I’m a longtime fan of Kimber Kable and have been using 4VS and 4TC cables. I find them a bit more transparent than your typical parallel style cables. I also use Belden 1313A for my subs.
Personally I would recommend 8VS or 12VS for a warmer sound that still retains good detail. But if cost is a bigger factor then 8PR is a good choice.
For those new to the hobby, fancy cables should be one of the last things to worry about. You should always start with speaker placement and room treatment before worrying about upgraded cables. If you’re not maximizing room potential then don’t bother with fancy cables.
The VS series is a bit more open and detailed vs PR. VS is closer to TC. I usually recommend the VS series. Of the 3 I think it’s the best value. I kinda like the TC cables too because they’re prettier.
I haven’t heard the Valhalla 2 speaker or interconnects yet, but I heard their previous Valhalla ones and they were pretty impressive! I do have the Nordost Valhalla 2 USB’s and my reaction was the same as their’s when I first heard it. My jaws dropped!
I have yet to audition any Nordost cables I could like. I’ve tried interconnects, digital cables and speaker cables. I currently have a pair of Blue Heaven speaker cables sitting in the box, unused, in my closet. Nordost has to my ears and in my system a distinct house sound that is too in my face for my liking. Call it an ‘insistent’ presentation. Blue Heaven isn’t Valhalla at Valhalla’s hefty price tag, to be sure. So I can’t claim to have heard the best Nordost can deliver. My conclusion thus far playing with 2 generations of Nordost is if ever there was a cable brand highly dependent on system synergy, Nordost would be it and YMMV.
It goes with any other cable company also. I don’t care much for any of their cables except their top line ones. WireWorld, AudioQuest, etc… Only their top end ones or second from top impress me. I think they do it on purpose because I’m sure they listen to their cables before they put it on the market. That’s how they get your or my money.
I skipped most of the video, but the advice about how to demo was exactly what I do. Short segments of familiar music focused on a specific sound - male/female voice, double bass, bassoon, violin, piano, percussive etc - I limit to about 30 seconds each. I do the same with every component I’ve bought and the same samples.
Speaker cables? Low inductance and noise rejection. Townshend Isolda for those who can’t afford Fractal. Super dead quiet due to flat geometry.
I went through quite a few speaker cables in my journey, from the beginning many many years ago when I first heard speaker cables can sound different and bought some Monster M1’s to try. My jaws dropped then too. I didn’t know you can hear cables. I then went through a bunch of Cardas, FM Acoustic, Transparent Audio, and have tried Acoustic Zen, Synergistic Research, WireWorld, Nordost, and others I don’t even remember. These all were pretty much top end or near top end cables. I can’t say there were a best, but they do sound different from one another. I ended up with the Tara Labs The Ones. It just had the balance I wanted in my system. It sounded great then and it still sounds great now even as everything around it improves. So far I haven’t had the desire to upgrade this speaker cable because my system is sounding better than ever before and I’m still happy with this cable. I sure hope that upgrade itch comes around again because it is getting really expensive!!
I’m thinking I have been very lucky with speaker cables particularly.
Each time I tried something new it stuck.
Who cares wires
Anticables
AudioQuest something
Analysis Plus Solo Crystal Oval 8
Shunyata Sigma SP
Iconoclast SPTPC (yummy)
And now Stealth Audio Dream
I will admit this, I am not certain going from one .4 inch diameter cable to two two inch diameter cables made a huge difference. But I retire from speaker cable purchases from now on.
My only regret is I sold the Analysis Plus cables. I still have all the others for when chicks start to dig men with excess cable. It could happen!
Though my cable journey was not as exhaustive as yours,
I have also tried a bunch of reputable ones. Generally, cost does follow the improvement but within a group of good ones, it’s a tough choice. After days of back-and-forth I generally go with the brand that seems the most neutral, has earned some street cred, and will maintain some value till the next go-round. Madness.
My SR / Iconoclast shootout along with some others yielded the same results. Galien’s SPTPC cable, though not cheap, is good value. My only caution is that you need to demo the all copper, and copper/silver variant. Galien claims the silver cladding should only affect the highest upper frequencies, but I found them quite different. IconoBob can help with that demo.
For me, my ears Nordost Red Dawns are not bright or in my face or lap.
Highly nuanced, dynamic yes !! Bright nope…Focals have been critcized
for being bright and edgy. Yet in my system not so…
One could think that the combination of Nordost silver clad Red Dawn cables
with my Focal 948s would be a horrid combo…Again not to so…just wonderful
highly detailed, layered with plenty of slam and bass along with a huge
sound stage…great extension…
I have a friend who is a sound engineer who recommended their cables to me. As he says (and I agree) Nordost gets out of the way and lets you hear what is happening in your system. Nordost, in my experience, isn’t bright, it simply reveals what the system/recording sounds like.
I own White Lightning interconnect, 4 flat speaker cable and Norse 2 jumpers, all by Nordost.
In the past I had inexpensive Harman designed (Peter Toole) Infinity Beta 50s
8’" drivers. These I bi-wired with Bluejeans Belden 5T00UP 10 gage wires.
The sound was really really good…Then one day a Parasound A21 power amp
found it’s way home…right away I could tell that there was way more in the
music than was being presented…at that time Nordost was running an anniversary
special with a very good percentage off sooo…home came Red Dawn ics interconnects
source to preamp then pre to power amp. Power amp to speaker cables…
Out of the box the music elements that I thought were missing… showed up…So much
for cheap speakers not able to resolve what greatly upgraded cables and amp can deliver!
Then came the regenerators, Focal Aria 948s followed by Parasaound JC5…
In all of that the Red Dawns have proven themselves in a wonderful way…
Highly recommend.
