has anyone compared Nordost Frey ICs vs Valkyrja

I just upgraded to a pair of Frey IC from Hemidall. The Fry are XLR, the Hemidall are not.

From what I can tell, the Frey retains the charecteristics of the Heimdall while dropping the noise floor, adding a deeper bass range (maybe not as lound in the midbass, which is fine with me), open the mids to extend beyond my speakers, and place the back of the sound stage about 1/3 more behind my speakers.

Very happy thus far.

That said, the Heimdall are awesome and I am still running one pair from my cd player to my pre and a pair of bi-wired Hemidall speaker cables..that the cables can convey the new Frey's is very imperssive to me.

Mjmch2003, just do not forget you are dealing here not only heimdall vs frey differences, but XLR vs RCA. I have never heard anyone saying that RCA's better than XLR (in good equipment, I mean true-XLR equipment).. everyone is talking about XLR cabling as major step forward.

..but since I am a tube-guy, XLR is not for me.

Someone above stated that Valkyra's were similar to the current Heimdall, and any of the newer Nordost line is superior to any of the old line except Valhalla.

Quite frankly, that is just not so, IMO and some friends, and we have had just about all the old and new Nordost lines, except Valhalla. They were used in revealing systems consisting of new Pass Labs pre amps and amps, Wilson Maxx II, Magnepan 3.6s modded, Benchmark DAC1, dcS, using Shunyata power conditioners and Shunyata Python and Taipan Helix power cords.

Quick summary: The new line is outstanding but Valkyra is quite a bit better than Frey. Frey is better than Heimdall. Haven't compared Tyr, though.

Dne +1

I just picked up used Valkyrja ic, this ic in my system is spectacular. Way better than Heimdall ic I have   Not even close.