It should be noted that Chichiuno is a Nordost dealer, so he may obviously be biased in favor of the Nordost line. With that being said, I am a big believer in the Nordost line, and I have no financial interest in Nordost whatsoever. I have been using many of their products over the years. I started with Red Dawn interconnect and speaker cables, then a Quattro-fil/SPM set-up. I have finally reached the ultimate with all Valhalla interconnects and speaker cables. Now, there may be better cables such as Purist Dominus, Kharma, or Siltech G-5, but these make Valhalla look rather inexpensive by comparison, and most people will never get to audition these others, let alone be able to afford them. I can truthfully say that the revelation of Valhalla is beyond belief! This can also have a negative effect as well...if there are deficiencies in your system, these will be made painfully evident to you! Have some grit and digital artifacts from your CD player, oh yeah, you'll be aware of it! Grainy and bright Russian tubes, same deal. Sloppy and uncontrolled bass from your low powered SET tube amp...it will be "in your face". I'm sure that these are the cause of the two most common complaints that I've heard about Valhalla; brightness and lack of bass. Sorry folks, if you want (or need) cables that act as equalizers or sound shapers, then Valhallas are NOT for you! If you want incredible micro-dynamics and pinpoint spacial location with an immensely large sound stage, then Valhalla is yout ticket. The Nordost line in general has very quick transience, so if you have a system that is on the bright side, then Nordost may not work well with your set-up. Natalie, are you really serious about calling Nordost cables over-hyped and overpriced when compared to your Audioquest Opal?!! The marketing and markup of Nordost pale in comparison to Audioquest. Audioquest is footballed to so many dealers, mail-order houses, and car stereo installers, that the competition for retail pricing (discounts) is cut throat. Quality items are usually not marketed in such a fashion. Nordost vs Audioquest marketing; it's like comparing Rolex and Seiko watches! And there a dirty little secret that I noticed when A/B'ing Audioquest Diamond X3 against Red Dawn interconnects. At first, the Diamond had more snap than the Red Dawn. I finally realized the reason after much comparison...the Diamonds have a slight presence bump (2-3 kHz region) that the Red Dawn did not have. This is the equivalent to dumping an extra bit of sugar in your food!!! Pleasant, but not natural! Again, it goes back to my equalization sstaement.
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- 37 posts total
- 37 posts total