Calling Nordost the 'Rolls Royce' of cables is too general a term. Nordost makes cables at a lot of different price points. Rolls Royce price points are consiberly less varied.
This being said, the Nordost line starts at the $100/meter Solar Wind. $100 for an interconnect is not too far from mass market entry level Monster cables. Monster might have a few lines a bit less expensive per meter, but not many.
Thus, to continue the car analogy, Nordost may not make Toyota Echo price range cables, but they certainly make affordable Honda Accord cables. They also make Rolls Royce priced cables (Valhala).
One thing I really like about Nordost is that they do not mess around with their product line until they develop a cable that is CLEARLY superior. I find too many cable companyies like playing with their cables way too much. Not to mention that it does not take a brain surgeon to make cable... HOWEVER, it does take high technology and science to produce a cable a cut above all the people who are doing it themselves by hand at home. Nordost uses high technology and science to develop their cables.
Now some folks have compared Nordost to Audioquest... I find this kind of an amusing comparison. If I remember correctly Audioquest OWNS Nordost. For this reason alone, I have heard several pwople boycott Nordost.
Frankly, I was never a Nordost fan until I heard the Quattro Fil. I shot out the Quattro Fil vs. the Acoustiz Zen Silver Reference in my system, and the Nordost triumphed IMHO. Though the victory was by a small margin, the Nordost were more detailed and more precise cables. The AZ were a little more deminsional.
Then I proceeded to compare the AZ Satori speaker cable with the Nordost SPM cable. No comparison folks. Before this trial I thought that speaker cable made the least ammount of difference in a system (in the signal path). The SPM was the biggest improvements I have made in my system in a long time. It was as if a haze was lifted from my soundsystem and music then flowed from my speakers.
Many of my friends have used other less expensive Nordost cables, and many of them love the stuff for the price point they can get it at.
One thing someone who wants to upgrade IC's needs to ask themselves (before they go ount and plunk down serious cash) is will it be an imrpovement in their system? Do their components justify the better IC? or Will their components be able to take advantage of the new cables? These are important questions. It took me a long time to learn, but in audio the GARBAGE IN GARBAGE OUT rule applies in spades. System matching and balance is the key to getting good sound. A $1k sound system should not be using Nordost Valhalla cables. Solar Wind yes... not Quattro Fil either.
Valhalla (especially) and Quattro Fil will expose your ears to your components in your system to such a degree that these cables may make it sound too bright or even harsh. These are your components sounds... upgrade them before you start on reference interconnects and speaker cables.
