Nordost Valhalla 2 - Susceptible to Noise?
I was over the moon with the improvements my Valhalla 2 speaker wire brought to my system, until the next day things didn’t sound so great. I thought maybe my first impressions were overblown, until I tried again after midnight and that glorious holographic soundstage re-emerged.
It seems that the Nordost cables are so resolving that I blatantly hear differences in power quality, and I’ve since gone down the path of investigating power conditioners.
But that’s another story. What I’m wondering is whether the Valhalla 2 cables themselves could be more susceptible to RF/EMF noise, given their unique ribbon design? And, if so, is their any way to deal with this issue?
I’ve seen some folks using Alan Maher’s Circuit Breaker Filters which you can simply tie to pretty much anything, but they don’t seem to be on his site anymore.
Two houses ago I had intermittent noise so I bought an Audience AR-6 and it helped a lot. Then we moved to a new subdivision that was a cow pasture just a few years before. Everything electrical was new and buried and I had absolutely no power problems. About 3 years ago we moved back to the big city. The dwellings are not as close to each other, but now I’m getting the intermittent line noises again. I'm using the AR-6 again and all is quiet again. All the best. JD |
I use a Nordost qb8 power supply for all my power cables from wall. Of course a great V2 or Odin2 should come from wall into that. I also as a Concert violin performer always notice night is deafeningly quiet compared to day. Even during day time vs. night time rehearsals, not just performances. I have Odin 2 speaker cable and V2 and Tyre 2 power cables (depending where in the system). When I added a dedicated 20 amp line to my place noise became much less apparent. Just my experience. |
I’ve been avoiding the 20A dedicated line due to the fact that I have no crawlspace or attic, and as such would need to rip out a lot of drywall to run the new lines. However, just today my local dealer told me to consider running the line outside my house. They were strongly urging me to do that - said “you won’t know what hit you”. Also gave me a card for an electrician who won’t rip me off. @dancarlson10 , what gauge wire are you running? 10AWG? Any special wiring, or anything unique at the breaker box other than the 20A beaker?
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I did the same thing. Ran it along the garage and out across the Outside wall. Most important thing I was advised to do is do not bend the cable itself if possible. So the electrician used a thick plastic conduit which went around the walls. I was also advised to buy a certain cable. The person advising me (i just don’t want to use his name as he is a close friend) is someone everyone in this industry respects and knows what he is talking about). He recommended a company called Atkore and get 10-2 which is a nice thick gauge. I found a local dealer who could access Atkore for me by calling the former head of sales who of course knew my friend. Also important is steel sheathed not aluminum. The electrician ran it in through a heavy plastic (waterproof) conduit along the outside of our condo. Everything was to code here. At the termination point he used some kind of liquid silver ( which my friend provided) when connecting to the outlet. Also i used a nice furutech plate and outlet. Do not remove the steel sheath anywhere along the cable run until the connecting point. I did not need the isolated ground as a part of my wire because I am in a new building and my condo of course has that already. I think i paid 750 for 250 feet of cable. Took a few weeks to get, but man One would have to be deaf to not notice the difference. I have about 125 feet left, i will look at what color wires are in it. Its a thick cable. |
all in it was like 3k to do the job including parts and labor. If you can do it, it is a foundation for your system. All you need is a qb8 good grounding device after that. No purifiers or coloring devices at all. Just something solid and neutral. I think the 20 amp qb8 is like 2k new. Which i was advised to get by my friend. |
