NORDOST Valhalla
Interconnects
By many the Valhalla hustle and bustle is considered a pure marketing. By many the Valhallas are considered the finest sounding audio cables. What is the truth then? A bit of each - the Valhalla is definitely a great sounding cable with a not really friendly price tag.
Function and form
Until recently the Valhalla has been Nordost's reference interconnects. Nowadays it has been trumped by their Supreme Reference, the Odin. The Valhalla uses 8 silver-plated copper wires that are highly polished and floating in the air - the latter is achieved by the Nordost's MMF technology.
The MMF (or Micro Mono-Filament) principle is simple in its idea but difficult to execute. A thin Teflon (FEP) filament is threaded in a spiral fashion around each conductor to minimize the contact between the conductor and its insulation. Thus an air gap is created with only point contacts left. This approximates the ideal "no insulation".
Bass management
The Valhalla uses top-of-the-range silver Nextgens from German WBT (RCA) or XLRs. The capacitance is 22.0pF, inductance 0.13µH and Nordost claims that the signal travels through the cable at the 80% of speed of light.
Clarity & delicacy
Tonal accuracy
The Valhalla is an accurate cable with excellent transient speed. Who thinks, that the Valhalla's precision goes against its musicality is wrong. Though there are zillions of tiny details heard in the music they are always well integrated and not accntuated. I lived with the Valhalla's predecessor, the SPM reference for some months - this was ethereal and thinner sounding cable where the details drew my attention. The Valhalla is much more physical.
Spatial resolution
I was taken aback by its powerful presentation - the sound had the energy of live rock concerts. Well, imagine a live rock concert where you feel the pressure of the sound and you can hear all details at the same time. With recordings it was refreshing to hear both the energy and soft ambience and reverberation that were caught by microphones. Honestly speaking, in my completely Valhallized system I found the speaker cable to be more important for final sound than the interconnect. If you only can afford one, then put your money in the speaker cable.
Recommended resellers
Perfect Sound Group, Praha, tel. +420 722 960 690
Manufacturer's website: http://www.nordost.com
Associated components
- Sources: Ayre Cx-7e
- Amplifiers: Audio Research SP17 / SD135 preamplifier and power amplifier, NAD Masters
- Interconnects and speaker cables: Nordost Valhalla speaker cable
- Loudspeakers: Usher Be-10 Dancer, KEF 201/2
Gallery
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