Nordost Valhalla

The Vahalla's premium performance strengths are your bane: they undress and expose all the weaknesses and warts in the rest of your system.

There is a reason why they are both class leaders as well as the preferred reference cables in many of the mag reviewers' systems. You get what you pay for in this hobby.

IMO you are looking at at a Mexican standoff because you lack synergy. Hence you only have two options .... You either:

(A) step up in quality with the rest of your system ....an alchemy of the source, electronics, speakers and the rest of your cables; or
(B) step down in quality to lesser -ergo more foregiving - cables.

Hi there, I would try a furutech rhodium gtx wall plug first.Its where the power starts and cleans everything up, brightness etc.Its the best recepticle on the market.Mine took a month to sound its best, but excellent out of the box

/Infection: I have heard Valhalla 2 but not in my system, very good but not for their price. Try HiDiamond XLR 3, very organic, not one bit of glare yet providing pretty good details and sound stage.

/Nglazer: you probably know that HFC do not and will not have XLR versions.

Thanks for your suggestions.

@Misternice- that's probably unnecessary as I am using a PS Audio P3 Mains Regen/PS Audio power cable...

@Akg ca- Indeed I am aware of their strengths because a lot of my music sounds great & this is the quandary... Yes I do have some inferior recordings & I'm happy to accept that but there are some which I know don't have specific frequency extremes; in this case a little too harsh in the upper mids, hence the dilemma.

Hi, infection...most wall recepticles do give off brightness, so you will have it coming through.At $200 plus the cover...its the cheapest upgrade, and will bring on every system...You wont know how good your system can be....it took mine up a few notches.