Valhalla vs. HMS vs Jena Labs vs. Shunyata Phoeni

KF- Have you auditioned the Jena labs speaker cables yet? I know you love there interconnects but it seems hard to recommend other cables if you haven't listened yet.

Tireguy, I am not recommending any one speaker cable. I am recommending considering other areas of upgrade first(i.e. DAC) before spending upwards of $4k-5k on speaker cables. I am also recommending some less expensive speaker cables that have a good shot at competing with the above SCs.

No I have not tried any Jena speaker cables.

KF

I had a brief session with the Valhallas and HMS Grand Finale (Revel Salons driven by ML monos) and I preferred the HMS by a small margin. They seemed to be as fast as the Nordost but had sort of more organic and polite character. Not a huge difference but in in this particular system the HMS were just a little more involving. The Valhallas might be better suited to a richer and more mellow system.

The HMS allow you to choose several different impedance settings. All my auditioning was done with the neutral setting so I can't say whether different settings would make a difference.

I use original Khorus' (w/Gamut amp) and have experimented with 6-8 cables ($1k-$4k) and have finally (?) settled on the HMS (replacing Wireworld Silver Eclipse 3).

IMS, they provided the greatest balance of detail and musicality of all I tried (though I haven't tried the ones you mentioned) but I agree with KF that there is a diminishing return with expensive speaker cables, but still there nonetheless.

The guy I bought the HMS from upgraded to the Pathfinder, BTW. I also used the Talon-marketed Ghost speaker cable (which is supposed to be similar in character to the Shunyata) which was good but not quite as dimensional and a little thinner.

I also use the HMS ICs and they made an even bigger improvement over others I used (Jena Symphony, Nordost QF, AZ Silver). Startling sense of presence and harmonic rightness. Highly recommend an audition.

I am the one who had HMS Grand Finale's of which I sold to the gentleman above. In fact I still have a pair of the HMS IC's single ended and yesterday ordered another longer 5 foot pair of Jena's balanced Pathfinders. The Pathfinders have to be heard to understand why they are so wonderful. I find them to be best in my system.