Nordost Valhalla vs. Acoustic Zen

Like Ejlif I found the quattro fil to be a bit on the sterile side and found the AZ Reference to better it in a some areas specially the bottom end. The AZ reference cables are really one of the best cables in it's price range in my opinion,does wonders on solid state gears.
In my system it sounded too laidback though that's why I sold them.
I heard the Valhala speaker cables briefly at Sanctuary of Sound and at the time Stewart had it hooked up on a Red Rose Mono tube amps and Talon Khorus X with Mephisto II CD player, and that was one of the best setup's I've ever heard.
My point is the AZ refs are great cables but the Nordost Valhala's are one of the few elite cables at the top of the heap.
just my 2 cents.

you're comparing apples and oranges..i have tried zen's and own valhallas' ....apples and oranges!!

Apologies for the somewhat late entry to this thread. I recently acquired some Valhalla and tried it in lieu of my AZ silver ref. Notwithstaanding the fact that I was already using an all AZ cable loom throughout which should favour their interconnect, the Valhalla walked straight over it by a considerable margin. The overiding attribute was one of increased energy, though quite frankly it does everything right. It was the sort of difference that resulted in my wife walking into the room and remarking how good things sounded; in itself a somewhat infrequent occurance. Before the AZ, I had used Nordost cables extensively over 5 or so years, working my way through their hierarchy before culminating with QF's. I moved to the AZ to get a more organic presentation, however the valhallas have shifted the goal posts over the QF, in a similar manner as the latter model did over it's predecessor, the SPM. Bullet plugs add a further improvement of a similar magnitude for a pleasingly minimal cost.