NORDOST Heimdall
Speaker cables
For those looking for an affordable Valhalla the Heimdall may be a good start. The basic attributes of the iconic Valhalla are there with the Heimdall too. On top of that, Nordost products are the only cables - as far as I know - that can be bent in 90 degrees or routed under a carpet.
Function and form
Air is known as the best dielectrics, right after vacuum. It is difficult to gang a conductor in air so the only option is to approximate such a situation. Voila! Here comes Nordost. If a thin spiral filament is running around the conductor then the conductor's contac with the dielectrics is minimized. To prevent unwanted interaction between individual conductors Nordost arranges them in a flat architecture, a kind of ribbon. The Heimdall's flat ribbon is 34mm wide.
Bass management
The filament as well as the cable's insulation is made from Teflon. In the Heimdall there is just one filament, in Tyr, that sits above the Heimdall in Nordost's hierarcchy, are two. The filament has red colour so the Heimdall looks like a flamingo. There are 24 solid core conductors in the Heimdall - they are copper, silver plated (60 microns) and polished. Nordost makes its own wires in a rather complicated extrusion process and the wires are immediately sealed in the Teflon.
Clarity & delicacy
The Heimdall speaker cables are supplied with either spades or Z-plugs. The Z-plugs are golden plated bananas that look like small crocodilles and are very light. It is very easy to connect a speaker's binding posts with the Z-plugs - they slide in the terminals and then open their crocodille mouths to ensure perfect contact. It was much easier to work with the Nordost's Z-plugs than with Cardas's bananas that required quite a lot of pressure to get them in (and even more to get them out again).
Tonal accuracy
Switching from Cardas Golden Presence to the Heimdall was like jumping from an autumn afternoon to a spring morning - the scene got washed in light, the sky was clear and I could smell blooming flowers in the air.
Spatial resolution
The Heimdall provided me with tons of trasnparency and nice focus - the cable was precisely imaging, everything got locked in the right positions and outlined individual elements in the soundstage. The vocal parts in Gloucestershire Wassail (Loreena McKennit - A Midwinter Night´s Dream) were drawn by a sharp pencil and I could easily visualize the vocalists gather around a microphone. The Heimdall was very good depicting the beginnings and the ends of sounds - the transients and the decays. If I should make a wish then wished for a bit of tonal warmth and emotional involvement.
Recommended resellers
Perfect Sound Group, Praha, tel. +420 722 960 690
Manufacturer's website: http://www.nordost.com
Associated components
- Sources: Accuphase DP-78
- Amplifiers: Accuphase A-60, Luxman L-590AX,
- Interconnects and speaker cables: Cardas Golden Presence, Nordost Tyr, Homegrown Audio DNA
- Loudspeakers: Audio Physic Virgo V, Dynaudio Confidence C1
Gallery
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