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
You need to understand music and properties of other products and brands to use Nordost the right way. Because I still believe you can use it to create a good balance and level in sound. It is not easy!
I just bought heimdall norse2 nordost, It's a full sounding speaker cable, no brightness, system Plinius amp sa100, audio research tube preamp, marantz transport,peach tree dac, Technics SB C700 speaker.True old nordost are thin sounding not this new one.
They improved in a better overall sound. But in stage depth and width they still miss quality. The same thing about individual focus of voices and instruments.

Also they have a too low blacklevel. These are essential parts you need to create a stunning sound.

They also need improvements in the diversity in the middle frequencies.
When you use audio by Tru-Fi, it becomes a lot more easy to understand.

Tru-Fi gives you the information about the properties each individual part owns

Each product owns its properties. I sold and tested Nordost for over 9 years of time. For met it is very easy to understand the properties.

At the end you need to use these properties to the max.

When you don't know the propties ( most people don't know, then you never will understand why the sound and stage is what you hear) audio is a big guess.

I have seen in 18 years of time that the main reason why so many sets at shows, distributers, shops and at new clients sound not that good, is based on the fact that they are mot able to think in properties.

The difference is endresult between Tru-Fi and 'traditional'way of creating audio is huge. 

I would give one advice; stop creating audio by comparing parts when you don't know which properties you bring in and which ones you get out.

This way audio is done by trial and error. This is extremely ineffective!!