Finally performed the definitive shootout between the interconnects last night:

Nordost Valhalla vrs. Stealth INDRA vrs. Jorma Prime.

When we first got the Prime they were not broken in - a somewhat foward and compressed midrange, and in general the sound came through with a weird, non-flat frequency response. After waiting 3 or 4 days for them to relax, and only hearing minor improvements (exactly as if they were still breaking in), they got put on the Nordost Vidar cable burner for a week or so.

Then we had a marital dispute about the direction the cables were supposed to be used in: should the Bybee purifier go towards the receiving end or the source end? Mike, the Magnificent, (me! insert chest thumping here) thought that they should go towards the receiving end because that is how the Bybees in the speaker cables are oriented. Neli, the wife of Mike the magnificent, remembered Jorma telling her that they went the other way - and somehow during the tests of directionality somebody (not Mike the Magnificent) confused what was towards the receivnig end and what was away from it … well, let’s just say that this week it isn’t I who is the butt of all the jokes around here…

‘Course, this post won’t earn me any points….

Well, it is only fair. last week it was me providing the humor… but I insist it could happen to anybody. You be the judge. The marriage you save could be mine….

In the Audio Aero Capitole player, I looked inside, saw there wasn’t a CD, and put on Ashkenazy’s Rachmanonov.

I pressed play, but different music started playing. Really different.

What did I do to fix this?

I looked inside and saw, yes, the Rachmananov CD was plainly visible. Check.

Then, well…

I pressed STOP, then pressed PLAY again, of course.

This should fix it right?

I mean, when your CD player starts playing something entirely different from what you put in it, this works for you, right?

OK, this was happening during an audition for a nice couple from Rhode Island. So there was an attentive audience for this show I was putting on…

Finally, the Neli of the house came over and took off the Rachmananov CD ….

… and then took off the completely black (exactly the same black as the inside of the top loading Capitole drawer by the way) De Mat that was…. on top of the CD that was underneath the Rachmanonov CD…!

Ha, ha. Very funny.

No I wasn’t trying to play two CDs at once. Yes, I do look inside the player before I just stick a CD in it. No, I wasn’t trying to invent another tweek by stacking CDs in order to improve the sound. No, it wasn’t even a demonstration to show that the player would still play with two CDs and a DE Mat inside of it.

*sigh*

[The De MAT is a black rubbery thing that covers the top of a CD in top loaders to improve the performance of the laser - and thereby the sound - and it works]

Oh, anyway, now everybody has forgotten all about my little ‘incident’ - well, they had until they read this post, anyway.

**************

Back to the Jorma Design Prime interconnect.

It turns out that Mike and Jorma were right and Neli was wrong.

Hee hee hee ))))))

Next - what we heard at the shootout.

As a teaser, let’s just say that $7K for a one meter interconnect is looking like a helluva bargain.

I kid you not. The incremental cost for these cables above the other two brings a tremendous improvement in the listening experience.

Next - the details.

She likes it!

Hey Mikey! She likes it!

Uh, yes, Neli likes the speaker cables. Mike likes them too.

After 10 days on the Nordost Vidar cable burner, the caveats I noticed when we first heard these cables, the tiniest bit of midrange leaness and compression, are… gone. As suspected, the cables just weren’t completely broken in yet.

The Jorma Prime cables break new ground in the resolution department. Nordost Valhalla cables are usually considered to have very high resolution. But, well, this is a whole new ballgame. Heck, it is a whole new season.

On the Marten Design Coltrane speakers driven by the Lamm ML2.1 amplifiers, which are very high resolution themselves, what with ceramic drivers and a diamond tweeter, these speaker cables just shine. Shine a light on the music, is what.

OTL-like dynamics. Combined with the wonderful pacing this is just plain fun, happy, wow! to listen to.

Super-subtle voice intonations - where lots of the previously unheard nuances are freed, nuances that communicate more of the emotion and substance and individuality and humanity of the voices and instruments.

Voices? Even on day one the voices were enough to just grab you and throw you down in the nearest seat - or, depending on your personality, make you stand up and drench yourself in it all.

Transparency…

You remember how, the first time you heard a high-end system, you thought “Oh, so that is what was on that CD (or LP) this whole time?!!!”

Deep dish harmonics. Harmonic intent that was previously locked behind a dirty display case is now presented to the listener on a silver.. and gold… platter.

Separation, presence, … resolution.

Reso-f***ing-lution.

These cables were paired with the Marten Design Coltrane Supremes in the Swedish Statement room at CES, with their 2″ diamond midrange and 3/4″ diamond tweeter - No wonder we started hallucinating.

New ballgame? This is a whole new universe to explore.

OK. Whew! So, well, the cables are doing their part. Yep. Let’s just put a nice big check mark in that box….

Next!

Takes awhile… Should probably burn in the Valhalla speaker cables too. It’s been a few years… interesting to see if it makes a difference.

The Jorma Design Prime cables look cool on the Nordost Vidar burner…don’t you think?

Well, I think they look cool. Unfortunately, you can’t see the way the lights are twinkling like a little Christmas tree…

Patience they say, is its own reward.

Well… this is a nice reward.

Some photos…

Initial impressions?

Today the Prime replaced the Stealth INDRA interconnects in order to hear just what the interconnects can do - this is the way that we often audition interconnects. All interconnects up to this point have taken a back seat to the INDRA…

Until now.

A funny thing happens with audio gear. Like the Audio Note CDT-3, and now these cables (and, of course, the INDRA themselves), and to some degree all gear, what arrives as an inanimate, cold, dead, technological curiosity comes alive and gets this glow around it as one learns to appreciate more and more what the piece does - how it is enriching one’s life and those who hear it. It goes from being valuable in a monetary sense to valuable in a life-sustaining sense. It is food, that tastes goooooood.

OK. Initial impressions in comparion to the INDRA:

PROS: More authority, lots more separation, lots more presence, deeper soundstage, a little more bass, more suspense, more resolution.

Also… it has more beauty - the inherent beauty of the music comes through better. This is not richness of tone or dynamics or anything like that. Some of this has to do with the musical rightness of riffs playing off of and against and into another. Not too clear right now what else is happening - hopefully will get more insight as time goes on here.

CONS: None [Yeah. Right. This is Audio Federation. The picky people. There are always cons.] except the midrange being a tiny bit leaner than the INDRA, and similarly the midrange is experiencing a little more compression as well.

Funny, we were told to expect these two symptoms as part of the cable settling-in process [ Even funnier, we NEVER believe stuff like this that people tell us, about how something is going to sound. But sometimes, they are right. Too cloudy here - it is snowing - to see if there is a blue moon outside or not.] Well, experiencing them we are. These anomalies are also supposed to go away in a few hours to a day or so - and they are diminishing after only two hours…

TO BE CONTINUED…

Speaking of tomorrow, the plan is that the Jorma Prime speaker cables will replace the Jorma No .1 speaker cables and the system will be almost completly Jorma Prime.

‘Till then, then.

Funny, no matter where I am in life, no matter how well things are working or how well things are going, …or not - there is always these times spent waiting for something to arrive in the mail.

There is the ‘Waiting around for the FedEX package during the 10:30am or so time frame when they usually deliver things so I can sign it’ Blues.

There is the ‘Trying to wake up in time to make the 9:30am ETA of one particular UPS guy in order to intercept him BEFORE he tosses the package up to the front door from what sounds like 10 feet away’ Blues

Then there is the ‘It didn’t come today, what a waste of my time, what a waste of a life sitting around waiting for this thing” crescendo followed by the ‘Going to do it all again, tomorrow, anyway, cause it will be so great when it gets here’ Country Western top 10 jingle.

Well, it looks like Robert Levi over at Positive Feedback gave Jorma Design’s Prime, their statement cables, a rave review. [But he didn’t put the Jorma Design No. 1 cable in with the group of the best of the $2000 to $4000 cable group. For shame. It belongs near, if not at, the top of that list. Actually, the order in that list is a little strange… Oh, but on to the real topic of this entry:]

We sell the Jorma Prime cables, but they are new this year and we cannot talk about them until we really understand what they do.

We heard these at CES in the Swedish Statement room (on the Marten Design Coltrane Supreme speakers) and we certainly liked the sound of that system - so we know they don’t totally suck (note: the term ’suck’ is not audiophile approved).

But to understand the sound of the cables themselves we would have to listen to them here at Audio Federation.

And we are! I mean will. They are supposed to be here today, or hopefully tomorrow. Exact same cables and everything. So, we will hear what we will hear.

As always with these Expensive things, one always hopes that they live up to their price (or really, one hopes on the one hand and fears on the other )

Let’s see, can we afford to love them, given that we are now getting the Coltrane Supreme loudspeaker?

No.

Do we (i.e. me, Neli ain’t here) have the will power to not open the box when they come?

To not put them on the main system, replacing the Stealth INDRA interconnect and Jorma Design No. 1 speaker cables?

Uh oh.