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Nordost Odin or Valhalla 2

Folks, 

Do you feel Nordost cables are worth it's asking price?  What's the proportionate amount one should spent on cables? 

After hearing them at RMAF 2015 and few other brands of cables, I decided to look into the upgrade cost.  I own a decent HT setup and invested over $125K in my pursuit of audio nirvana.  

So I contacted a Nordost dealer to get an estimate on my setup.  The dealer came back with an estimate of $110K on Valhalla 2.  Needless to say, I didn't even bothered to ask the cost of Odin in my setup.  

No offense to the dealers, but I started to wonder the profit markups on high end cables.  I do hear stories about some unscrupulous dealers who sell high end products to get spiffs from big manufacturers in shape of exotic vacations, free products and so forth if they sell more widgets.  Isn't this corporate hi-fi that only seeks to show returns for shareholders.  To me its pure business, where is the passion for audio?If they are only focusing on providing expensive audio jewelry and targeting individuals with deep pockets then I say, mission accomplished.  

I have much better experience with smaller companies who are dedicated and committed to providing 'magical' listening experience without taking a second mortgage on your home.  I thought the whole idea of audio art is to create aural magic.  

IMO most cables regardless of price point, will get you 80% of the performance of super expensive cables.   So is it really worth spending thousands of dollars more to achieve that 20% or 10% of performance? 

I would like to hear from folks who owns Odin or Valhalla 2 or other comparable brand of cables, what was decided factor in their choice, what other cables did you compare before settling with Odin or Valhalla 2.  

I don't have any hidden agenda or personal vendetta against high priced cables or dealers engaged in selling high end products.  The idea here is to gauge performance vs. cost of super expensive cables. 

Happy Listening!!!

128x128lalitk
knghifi
1,668 posts
 
The idea here is to gauge performance vs. cost of super expensive cables.
It doesn't exist!  There is no correlation between cost and sound.

Just buy what you can afford or willing to spend and sound best in your system.    

I would like to hear from folks who owns Odin or Valhalla 2 or other comparable brand of cables, what was decided factor in their choice, what other cables did you compare before settling with Odin or Valhalla 2. 


Sound!   I have a friend with a $150,000 full loom of Stage III cables and it sounds FANTASTIC! 


akg_ca's avatar
akg_ca
2,156 posts
 
If you have a thin-air level system,  ... Then " yes"... They can (and do ) work and can take the whole system to another level and leave you gob-smacked.

at the Nov 2015 audio expo in Toronto, Nordost had a killer system cabled up with all-ODINS (power, ICs, and speaker) that  blew away the  show. I lost count what the rest of the system actually cost, but somewhere north of about $400K for a 2-channel system.

ODINs or VALHALLAS are not for everybody, but if you have that oxygen breather level system commanding cables to do them proper justice justice , then I have not heard anything yet that rivals them .

If you take note, a very large population of audio mag reviewers have the VALHALLAS as their reference cables.

I will rehash a prior post to serve as a litmus test that cables DO matter. ...in brief: NORDOST ran a repeated 3-day audio expo demonstration symposium in Toronto at an audio expo on that very issue, it was attended by thousands - It was also attended and written up as such by a writer from a prominent Canadian AUDIO magazine.

He wrote his article that highlights a  litmus test on the effects of swapping in better cables as reported by him , and he reported  on the shared observations of the thousands of attendees at the TAVES audio expo in Toronto in Nov 2014. With reference to the above , ... his conclusion summarizes it well.

Nordost

"... I had a chance to sit in on a couple demonstrations in the Nordost room, giving my feet a well deserved break. I’m very familiar with the benefits of high quality cables and use a full Nordost Heimdall 2 loom with my reference two-channel setup. That being said, I always find the Nordost demonstrations to be an “ear-opening” experience.

Michael Taylor from Nordost demonstrated the significant sonic benefits of replacing an OEM cable with a Nordost model – in particular

1) a swap of a single USB cable, from OEM to Nordost Blue Heaven ($250/2m), to Heimdall 2 ($500/2m) and;

2) a swap of a single RCA interconnect, from OEM, to Blue Heaven, to Heimdall 2, to Tyr 2 and finally Valhalla 2.

Along with convincing the audience in the room that cables DO matter, I’ve now got the bug to upgrade...."
knghifi
1,668 posts
 
Agon member Rockitman has a full loom of Odin so you contact him for more info

Here's AVShowroom's video of his system.

Audio enthusiast and Grateful Dead lover Chris aka "Rockitman" 


dave_b's avatar
dave_b
3,159 posts
 
Nordost makes amazingly non musical cables....great for computer connections, but not for music.
jmliner78's avatar
jmliner78
10 posts
 
Dear All,

I read all your post. IMHO : some are rights and some are wrong. First the choice of your cable depends on your system coloration : all get one.
The marriage between cable and element is very important.
Basis : Power Conditioner : Me I purchased the JMF Audio PC302 (very amazing for the results... But I connected 2 ODINS on 2 QB8 to power my 8 Linn Solos amp from the JMF Conditioner.
I added also a QX4 module (even if 2 are better), one will add more quiet sound, lower background for all my sources...
Tried also the Ansuz ramp. Good apparently.
I get also ODIN Phono (amazing and very natural and musical), ODIN RCA also.
Now I am doing V2/ODIN RCA comparisson.
My seller told me : V2 is better than ODIN but I don’t think so.

In my opinion, V2 is coloring the high frequencies and narrow bandwidth (less bass) than the ODIN so at the end less music because aggressive.
The size of the soundstage is narrow with V2 than ODIN.
So I validated my ODIN (without any doubts : ODIN RCA is not colouring the sound / real music / V2 is making distortion...
I am living with my ODINS for about 3 years so when I change sthg, I could see immediately the changes...

DY onw experience (not easy : to choose need for me 3 years with a lot of trial where to place cable (I started at the beg with all Nordost (ODINs, V2... but too energitic... less musical then strike the balance with your ears as usual.)
Good luck,
JIM
Vinyls a lot (LENCO JTN75MKII, Whest audio, Lyra Atlas, Linn Komri Aktiv system...)
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