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Nordost Quattro Fil is still good

Close to a year ago I bought a turntable and changed my entire loom to Nordost Heimdall. Before, I was using Red Dawn rev. 2 SC and Quattro Fil XLR from my DAC to amp. Big improvement on overall sound, especially up top, in the treble region.

Fast forward to yesterday. I had the Quattro Fil collecting dust so I purchased some WBT 0152cu RCA plugs and converted them to RCA so I could use them with my new headphone amp. They are significantly stiffer than the Heimdalls so I swapped them. Heimdall on headphone amp and QF on phono stage.

I must say I was pleasantly impressed by what I heard. I don't recall hearing that big a difference between Heimdall XLR and the QF XLR, but on RCA's, the QF were better.

I spun a few albums, but Rush-Hemispheres really stands out. I'd never heard the low end so clear. The QF dug a little deeper, but also separated bass drum/tom tom whacks and the bass line. Compared to the QF, the Heimdall's sounded a bit congested in the bass region. The treble was about the same with just a bit more air with the QF.

Overall, the QF's sounded more refined. I hope they retain this character after a few more hours of break in.

Regarding the plugs, the WBT0152cu are full metal body unlike the WBT0110cu Nordost uses. Maybe cleaning the connectors also contributed to the better sound of the QF.
gherrera1
nglazer
846 posts
 
I still use the QF and find it still to be a superb cable. Newer is not necessarily better. Raw materials have increased in price considerably since QF days so you may not be getting the same value for the same price.

Neal
xti16
1,525 posts
 
You should really give the Nordost Series2 a try. Quite different than the original Norse series. Note the Tyr2 has been added to the Norse Series. Much warmer and more 'liquid' sounding than the originals.
adg243
41 posts
 
I agree that Norse 2 is better than the original but amazingly Valhallas are still around as reference cable even after a decade.
nglazer
846 posts
 
Valhallas are still around as a reference cable because they still ARE a reference cable. It was a breakthrough design that has stood the test of time. Breakthrough designs in cable are very few and far between. Same for amps, pre's, less so for DAC's and speakers (e.g., magico, YG, etc.)in my opinion.

Neal
dne
141 posts
 
Another fine alternative is the Nordost Valkyrja, which was between Qfil and Valhalla, i.e., the spot presently occupied by Tyr. Valkyrja was dropped from the line and replaced by Tyr. Valkryja is also a great buy in today's market since it is much lower priced than Tyr but is nearly identical in sound. Some have said the Valkyrja was superior to Tyr but Nordost felt it was too close to Valhalla at a much lower price, the reason why Nordost replaced Valkyrja. No way to confirm that, however.

I can say that when I replaced my Frey interconnects and speaker cables with Valkyrja, the improvement was very very significant all across the spectrum. I could never go back to Frey after Valkyrja.

When they were a current model in the Nordost line-up, published reviews of Valkyrja were superb, with one calling it 90% of Valhalla at 50% of the price.
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