Valhalla vs. Audience AU 24

Good for Brian! Nice to see a reviewer tell it like it really is.....I've played with Valhalla and let me say there is at least one other cable besides Audience that blows away the Valhalla speaker wire.....

Perhaps Rcrump you could elaborate on your term of "blows away" in words we could identify with as I have my own thoughts on the phase and am certinly sure that it is different than yours.

I just happened across this thread, and I thought I would post my thoughts on this topic to it, (even though it was posted 8 years ago!), as I have fairly recently replaced my AU24 speaker cables, (bi-wired), with Nordost Valhalla speaker cables, (also bi-wired).

In my system, there is no doubt that the Valhallas are better than the AU24 cables. (The AU24 cables are very good cables, especially so for the money.) However, the transparency of the Valhallas is a bit better than the AU24 cables. The imaging and soundstaging seems a bit more precise using the Valhallas as well.

And I prefer the treble response of the Valhallas as well, even though I have heard that some people think that the Valhallas are a bit bright sounding. However, they work perfectly with my Lamm M2.1 monoblocks, which are just a tad dark sounding. So it matches up perfectly, IMHO.

And, I have also heard where some people think that the Valhallas are a bit lean in the mid-bass region. (I have noticed that there are an awful lot of people who take potshots at the Valhallas for some reason.) Anyway, the Valhallas seem to have tamed a bit of a mid-bass hump that my EgglestonWorks Andra II speakers seemed to have.

And yeah, I know some people say not to use cables as tone controls, but it seems to have worked very well in making my system sound much better than it has ever sounded before. So, to sum up, I am very, very happy with the sound of my system now, and I attribute some of this happiness to the Valhalla speaker cable upgrade. In fact, I consider myself done with my system as a whole, with the possible exception of an upgrade to my turntable.

My two cents worth anyway.

I'm with ya' Kurt. May I suggest for you to try the Valhalla interconnects next. Valhalla is simply magic in my system!

best,
Tom

Hey Tom, Good Suggestion.

I am currently using Nordost Quattro Fil interconnects (balanced), from the preamp to amp, and these work pretty well with the Valhallas, as they are a similar design. Unfortunately, they are a 4.0 meter pair, (and to be honest, I really need a 4.5 to 5.0 meter pair, as these are stretched pretty tight), and the cost to upgrade to the Valhallas is pretty steep for cables of that length. But when I find I have a spare few thousand dollars lying around, (Yeah, right - in this economy?!), I will consider doing this upgrade.

Unless of course you'd like to donate a pair to me?
In which case, you'd become my new best friend!
(No, huh? Hey, it was worth a shot!)
;-)