Anyone heard nordost baldur speaker cables??

Bobrock,

The Baldur is a more balanced cable than the Red Dawn, but not as fast and transparent. The more lean of the two is the Red Dawn. For some reason, these two cables didn't match well with one another. At least, this was what I experienced when I had the Baldur ICs with the Red Dawn ICs in my system.

Things took a dramatic turn for the good when I changed the IC at the source with Stereovox BAL-600 interconnects. So I was using the BAL-600 at the source, the Baldur from preamp to amp and the Red Dawn speaker cable. This strange mix surprisingly produced a much more transparent and balanced sound than using all Baldur ICs with the Red Dawn SCs.

Two independent dealers highly recommended the Baldur to me. They both said that it is the best value for the money in the Norse series. They pointed out that their specs are closer to the Tyr specs than any other cable in the Norse series.

I never had a chance to compare the Baldur and the Tyr side by side, but I've listened to systems using all Baldur cables and all Tyr cables. I don't remember the Baldur being veiled, but I don't think it is as transparent as the Tyr or the Red Dawn.

I can't say how my system sounds with all Baldur cables since I decided to go for the Stereovox Reference series for my entire system. I still keep some Baldur ICs and the Red Dawn SC as a backup though, even though I'm not using them.

I personally don't think that the Baldur is a better cable than the Red Dawn. If your system can reproduce the lowest octaves, I would suggest to go for the Red Dawns. This is assuming that your system is not lean, in which case you can perhaps look into the Baldur.

I did quite a bit of research and spoke with a few dealers about Nordost Cables. Initially I was going to get entry level cables, but ended up moving up the line in the used market. Currently I use Quattro Fil XLR's and Red Dawn rev II speaker cables.

Reading from the specs, the Baldur just doesn't seem like it's much of an improvement over the Red Dawns and most folks I talked to agreed. I think if you are in the Norse line, the Heimdall would be the ones to get. They are the first in the nordost line to use micromonofilament technology and are not very expensive like valhallas.

In my system, the RD's do not sound lean at all. I would suggest you try the RD's and if you don't like them, move up to Heimdalls, instead of Baldur's.

I've heard the Baldur speakercables and XLR interconnects, on some C.E.C. equipments and Dynaudio 52SE speakers. And it sounded very good. It was very dynamic to me, but I have never compared them to Red Dawn.
My dad have the Red Dawn, and I have to say that it's an amazing cable. Details and clarity, but it's also a very fast cable. It could maybe be a bit too cold to some. Try listen to it.

I just auditioned both Red dawn and Baldur speaker and the Baldur is definitely smoother. Red Dawn was to aggressive, lacked finesse. Bass on Baldur was good too. For long-term listening it's a superior cable.

The Nordost Baldur speaker cable are an exceptional cable with  immense amounts of detail, clarity, dynamic range bravado. Every detail between recording tracks of a piece of music will stand out to the full. These cable will allow your system to bring out enormous detail, you will be able to notice recording imperfections. There is outstanding bass signal, and high frequency signal transfer, midrange does stand out quite well with the Baldur. obviously the larger the cable the better the bass and softer the high becomes. The most important thing to remember is the is an appropriate cable gauge size for power. silver is far more efficient than copper by its self. some electrical standards for regular copper stranded 10 amps at 120 volts is or 1200 watts or typical 18 guage wire load max; 15 amps at 120 volts is 1800 watts or a 14 guage wire load; 12 guage is 20 amp or 2400 watts or 10 guage is 30 amp or 3600 watts. Essentially 10 guage wire could drive a 3600 watt speaker before needing to ever worry about over load. bigger is not always better. why well some basic math the square root of watts multiplied by the square roots of ohms tells you the accurate average sustained volts any amplifier outputs to speakers. so for example 200 watts at 8 ohms 40 average volts to your speakers, 200 watt 6 ohm about 35 volt, 200 at 4 is 28 not quite 29 volts. voltage rate and current amplifier rates can very based on max volume peaking volts but not standard volume operations. another tip of ohms law and psychics more volts equals lower current, more current is lower volts. keep in mind amplifier damping factors are diminished by having over sized cables or conduits, and your signal and detail especially at lower volumes will be lost or  absorbed by a huge cable, especially if one is just running 100, 200, 3 or maybe even 400 watts per channel. Silver is twice as efficient as coppers conductivity very important, less is more so with the Baldur speaker cables being 12, 26 guage conductors each leg or lead, is 16 guage of silver. 24 conductors total per cable. 16 guage silver is at least 2000 watts potential of speaker driving before worry, remember 14 guage copper is only 1800 watts. you also impair perspective proper timbre of the sound harboring more bass or low frequency via too large of cables.