nordost are amongst the best snake oil vendors along Russ Andrews in the UK 😛

The more i watch u the more i like you. I really like paul from ps audio so obviously i had a problem with you. Paul is like the mr rogers of home audio so its tough to not be on his side but unfortunately for paul i realize that i agree with you. No matter how nice you are money and profit still rules the world. Also you gave good reviews of equipment that i own. That wins anyone over. Anyway, keep up the honest work

smsl m200 does the same thing regarding the power and USB filtering isn't it, I mean it's not only the Modi?

Hello, would you consider putting the rating section at the end of your reviews? It spoiled the review for me knowing how it will perform before even reading the review.

I commend you for even running all these tests. I assume that people who are willing to spend $1000 on a USB cable will not be swayed whereas most people probably expected the results you showed (because afterall there are people who understand that there is a difference between analog and digital signal transmission =)). I really appreciated your comment that there’s nothing wrong with someone who thinks they can hear a difference when there isn’t one there, and that you’re susceptible to that as well. You put that very humbly. :) So cheers to you and I hope you’re having a great day!

Well done as usual.

So I just started addressing room acoustics and cables...usb, rca, xlr, power, hifi wall outlet w dedicated run. I've watched so many videos and I am always open minded but try my best not to fall for gimmicks. I really appreciate this video, and certainly don't want to assume anything with hifi. This video pertains to USB, which is digital, where does that leave analog cables and power cords? Seems like there are so many brands as well as many variations of how they are made, much more than usb. One thing we know about XLR and RCA is there is a difference in sound between copper and silver, i guess I'm wondering do the differences stop there? Any help and advice is appreciated. There is so many opinions but I must say this video has left a greater impression on me and I feel most other reviewers are either benefiting financially in some ways or perhaps bias and its hard to know who to trust. Thanks in advance.

Very kind of the person to loan the cable for testing. I have some Ocean-Front Property in Vegas they may be interested in too. Just kidding. Hey, if they can hear the difference and it brings them enjoyment, who am I to criticize?? BTW< I have the Topping DX3 Pro+ and I love it. I wonder if the USB connection in the DAC (ANY DAC for that matter) can take advantage of the stellar performance of the high-end cable??

Have you reviewed headphone cable? Some people think they can hear a difference between various types and purity of copper of course silver cables sounds much brighter than copper.

After electrical engineering school back east, I knew audiophile snake oil when I saw it. However, I was fascinated, and got some $1000 speaker wires for $300, and had the mystery wonderment experience for a while. Changed them out, etc., and yes, it faded, so I sold them. My snake oil friends however just told me I didn't give them enough, 'break-in'. Hahahaha. Rescuing device, on cue, well rehearsed. Oh well. The brainwashing runs deep. Fun while it lasts I guess, but at what ridiculous price! Oh--the grandaddy of 'em all--from my Navy Chief sonar pal. "We can hear things that aren't measurable..." Presumably things that $20000 DACs can elucidate...Thanks again Amir.

I also couldn't hear the difference but did you try to record with usb cables and then to compare in DAW? This is how i heard the difference.

Amir: there's a hair's difference here, just run-to-run variations Audiophiles: I can hear that

How do you measure soundstage? How do you measure tonality? Frequency range, dynamic range? How do you measure timbre? How do you measure speed, rise rate and decay rates?

The good news is that the Nordost is performing almost as well as the Amzon Basic!!! LOL!! Great review and test especially acknowledging the fact how influenced we get when plugin in new gear!!!

I appreciate your work here. I'd of been shocked if there was any difference. Right off the bat any improvements claimed are dubious at best. It's USB, simple. This is basically an attempt at gouging a gullible customer.

To test any USB cable for "audio quality claims" you'd just have to transfer a file from one device to another and compare the two files. If they are the same after the transfer then there is no difference. I guess one could also test power drop at max load ratings for longer cables if power transfer to a device is required. Not sure why a listening test is needed (especially done by one person) even for audio use but there isn't any "science" added by doing that. Nice to debunk the claims though, hard to believe they could even sell one of those cables these days.

Does that cable adhere to the 90ohm impedance? I know a lot of these boutique cables do not.

Thanks for your videos. Like your methods to testing. I think after watching a few of your videos you are clearly rigorous. I agree with using your tools to find sometimes cheap vs expensive is minimal if any difference. What about other factors? Longevity, reliability etc? Build quality not only on function. Other factors. Maybe this cable lasts longer or maintains better connections internally. Functional equivalency is expected (mostly). But there are more factors? Right? I suppose debunking the more expensive components claims is your thing…and we appreciate it. But dissection of the products at a build Level may be good too. I go to the hardware store and see millions of screws. Which one is not going to strip? Well…what you find is that not all products are equal even though equivalent in function. Are you going to do some vintage gear? Be neat to see you do some comparison of older products to show whether they shield better? I have some cables from the 80s and those are fine for me. Quantifying these things is great. But being an engineer myself sometimes our tools don’t precipitate the differences. It’s all in the testing regiment. Normally you get what you pay for. If anything is too expensive or too cheap you may want to understand why.

Just watched a counterpoint video from Paul at ps audio who said he could walk into the room and tell if the USB cable had been changed. I think that sounds like a good place to start for an actual test. Too bad he would never be crazy enough to try one. I guess he has to feed his family too.

Another relaxing ride though manufacturing claims via instrumentation and clear speech. Thank you! Amir, I presume you have heard of Chesky Records? I just listened David Chesky talk to Steve Guttenberg about his new project, quote: "'The Audiophile Society'" is the brainchild of composer, pianist, and audio pioneer David Chesky. The new label will focus on bringing even more realistic three-dimensional recordings to market with their Meta-Dimensional Sound, The Audiophile Society’s name for their unique two-channel 3D audio that can play on all existing two-channel stereo, while showcasing emerging artists working in a multitude of genres. The ultimate goal of The Audiophile Society is to change the way you hear music." So it's a website of that name, with the stated goals in upcoming recorded products. Chesky goes into detail on the recent "Audiophiliac" channel show. Chesky sounds absolutely sincere, and will produce some very low exposure artists, so the motivations look authentically about trying to do good things. I hope you consider explaining for us some of the audio reproduction goals aimed for by T.A.S., what they mean, if they attained, etc. In a rare case of application of your skills, I'm hoping you find merit. In any case we all win listening to your evaluation including Mr. Chesky.

Great review - outstanding reality check. We are talking digital protocol right? 1's and 0's.

I have the video on pause ... let me go and make some popcorn, I have a feeling it's gonna be very captivating....🍿🥤

When i was learning digital audio production and film production is UNI we did test 4000€ nordost USB cable in our 3.000.000€ Gelenec studio (with top end genelec speakers that costed over 150.000€). Just for giggles, no difference at all. Not slightest.

Tyr was one of the Asa gods in the Norse mythology, just as mythical as this cable 😄

The cable junkies are going to criticize your use of a $200 DAC for listening test regardless of measurements.

At least nobody can argue against this. The biggest difference between cables is the price.

In old times producers mainly offered pro for pro people and ordinary gear with ordinary connections for ordinary . Ordinary people were so happy to enjoy sound that stories and shops were growing everywhere . . Since then they made massive step ahead and they offer science gear and science connections for ... scientists who are very happy to know how good is. But shops are closing.

This is my favorite late night show.

I had basic printer cables and i had annoying 10kHz noise, switching to proper $12 cable fixed it. But putting any more money in usb cable is insane.

More importantly, how does it improve printing? Are the colors more vibrant?

i have the first modi... never had a problem with the computer i was using before.. both are now retired. maybe ill bring it out. then if theres noise maybe ill get the expensive USB cable so i can get it working properly :D

Hahhahaahhahahahaaha Amir the Debunker hits hard once again.

This is reference audio reviews at its best..in 20+ years I'll be saying come here kids and check this out...

You are doing a great job Amir with the measurements. The problem is that in a high-end audio system everything matters. You can hear a clear difference between different USB cables in a modestly resolving system. No one knows why there is a difference and I think people just don't know how to measure it. Audio business is very small and no one has contributed resources to develop measurements that will quantify audio quality. I like your approach, but I think that people should judge by themselves if there is an audible difference and not be prevented from maxing out the performace of their systems. in my system I can tell 10 times out of 10 whether a stock USB cable is playing or a custom USB cable is playing. The difference is night and day. And I have a 100$ USB cable, not a crazy priced one. I can even tell 10 times out of 10 the difference between a stock USB cable and 30$ Belkin Gold USB. I don't understand how people can't hear that. I did a demo for my friend who is not an audiophile. He though that I am crazy. He also picked the 100$ USB cable over the stock one 10 times out of 10 and he did not know which cable was playing. Take away what you want from this rant, but cables do matter.

do we have proof of you sir doing measurement?

Just looked at the specification for this cable. It looks like the most expensive material used is silver foil for shielding. I was hoping for NASA-grade exotic stuff.. Then maybe it's handmade, and 1m of cable is made by one person in one month. In that case the price is right, I think..

When I use this cable for my bubblejet printer it becomes a laser printer. I'm saving up now, because I want to get an even higher end usb cable so it turns it into a *color* laser printer.

I think the manufacturers and people who buy these items need to give their heads a wobble, absolute madness.

I've tried a few audiophile usb cables and have never experienced any improvement. Same with big fancy power cables. Never really noticed a difference between just standard good quality cables vs audiophile cables.

Thanks for saving me money on cables. I can buy the Amazon one and have enough change to buy a good CD player. I doubt the $20,000 USB cable you mentioned would any different from the Amazon one.

Initially I thought of the same thing, of all cables USB should not make a difference, but I was wrong. I had Generic USB cable, upgraded Straightwire USB cable and it was definitely an improvement. And I thought it can’t get better than this then I upgraded to an Oyaide USB cable just for grins and giggles. I am still using the Oyaide usb cable extremely happy. I never measured these cables but definitely hear a difference between these cables. I am however amazed how some people don’t hear the difference when it’s abundantly clear at least to me

surprised they didnt sell seperate cables with the rx or tx removed so they can only work one way

Meanwhile on some fb groups people talk about how better is the floor noise,soundstage,etc since the got a linear power supply for their pc, a master clock for their audiophile network switch and usb cables. Fun fact I proved them that the audiophile switches they got was only a lynksys unmanaged switch inside. hehe

You could as well sell that Amazon Basics USB cable rebranded for US$2000 as a superior multi stranded flexible audiophile cable. It just need some other brand, packaging and marketing. The more you pay the more you imagine it sounds better...

👍👍

I use these in my time machine.

i don't get the point if testing a digital cable if there is a single bit changing it is detected and retransmitted because there is error correction built in the data transimission prtocol.

All the Nordost naming in the NORSE series cables, is from NORSE mythologi: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norse_mythology - And I belive all the cabels have their names from the gods and other beings in this universe. TYR, LOKE, FREY, ODIN. HEIMDAL is where they lived, and so on.

When it comes to USB cables, my concern is usually getting a good connectors to protect against rust, mainly to guarantee proper contact over time.

Is this cable "quantum" I bet somewhere on the description on these crap you have "nano" or "quantum"....

Why would you measure USB cable this way? If you want proof something measure at the speakers connectors, both channels same time. Or use two microphones in stereo and then analyse whole complex signal.

Hi Amir, nice debunking. I always enjoy your testing. However I would like your short comment on a long winded explanation. I have retired two years ago and moved into a small flat and assigned one room (3 x 4 m) as my listening room come study or just where I would work on my PC. This method of acoustic treatment may appeal to some of your followers experiencing the same circumstances I do. Firstly I got rid of over 120K worth of equipment, in fact I simply gave it away. I only kept my Rodgers LS3/5A which I bought in the early eighties. I then designed an extreme quality single ended class A amplifier capable of 12 watts per channel. Then I performed a complete polar response on a single loudspeaker on a calm day, placing the speaker on a 3-meter pole in the middle of a rugby field near where I lived. This is an urban field and has no grand stand or even seating. The closest reflective structure was the school building, some 300 m away. I performed a polar response for both azimuth and elevation by having the mic placed on the axis exactly between woofer and tweeter, one meter away. Then rotated the speaker through 360 degrees. I did it three times with me standing in different position just to ensure that I was not an obstacle that would impair my measurement. These plots ensured that I could calculate the SPL at any angle from the centre of the speakers. (In the end having a polar plot did not make much difference since I never bothered using it.) My next step was a simple room deadening exercise, which involved placing 10 cm thick fibre wool on all the walls and ceiling. The ceiling wool was secured using black 40% shade net and hanging from ceiling to floor heave thick woollen curtains, four drops on the short- and 5 drops on the log walls. There are many deep pleats. I installed a very thick pure wool wall-to-wall carpet and placed only my desk and chair with the PC/screen combo on it. I placed two desk lamps on either side of the screen and my two speakers on either side of the lamps. My chair is a very nice soft executive chair which I had covered with a custom-made sheepskin cover. The amplifier was mounted under the desk and has no controls and driven directly off the USB port through a Topping DAC off the PC. That is since I have decided to either stream or play my (WAV) music files directly from the semiconductor hard drive. Wiring from amp to speakers is about one meter and consists of 8 mm² PTFE cladded fine strand silver wire, for no particular reason, I had a roll of it, and it would not make a hoot of difference to the sound I can assure you. I also have the whole room in black. It has a very strange effect on you when you first step into it and see only black and could hear your heartbeat, nothing else. All the walls of the room are load bearing thus a double brick wall with a 50 mm spacing thus there is not much sound coming through the walls either, besides being a very quiet neighbourhood. The noise floor measured -101 dB SPL, 0 dB SPL referenced to one watt pink noise from a single speaker while the mic is placed in the centre of the room. Preparing the room was not hard work, but the curtaining being custom-made cost a little, but not extravagantly so. By now you certainly realized that I am a near field listener and having no reflections and only absorption is a good thing. Both the speakers are placed on two oval shaped sheep skin mats, however they are solidly anchored with spikes onto the desk which is 32 mm black speckled granite and is angled directly to my ears in my favourite listening position. The experience is quite extraorally, it sounds like an excellent pair of headphones without the headphones, sound from one speaker reaches the opposite ear at the time it should. Width, breadth and depth as well as instrument placement I would say is exactly what the mastering engineer intended. When only listening to music, I actually cover the PC screen, unless I watch a film of course. I have never before even in my treated rooms and fairly exceptional equipment experience music like I do now. It was a bit weird in the beginning to sit in an absolutely black room that has no sound in it whatsoever. Maybe there are followers of your programme that would like to try this. Near-field listening on very accurate small speakers driven with a class A amplifier is also quite an experience. Thank you for your program. I find everything you divulge both interesting and informative. Cheers, Nico

Superb review. It just makes me laugh when amirm starts these reviews just thinking about how this is gonna end up. Can't believe we are still debating how two different strands of metals can change the audio signal...

Last week i was able to identify between a generic USB cable and an audioQuest carbon USB cable in a blind A/B. Identified 9/10 correct 💪

The name Tyr translates to Bull from danish. Many of Nordosts products have names coming from northern mythology. Even the company name Nordost is North-East in danish. I dare You to pronounce it in danish though, Nord-Øst. Same as the microphone brand Røde. It´s the colour red in danish and pronounced way different than when people call it Rode

I would never spet $1000for a USB cable, so I bought an Amazon basics 6ft USB 3.0 cable to hook up my external HD (with music), after a bit of listening foobar stopped working, it would give me a file error. Changed the cable with higher quality cable and now everything works great. I guess the "science" part of the cable didn't help the "audio" data to go through...