NORDOST SORT KONE - REVIEW
The Inexpensive Tweak That Was Actually An Expensive, Portable Isolation Shelf!
There was a time when all manner of “tweaks” were thought to be the modern version of a “snake oil” cure all. Time would, of course, separate the wheat from the chaff. Though often there was less chaff than you might have imagined. Less chaff in the sense that all manner of “tweaks,” from novel cables and wires to various isolation devices to bottled liquids (professing clarity or transparency, etc.) to mats and clamps, would often bring something to the table which would, well, actually improve the sound of one’s music. While the actual “science” in many cases lay beyond a layperson’s understanding, they still worked.
So definitive were the claims of a bottled liquid CD cleaning tweak for instance, that a teenage girl in a blind test, not knowing which CD had been treated and which had not, clearly and consistently identified the tweaked CD.
Isolation devices, however, come in a great many forms, material compositions, and with specific purposes. In my experience, some have worked well, some very well, and some not at all, or not that I was able to discern. Those that did not appear to work at all were summarily returned and mental notes were taken to stay away from said vendor of said “snake oil” isolation device. Then there were the other isolation devices that reported good to very good to exceptional performance and completely disabused the snake oil moniker.
This brings us to the current review of the Nordost AC SORT KONE. Nordost, the developers of the SORT KONE, would actually be loathe to call their SORT KONE an isolation device, as they believe it to be much more than that. While many if not most isolation device manufacturers stake their claims or their reason for existence on the taming of external vibrations, Nordost goes a step further.
Nordost posits that, “yes, there are external vibrations to deal with and for those using all manner of makeshift ‘equipment stands’—nightstands, wicker tables, suitcases, speakers(!), sloping table tops, etc.—this is especially true.” However, and I paraphrase, “Do you have any idea how noisy it can get inside a component which is a lot closer to the actual signal than any external vibration? And heaven forbid that there are moving parts inside.” The various Nordost SORT KONES are thus developed to handle these internal vibrations and drain away the noise entirely from any given product. And this, in truth, appears to represent a more conscious, wholistic, outside-inside approach.
The results of this dual-purpose approach have done something that in my experience has yet to be matched, and that stands ready to usher in an entirely new subcategory of audio componentry altogether. What is that you ask?
REFRAIN: Unlike most reviews, this review will be non-sequential, as it will start with how the equipment actually sounds and not the process of physically “undressing” it and/or laying out its various accoutrement, specifications, etc. Think of this review then, as a non-linear movie—Memento, Kill Bill, Pulp Fiction, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Queen’s Gambit, In the Shadow of the Moon, etc—that, likewise, starts at the end and winds its way to the beginning.
The Sound
Perhaps the better title for this section is the “Freed Sound,” as SORT KONES have no sound of their own, but work with various components from streamers, to DACs, to preamps and integrated, to amps, to power conditioners to allow them to perform and deliver the music at their highest potential, free from the challenges of the environment and ALL noise.
Nordost describes the resulting sound from the implementation of its SORT KONES in the following manner:
“Sort Kones provide a “blacker” background to your music. With it comes greater focus, instrumental color, depth, transparency and dynamic range. Your system will sound more natural and more lifelike, your music more lively and engaging, the musicians like better musicians – simply because you’ll finally be able to hear the notes they’re playing, the way they play them and precisely when.”
Suffice to say that this was true without question, without meticulous investigation, without much, if any, back and forth comparison, as the results were ever and always easily perceptible. Easily perceptible across various components and, collectively, across the various systems where the SORT KONES were in full implementation.
An analogous way of looking at SORT KONES would be to see a TV screen with a fuzzy image or, at the very least, the outlines of the images themselves would be fuzzy, but once the SORT KONES were applied, the image resolution would snap together clearly and the fuzziness would be gone. Banished!
Other benefits noticed as I used the SORT KONES, across a number of systems, were the fleshing out of texture, the freeing of microdynamic and ambient cues, which together solidified positioning and layering. Overall the music became move involving, enjoyable, and would often trigger chair-dancing.
I can wholeheartedly guarantee that if one’s hearing is intact it will be quite easy to get the differences with and without the Nordost AC SORT KONES, whether under a single component or across an entire system. In this respect they are impossible to remove. I would postulate, as I do not currently have a TOTL equipment rack, that even in the case of employing the SORT KONE in conjunction with such a rack, the results would again be easily discernible, and there would be an increased sense of spaciousness!
The Wrappings and Accessories
The Nordost AC SORT KONES come in a small white square container with pictures of the SORT KONE on all four sides, and a description of the particular SORT KONE on its top.
The design is simple and clean, and this description effectively communicates the exact contents of all SORT KONE iteration—AC, BC (Bronze), TC (Titanium).
Design—Look and Feel and Fit
The Nordost AC SORT KONE is a small, black, 56mm in height cone that is topped with a rounded aluminum tip, a black plastic body, and finished with an aluminum base as the Kone’s support structure.
Internally, the aluminum tip is but the exposed part of an aluminum post which rests upon a ceramic ball, that itself sits in a semi-spherical indentation on an aluminum base and thereby couples the two.
Functionally, both the base and the post channel vibration and internal ground resonate, respectively, via the ceramic ball …..
As Nordost reports, the Sort Kones represent a:
“Three-part construction,” which “employs superior materials in a mechanically tuned configuration, that bypasses the feet of a given component, to provide for a direct mechanical ground for internal energy.”
And I’ve written above, the SORT KONES are dual-purpose vibration eliminators, that take an inside/outside approach to dealing with those vile vibration gremlins, who rob the music of both truth and beauty. As also mentioned, they, by their very nature, can aptly be called ‘portable equipment racks in a box’, that may well give the very expensive wooden or aluminum or steel racks more than a good race for the money. And that is a new category—high-end, monstrously effective, portable equipment racks that travel with you across the wide world (and for a fraction of the cost of the stationary, expensive, heavy, full-blown variety)!
The various Sort Kones can be utilized beneath a component in a triangular configuration of three (3) Kones, a rectangular configuration of four (4) Kones, or more to further reduce unwanted resonance and to supplement mechanical grounding.
Conclusion
The SORT KONES represent a potent, two-in-one upgrade that, relative to its three-piece-pricing ($267), is rather astounding when one compares them to the TOTL racks which cost thousands of dollars and are premised on the same or lesser functional implementations!
First, you get an exceptional, highly portable, component rack at a fraction of the cost of traditional, full-fledged, quite big component racks. Secondly, you get, based upon what the AC SORT KONES provide, a literal upgrade to your equipment, or each piece of equipment that rests upon at least a triplet of SORT KONES. This, for most, will be easily and immediately discernible. It certainly was for me over the course of five minutes!
Now, if you’re using a high end component stand and employing the AC SORT KONES the difference may still well be easily and readily apparent. However, should you have kludged together component stands/racks from a motley collection of benches, chairs, side tables, the floor, you will find that the alchemy of the AC SORT KONES will transform those disparate pieces into a decidedly high-end component rack on the cheap. And this was both true and incredible time after time, as I experimented with all manner of possible component stands. In the end, the music was always served on a level that it had not been prior to the introduction of the AC SORT KONES. Easy.
The Nordost AC SORT KONES are far more than a tweak, and that to even consider them tweaks denies their stunning music-freeing abilities. We very highly recommend the Nordost SORT KONES as an amazing, stand-alone, portable rack system, that will allow one’s music to sing at a level above. We award the Nordost AC SORT KONES our High Nines Award for exceptional price to performance ratio, and for its astonishing alchemical transformation into a small, portable, high-end component rack, at a fraction of a fraction of a traditional component rack’s cost! The Nordost AC SORT KONES represent the first ‘tweak’ to have ever received one of our awards. Bravo!
I dare you to place a set of three SORT KONES under each component in your system and then try to take them away. Hint. Once you have heard the change, you’re going to need the help of Hercules or some troubled modern-day superhero to help you take them away.
The Company
Nordost
Nordost AC SORT KONE ($88.99/each)
info@nordost.com
nordost.com