Reviews of $10k plus ics, speaker wires, and pcs

Bo1972, I had the Nordost Valhalla about five years ago and thought it was pretty good. I even heard it agains the Odin and thought the Valhalla was better.
I don't recall what these speaker wires cost, but they are cheap to make.

Neither was in the league of the HFC Ultimate Reference either in sound or cost to make IMHO.

TB,

Are you saying those ICs are inherently better in all cases, or that they sounded the best to you when you heard them?

Are there less expensive ICs that you have heard that might work as well in some cases?

My opinion is ICs are mostly about synergy case by case and the best sound is not necessarily with an expensive product, though these might work quite well certainly and some might see the value.

Mapman, I have heard the HFC top ics and speaker wires on five systems now and never quite heard what I have on my two systems but nevertheless always heard a great improvement.

In answer to your question about less expensive ics that work as well, all I really know is that they are clearly better than my Exemplar Portal LLC balanced ics, which in turn were better than everything else I have ever heard.

I hate to think of all the trial and error involved in really answering your question about synergy. I do think there is some truth to it, but not enough to wipe out the total effect. I had the Exemplars for a long time on three different speakers, four different amps, seven preamps, two phono cables, and in two different rooms, I never heard any others that ever equaled or surpassed the Exemplars. The Skogrand SC Air Reference speaker cables, however, got very close.

Of cours, these experiences are not the total population of trials but they are enough for me.

FOr me, so far, the DNM Reson ICs are the ones I like to work with in general, and use exclusively in my main rig currently.

These cost me generally between $100-$200 from a Canadian dealer that used to be on Ebay. They are hard to come by in the US it seems.

I like these in that they may not always sound best in any system, but tweaking to synergize with them if possible seems to pay the greatest dividends. They are not shielded however, so that must be taken into consideration when using. I am a big believer in minimizing common forms of noise and distortion as much as possible, especially when digital gear and large nearby power transformers are involved.

I owned the Valhalla loudspeakercable for 12 years of time. When the Odin came out I had a chnage to compare it with my own music with the Valhallla.

Odin had more authoritity, drive, decay and a more 'natural'invloving sound than the Valhalla. It cost a lot more.

I still think Nordost is imcomplete when you Judge a cable for all different parts there shouls be for the absolute sound.