Nordost Valhalla Power Cords

02-15-13: Sidekick_i
I believe the Nordost products (and Valhalla in particular) to be extremely open, transparent and revealing cables. What you hear is not the cables, but the quality(or faults...) of your system (in your room). Good or bad.

I sort of agree with you. While I do agree that Nordost products are extremely open, transparent and revealing, I find that most who really appreciate Nordost use warm sounding components or damp their rooms to balance that Nordost effect. Or maybe their systems/rooms were too dark to begin with and the Nordost brought in the light.

Then again, I also know some who are what I consider 'detail freaks'. They don't listen to the music per se, they are listening to what is happening behind the music. You know the type: "Did you just hear that fly fart behind the piano??".

From my experiences there is no doubt that the Nordost cable line is a great way to impress your friends. I just found that, in the long run, listening fatigue set in earlier and earlier, and I was no longer enjoying the music. If this does not happen with you, maybe your room is darker, or maybe your gear is darker or maybe your tastes are brighter, who knows?

There are many ways to liven up the sound of a system, using Nordost cables is certainly one of them. Whatever floats your boat.

I did test Valhalla on my Modified Musical Fidelity Nu-Vista 300 poweramp (I had this amp from 1999-2008 with the Nautilus 800S from 2006 till 2008) and I did loose depth, individual focus and the low freq, were not that tight. I used The Valhalla from 2004 till 2012 on My Meridian 800 DAXV4. Here it gave very good results. On my Pass XA100.5 ( I owned this from 2009-2009) here The Purist was better overwhole. It depends about the speakers you use. Which speaker dod you use. I have a speaker ( Monitor Audio PL-200) which can give an exeptional deep and wide stage. Most speakers are not capabele of this stage. All my tets I did with Valhalla you loos depth, individual focus and invlovementy in the mid freq. This was not happening once, all tests had the same outcome. At Nordost shows I used my own cd's and I heard the same flaws. Before I put my cd in, I predicted exactly what would happen. I had a smile wenn we were listening and the Nordost people were watching me. For me it was this clear what happend. With the Purist Audio LE powercable I have bt far the best articulation of voices. At many recordings I listend hundreds one times for the first time I hear people breath in and ending all the words they sing. I heard many systems with thse cd's and never heard it this clear. Between the extreme 3d image ( 4 metres behind the speakers, about 1.5m beside the speakers and many recording play 1.5m in front of the right and left speakers) I have I get a sharp individual focus I never heard on any Nordost show are test I did with 100% Valhalla. There is a lot more definition in the low freq compared to Valhalla. In all the tests I did with Valhalla on poweramps I never was convinced. A bass drum goed deeper with the LE, but it is not only this. It is so much beter textured. I am tapping more with my feet than ever. Like the speed of the music is a little higher. All parts of the recording are superior better foccused than with Valhalla. Most important part is sound, in sound realism Nordost is not that good. Wenn I listend to 100% Valhalla there was no emotion in the music anymore. All my classical music I love I would never want to hear again. These days I played with the B&W Nautilus 800S, which was great for classical music. I hope to write my review about the LE next week with all details and used cd's.

I see you play with Burmester. I sold Valhalla to some Burmester fan's. To be unnest even with Valhalla in my esperience it is not that special. In europe all the Burmester shows are not that popular. We take a listen en walk away in 2 minutes of time. Wenn we are talking about 3d holographic image and extreemly sharp individual focus Burmester has still a lot to learn. Wenn you compare it at shows with brands like Pass Labs. There is no one who would prefer Burmester. In Holland there is even no shop anymore were you can buy it.

I always had many discussions with the people of Nordost. I was the 2nd person who bought the Valhalla loudspeakercable in Holland. There was a time I sold Valhalla powercables as candy bars. It was a great time. But I am aware of the flaws. In real a violin sounds so much warmer than what you hear with Valhalla. Even with the most warm sounding components this was still the same problem. But there is one part most people have not enough knowledge in. And that is individual focus. Voices and instruments are very small in dimension and exactley to point out were they come from. With Valhalla this never comes to the highest level what I heard. This is a key factor in realism for music. Wenn you have a system which can give a 3d holographic image you always loose depth also with Valhalla. I have done these tests many times with Valhalla. The same cd's had more depth wenn we changed an interconnect instat of the Valhalla interconnect. I am only talking about facts. Because this is how I work and think. I always say: it is as it is...period!!

@ Bo1972

I respect your opinion but I'm in totally disagreement about what you said. It's not important to mention by speaker system but I can assure that It's a fantastic and very expensive system and superior to any speaker I've heard (a lot, even over 200 Keuro loudspeaker system). Sorry but here we're talking about ultra hi-end components and I saw that you mentioned respected products that I know very well but very far from top hi-end and the sound neutrality estimated by experienced audiophiles around the globe that know really the music due to so much colored in sound and not playing music in the correct manner. A friend of mine after listening Burmester for the very first time he replaced his Pass mono Xa160.5 with german gear; another friend after listening in his system the power amp Burmester 956 Mk2 he changed his Pass X350.5. I've other examples, but It'n not important to make additional and same hystory. Everyone can listen the music in the way that coul prefer even if not in correct manner. In my experience many audiophiles gurus who write in blogs that I know very well that they can not distinguish the sound of a a Cello with the one of a Contrabass, but they evaluate hi-end components; which kind of sound evalutation you may expect from such gurus? What I can assure that in Europe and expecially around the World product like Nordost and Burmester are rightly considered Ultra Hi-End and one of the absolute best. It's definetively clear that we've completely opposite ways of understanding music and so It's confirmed by my 25 years of music played live in the best music halls around the world. The experience is knowledge and the rest is just information only.
Enjoy your review (as well as information only)!