I used to notice a difference in times of day until I got a puritan 156 power conditioner. In my case, I plugged everything (amp, preamp, phono, DAC) into the puritan and the sound improved considerably. The Valhalla 2 are outstanding cables and in my comparison to several other brands, were far superior. Also, consider having a dedicated 20A line to your music room. This too can make a large difference. Hope this helps.
Nordost Valhalla 2 - Susceptible to Noise?
I was over the moon with the improvements my Valhalla 2 speaker wire brought to my system, until the next day things didn’t sound so great. I thought maybe my first impressions were overblown, until I tried again after midnight and that glorious holographic soundstage re-emerged.
It seems that the Nordost cables are so resolving that I blatantly hear differences in power quality, and I’ve since gone down the path of investigating power conditioners.
But that’s another story. What I’m wondering is whether the Valhalla 2 cables themselves could be more susceptible to RF/EMF noise, given their unique ribbon design? And, if so, is their any way to deal with this issue?
I’ve seen some folks using Alan Maher’s Circuit Breaker Filters which you can simply tie to pretty much anything, but they don’t seem to be on his site anymore.
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@nyev I don't think you don't need a circuit breaker filter as much as you need a PS Audio P15. I encourage you to read some reviews of PS Audio's approach to cleaning up your power. I have some very revealing Martin Logan electrostatic speakers and I use Nordost cables. I can vouch for the kind of improvements you'll read about in those reviews, and I can tell you that it took my listening experience to a different level. I could never describe the effect as well as a couple of the reviews where the reviewer dissected everything in minutia. We're talking extremely subtle differences in the sound, but if you have equipment that's revealing enough and it's matched well in your system I bet you you'll be very pleased with the results. I'm becoming more and more convinced that some of these folks don't have ^^^ because it sounds like some have literally never experienced this kind of synergy in their system. It's an expensive hobby, for sure. And you know the old saying, you got to pay to play. To me, it's kind of a "you get what you pay for" kind of thing.
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Forgot to add that one of the things I like about my Nordost speaker cables is how sexy they look. Ha ha ha ha I’m kind of into design, as a matter of fact that’s one of the reasons I bought my ML Summits, because I think they’re beautiful to look at and I consider that an added feature of the cables, that they pair well visually. I guess sometimes you just gotta bite the bullet I think the ribbon design looks so cool mostly because it has such a unique shape and it’s so pliable. From a design standpoint, it pairs real well not only w/ my speakers but with the decor of my whole place. |
@tunefuldude , I do note the great reviews of the PS-Audio regenerators, but I’m actually more excited to try the Niagara 5000 and Torus RM20 for two reasons: The Niagara and Torus get just as good reviews at way less cost. Plus, one pro review which is easy to find pretty much rated the Niagara 5000 and P15 evenly with a slight preference for the Niagara which he found more energetic. Finally, there is an Audiosciencereview video where Amir “proves” that the PS-Audio P12 actually degrades the sound. That said, he also “proved” the Niagara 1200 does nothing, so who knows! I’ve yet to see direct comparisons that put the higher cost regenerators ahead of the lower cost conditioners. |
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