Now look at Blue Heaven: instead of five or six cable types, it offers 11! To go with the single-ended and balanced interconnects, speaker cable and power cords, there’s Ethernet, USB, HDMI and 75Ω S/PDIF digital cables, a Tonearm lead a dedicated Subwoofer cable and a Headphone lead. Blue Heaven really does cover all the bases, allowing end-users to cable even the most complex, multi-source audio/AV systems with a single cable range.
But Leif extends that consistency, vertically as well as horizontally, by using exactly the same conductor and insulation materials, construction and terminations, Nordost has created a true cable family, in which it is possible to seamlessly mix and match cables from the different ranges, prioritising source and spend according to system priorities, without disturbing the coherence of the overall musical performance. What does that mean in practice? Take a listener whose main interest lies in streamed music and optical disc replay, who wants to stream concert video or DVD through the TV. And still, occasionally, wants to play their records. Using the Leif family, it is possible to run Blue Heaven digital cabling between their network or optical drive and DAC, with Red Dawn interconnects, speaker cables and power cords on the components in that replay chain. They might choose to run a White Lightning Tonearm lead and power cord on the turntable, with Blue Heaven HDMI and analog interconnects handling the AV side of the system. Maximising and prioritising performance, all without disturbing the coherence and continuity of the cable loom. There are a few other companies who have followed Nordost’s lead, but few have done so as comprehensively or diligently.
Nordost have always practiced, indeed they built the company on, comparative demonstration of their products, especially at shows and dealer events. They offer the public the chance to hear the performance steps as you rise up their product range. To do that, you’ve got to be confident in the audible and musical advantages of each step on that qualitative ladder and yes, there are clearly audible differences, a worthwhile step up in performance, between the four ranges in the Leif family. But if so much in these cables is the same, what accounts for those differences?
The entire Leif Family employs the same silver-plated, OFC, solid-core conductors. Cable topology is consistent with function, insulation materials (and the absence of fillers) is a constant across the ranges. Low-mass, minimalist connectors are the order of the day. But what does change is the size, in some cases the number and in each case, the precise disposition of the conductors. Essentially, as you step up the line, you get more, bigger conductors, with the geometry of each cable (the arrangement and spacing of the conductors) mechanically tuned to maximise performance. The mechanical properties of different cable constructions and their impact on sonic and musical qualities is often overlooked, but in this case, is another, important point of consistency across the Nordost cable families.
Test bed…
Stretching the Blue Heaven’s functionality and capabilities has demanded more than just a single system. Electronics have revolved around the TEAD Groove SRM, Vibe and Linear B mono-blocs, the Levinson 585 and the Heed Lagrange. Speakers have been the Vienna Acoustics Haydn Signature, Peak Consult Sinfonia and Living Voice OBX-RW4. Source components have included the VPI Avenger, with Origin Live Enterprise tonearm and Thales Voro cartridge, the CH Precision D1.5 CD/SACD player (both as a standalone unit and together with the C1.2 and T1 clock, in order to extend the loom and test the digital cables). A lot of the listening was to do with familiarity and getting a handle on the nature and character of the cables. But for the detailed listening (both to the loom as a whole and, later in comparison to mix and match solutions) I used the TEAD/OBX pairing, fed from the Turntable and single-box CD player. It’s a proven combination that’s capable of punching well above its cost and weight – but one that’s also unforgiving and revealing of mishandling or any liberties taken within the system or its setting up.
