Product Review -
Nordost Flatline SPM Reference - November, 1996
By John E. Johnson, Jr.
Nordost Flatline SPM Reference; Interconnects and speaker cables; Interconnects: Eight 24 gauge conductors per leg (16 per interconnect); Copper with silver coating; Teflon dielectric; Terminated with RCA plugs; $1,100 per meter pair; Speaker cables: Configured for bi-wiring; Four sets of eight 24 gauge conductors; Copper with silver coating; Teflon dielectric; Terminated with banana plugs or spade lugs; $3,200 per 8 foot pair; Nordost Corporation, 420 Franklin Street, Framingham, Massachusetts 01701; Phone 508-879-1242; Fax 508-879-8197; E-Mail [email protected].
When I first encountered Nordost Flatline
cables several years ago, their only product was Flatline, which
has four conductors per leg (eight total per cable) and now sells
for $3.49/foot. With a Teflon dielectric, this cable is a
landmark design and sounds great. Nordost quickly increased their
product line to have numerous models, including Blue Angel, Blue
Heaven, and Red Dawn [click here to see review in Secrets].
Now comes SPM Reference, Nordost's finest cable to date. At first, I thought SPM was
outrageously expensive, but after looking at the prices of other
high-end cables in one of the component guide issues of another
magazine, I discovered that SPM is in the middle of the price
range! As you can see from the photo, SPM is flat, like most of
Nordost cables, being about 2 mm thick. With the interconnects,
there are eight 24 gauge conductors in each leg (total is
equivalent to 15 gauge in each leg). Each conductor is coated
with 60 microns of silver (by extrusion, not electroplating) and
is insulated from other conductors by Teflon. Each conductor is
spaced 0.050 mils (edge to edge) apart. The same is the case for
the speaker cables, except that they are configured for bi-wiring
or bi-amping. Having
conductors side-by-side instead of twisted together or arranged
in a helix, produces low capacitance (6 pF/foot) and inductance
(0.07 µH/foot) values in the Nordost. The resistive impedance (1
Ohm/1000 feet) is low, but just about any audio cable has a low
DC resistance. It is the reactive impedance values (capacitance
and inductance) which vary quite a bit between different brands
of cables, and which, when high in value, can affect the sound
significantly. Since the Nordost line has the conductors
side-by-side, the profile of individual conductors facing each
other is small, and the outside conductors are far apart. Thus
the low reactive impedance values.
SPM has a slight violet cast to the Teflon, but the silver/copper
conductors are obvious. The 60 micron coating of silver is put
onto the copper during the extrusion process (sort of like using
a pasta machine), rather than an electrochemical plating. The
Teflon is part of the extrusion process, and the result is not
only an airtight seal between the Teflon and the conductors, but
the atomic structure of the interface between the silver and
copper is different than it would be with electrochemical
plating. Because of extrusion, the copper and silver form, more
or less, two continuous crystals of copper and silver metal along
the length of the conductor. When the finished cables are flexed
or bent at a sharp angle, these crystals will be disrupted, and
"grain boundaries" or "faults" result. The
attached figure, courtesy of Dr. William Krakow, Peekskill, New
York, shows the grain boundary
between gold crystals at ultra-high resolution (magnification
about 1 million depending on the configuration of your computer
monitor). You can see that the gold crystals have a very precise
lattice of gold atoms (spacing between atoms is 2.3 Angstroms),
but that the grain boundaries represent a disruption in the
otherwise continuous lattice that would have been present if
there were not any grain boundaries. Such boundaries could be
considered to be similar to having multiple conductors laying
side-by-side and touching one another. The trend in high
resolution audio cables these days is to have individual
conductors insulated from one another. Thus, cables like these,
where so much effort has been put into making them single
crystals, should be very carefully handled . . . not bent at
sharp angles, not creased, and not stepped on.
When we put the SPM into our reference
system, we noticed an improvement in the amount of musical detail
that comes through. Triangles, for example, are always recorded
at a very low level, because they can be piercing and
overwhelming otherwise. Unfortunately, the detail of this
instrument can be lost through jitter or mediocre cables. Even
with the amplifier set at low volume, the tinkle of this
instrument was right there. Detail seems to emerge from a
nebulous background. The bass, mids, and highs were not
emphasized compared to our Red Dawn, but there was definitely an
increase in the clarity.
We could even hear the little metal rod used by the percussionist
to strike the triangle. The pluck of violin strings, the tap of
castanets, the click of trumpet keys, all moved into the
listening room. It was almost the same effect as adding a good
outboard DAC to a CD player or putting a jitter reducing
component in the signal chain. I should say that these cables are
not intended for any but the very finest electronics and
speakers. The SPM made our Anthony Moore Ribbon speakers and
Osborn Eclipse's just sing like a meadow lark. The failings of a
few of our CDs were also apparent, and we are discarding them. I
can't wait for the new 24 bit 96 kHz CDs to become a reality.
Remember when CDs first came out, and we all (well, many of us
anyway) thought that audio nirvana was here? Now, they have some
catching up to do.
Five thousand bucks is a lot for about 40 feet of wire. Why so
much? Apparently, the extrusion process is extremely difficult,
and there is a lot of waste. The materials cannot be recycled or
repaired. They have to be just thrown out. It is not like testing
an amp off the assembly line. If a capacitor is bad, it is
replaced, the unit retested, and if all is OK, it is shipped.
With the Nordost process, if there is a break in the silver
coating, if the conductors are not spaced exactly to
specifications, if there are any kinks, the entire cable has to
be discarded. This, plus research costs that went into developing
the proprietary methodology, makes the cables expensive to
manufacture. Add the profit margins for the manufacturer and
dealer, and there you have it . . . high cost to us (basically
about 4 times the cost of manufacturing).
These cables are as beautiful to look at as they are to listen
to. They come in a special wooden box with a laser engraved logo. My wife took the box, covered the logo with a
piece of painted ceramic, and voila . . . a jewelry box for her
dresser. So, the SPMs are like a fine meal. The presentation is
part of the pleasure.
All of the Nordost cables use the same banana plug now. It is a
single slotted tube of gold-plated copper that is tapered so that
it fits tighter the more you push it into the jack. It is very
nice, and we plan to replace all of the banana plugs on our
Nordost reference cables with this new plug. The RCA jacks on the
SPM are similar to those on the Red Dawn, with an outer sleeve
that retracts as the plug is inserted into the jack.
In summary, I am amazed at how cables are
getting better and better, although at a hefty price. The SPMs
are already very hot items in parts of Europe and the Pacific
Rim, with glowing reviews coming shortly from several (other)
audio magazines. Whether cables of this price level will be just
as hot here in the States remains to be seen.
John E. Johnson, Jr.
Editor
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Secrets of Home Theater & High Fidelity
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