These speakers, this system, actually does fill up the room with sound. It is amazing.

Not quite the easy open bass the Triolon bass towers had- but few systems have THAT large of a sound.

But the bass goes down on both this and the previous system to about the same frequency, and with about the same resolution… so there ARE similaritities.

And here, the soundstage is a more reasonable 6 or 7 feet tall, instead of 20 feet - so it is, as always, about tradeoffs. And at about 1/4 the price… we are happy with this being the primary system… for awhile.

I will have to take more photos of the Ongaku on the Rix Rax outpost amp stand. It was just a kind of accident that this got set up this way - the HRS going out on a local audition this week - but this looks really … farout man.

The two are about the same size and it is as if were made for each other. And Neli polished up both of them, which doesn’t hurt the visuals either.

Sonically… we are playing with power cords and have a $2 OEM cord on the Ongaku to establish a frame-of-reference… so can’t say anything yet.

The test consists of swapping out various interconnects between the outboard crossover of the Marten Coltrane Supreme loudspeakers and the Audio Kegon amps that handle the frequencies above 100Hz. Picutred you can see the gray Audio Note Sogon interconnect in place.

The Acrolinks.

The Acrolink interconnect up close. These connectors are massive, and I believe this the only connector they come with. Very substantial and secure fitting things they are.

These are the two Nordost Valhalla interconnects side by side.

Part of this test was for us to see… hear… the difference between these two connectors. Was it all just hype?

We are not so sure about these connectors. They seem to pick up ground loops like nobody’s business. It is possible, and quite frequently the case, that:

* they are on too tight or too loose, in which case they either appear to be broken (aka no sound comes out) or

* they generate a large ground hum because they are not grounded at all (the area of contact on the target connecting post is dirty? or perhaps they are just too loose), or

* they pick up a small ground loop hum because they are only partially grounded (perhaps the connector is so thin that it needs its own shileding….?)

The WBTs up close

We love these old connectors. You put them on, they stay on. They feel secure. They don’t wear out after many, many uses.

The Audio Note Sogon interconnect

The Audio Note Sogon interconnect

The Shootout.

From one extreme to the other:

*** The Acrolink 7N-DA6100 - $4995 ***

Very clean. the cleanist sounding of this bunch (but not as clean as the Jorma Design Prime, at $2K more!). Very detailed and lovely air. Midrange is clean with perhaps a little too quick on the top of the note attack and on the decay. Bass is good.

*** The Nordost Valhalla with the WBT connectors - $4000 ***

Rounder than the Acrolink, more body. Also more veiled than the acrolink. Smoother because of it but there was also a whisp of a feeling of the music struggling to get out.

*** TheNordost Valhalla with the old Neutrix ***

The midrange frequencies are more laid back, a little more veiled. A little less midi- and micro dynamics in the midrange as well, compared with the WBT solution.

How subtle is the difference? In my mind I keep thinking 10% - whatever that means. I think it means that if the WBT was 100% better than it would be twice as good. In the midrange. In terms of these attributes.

In this test we did not get the dreaded ground loop hum with the WBT and we did prefer the WBT solution. The slight increase in resolution and slightly more presense in the midrange - was nice, and appreciated

*** The Audio Note Sogon - $2725 ***

The midrange was quite similar to the Vahalla in terms of detail and resolution, but with more color and subtle harmonic content. The bass was a little muddier than the other cables but a little more natural. The highs not as prestine as the Acrolink, and similar to the Valhalla in quantity but a little more natural in quality - i.e. not so much going for the ability to spotlight each detail in the treble, which I know many people like (including us, sometimes ), but instead makes the details more integrated into the overall sound stream.

For this system, in its current state of break in (its making good progeess, finally) with the all Audio Note front end, we left the Sogon in place. It made the system much more musical to listen to, at least at this time.

There is a 5 meter Valhalla interconnect (Neutrix) between the linestage and the amps.

Swapping this out for, say, Sogon, or Acrolink even, would *probably* make the sounds of the various setups with these various cables more reflective of the underlying strengths and weakness of these cables.

[Is this always true? That a system cabled throughout with just one kind of cable will always highlight both the strengths and weaknesses of that cable? I know many manufacturers and dealers say you MUST use just their cable for your whole system to get best results. And I can agree with this if their cable is way better than what is currently in the system.

But what about using various cables as ’spice’? I know that the word ‘tone control’ is a pejorative thse days, but until we get the perfect wire, all cables, including the lauded Belkin power cords, will be tone controls, like it or not. And so, taking this reality into account, I propose we must carefully, and consciously, spice our system with various cables lest we get something that tastes salty, …or like poop ]

Picture of entire system with Kharma Mini Exquisite speakers, Lamm ML2.1 amplifiers and Audio Aero Prestige CD/SACD player on HRS M3 isolation bases and MXR equipment rack. Cabled by Nordost Valhalla and either Elrod Statement power cords or Shunyata Anaconda Alpha Helix power cords.

Kharma Mini Exquisite from above.

Sonically, this isn’t a blow-us-away system compared to the same system with the Marten Design Coltrane speakers. It is very nice and enjoyable - but not surprisingly so. Maybe our expectations were too high. Is it wrong to be so spoiled? At what point does our addiction get so out of hand that we no longer represent the average guy or gal? Oh, you are saying we passed that point a long, long time ago? Oops.

We still have to work on the positioning - and we are planning on moving the EDGE solid-state amps over on this side of the room - they being so successful on the other side on these Mini Exquisites, and switching back and forth.

Speaking of switching back and forth….

The power cords powering the ML2.1.

The power cords are the Elrod Statement III (the big ones) and the Shunyata Anadonda Helix Alpha (the red ones). The speaker cables are the Nordost Valhalla. This could be abstract art if it wasn’t so functional.

The Shunyata lends the system detail. The Elrod body and bass. If we are being picky we switch them for each song, depending on what we think will sound best. Though waiting for the Lamm amps to restart after switching power cords - waiting through their 90 second power-on cycle - is long enough for husband and wife to get a chance to talk to each other……

TheHRS MXR equipment rack is looking a little empty. And missing the top shelf. That Audio Aero is doing source and premaplification duties - what used to take four shelves now just takes one.

The top isolation base was out on loan - and now that it is back it is being repurposed elsewhere we are going to move the Brinkmann Balance turntable over on to the MXR equipment rack…. leaving just the Walker Proscenium Gold Signature TT on the RixRax / SoundLab system.

Finally, we are anxiously awaiting the conclusion of our Jorma Prime interconnect burning in on the Nordost Vidar burner.

Tick tock tick tock….

The System: Marten Coltrane speakers, Lamm ML2.1 amplifiers, Jorma Prime speaker cable, HRS MXR equipment rack. Also Lamm L2 preamplifier, Audio Note CDT-Two and DAC 4.1x Balanced. Nordost and Shunyata cabling.

We mentioned how amazing this was sounding in our review of the Jorma ‘Prime’ interconnects.

What does does amazing mean?

Here is what amazing means:

The Coltrane speakers are so freakin revealing… The Jorma Prime cables are slightly more forward than their No. 1 and even the Valhalla, and this new effect was already taking hold. Now, with HRS’s MXR rack [we set it up yesterday, much more on this later ] in place of the Acoustic Dreams, the system sound is even more ‘present’.

We kind of take it for a given that the Coltrane speakers are a little laid back - given the highest quality, completely neutral components up front. But maybe not…

Witb these two new, admittedly over the top, additions to the system… the sound is much more of a engulfing, in the room type of experience.

Our good Canadian friend, Dave H., [you there Dave? Missed you in Monteal] used to talk about how he wanted the sound to come to him, to not have to focus on listening to what was being played, to have the sound ‘take control’ [my words] as it were.

The system was already subtley sinister in the way it would sneak up on a person and make one stop mid sentence, whether one wanted to or not, as the music Took Control.

But now, …

It is hard to move, much more hard to get up.

It is like ‘if I miss this next note, my life will have been worthless and empty’… ‘I must hear this next note!’

I think this house is going to be much more quiet now… because if we start playing any music, we aren’t going to get ANYTHING done.

[Though I am much more disclipined than Neli, and this system is on the same floor as her office. She, she is doomed. So if you can’t get her on the tele as easily as you could before today, you’ll know exactly why!]

And the new Audio Note CDT-Three transport just arrived. We are doomed!

[This post was split off from the previous post, as it was on a totally different topic. Don’t know WHAT I was thinking at the time….]

The Nordost Valhalla power cord

Not your ordinary Beldon-fabricated conductor: Closeup of the Nordost Valhalla power cord.

Really close.

Amazingly enough, these cords have the same sonic signature as the Nordost Valhalla speaker cables and interconnect. I guess this is how they had to construct them to accomplish that.

Just some fun pictures we had laying around on the hard disk…

Closeup of the diamond tweeter and ceramic midrange of the Marten Coltrane speaker. This is the walnut version of these speakers and the wood is starting to take on a nice rich patina as it ages.

The Edge NL Reference 800 watt ‘pyramid’ amplifier. This picture really captures the sleek metalic look of the amplifiers.

Closeup of the top of the Edge NL Reference 800 watt ‘pyramid’ amplifier. Here you can almost see how nice it is to touch these amplifiers, the powder coating feeling very nice, almost soft, to the touch. The cap on top and the way the sides are fastened makes the amplifiers water tight (and maybe even dust tight, which would be nice… see below).

The EMM Labs Meitner DCC2 at dark on an HRS M3 Isolation Base. This picture captures the color-coding of the buttons nicely, as well as showing a how the volume knob is so much fun to turn by hand.

The Lyra Titan cartridge on a Brinkmann tonearm. This picture does not show it perfectly, but there is this feeling of the loooong tonearm snaking out fron the depths at the back of the turntable, the head ready to strike with it diamond tooth into the platter.

Closeup of the Brinkmann tonearm. Ah, engineering. Lovin’ it.

Closeup of the Lyra Titan cartridge. Dust. There are lots of little dust particles, perhaps hairs from the wool carpet. They do not look serious enough toimpact the sound. But they are everywhere…

The Blue Magic Diamond cartridge on the Walker tonearm

Closeup of the Blue Magic Diamond cartridge on the Walker tonearm. More dust particles.

The Brinkmann Balance turntable control buttons. Left is 33 rpm, right is 45 rpm, center is OFF.Sometimes we turn it on and off just for the fun of touching the buttons.

The Nordost Vidar cable burn in device. More pictures from the post a few days ago.

The Nordost Valhalla cables on the back of the Marten Coltrane loudspeakers. I like the reflections of the cables and binding posts in the shiny carbon fiber on back of the Coltrane.

The Nordost Valhalla cables on the back of the Marten Coltrane loudspeakers. More reflection. These are the EU-safe WBT binding posts.

The Nordost Valhalla cables in sunlight. I like the pattern of shdows the various layers of conductors make. When this picture is blown up large, this looks like a work of abstract art. Or maybe industrial art.

Closeup of the Nordost Valhalla cables in sunlight held against the blue sky. You can really see how the cable is constructed. As desribed on the Nordost website:

“Each conductor is made from optimized diameter solid 99.999999% oxygen free copper that has 78 microns of extruded silver on the surface. The surface of each conductor is highly polished before a high precision Micro Mono-Filament wrap is applied.

The Micro Mono-Filament is helically wound over the conductor. A precision FEP jacket is then extruded over the conductor. A number of proprietary methods are used in this difficult and extremely precise manufacturing technique that reduces dielectric contact by a factor of more than 80%. Extremely mechanically stable, the conductors are effectively suspended in inert air, preventing oxidation. ”

Well, hope this all was as fun for you as it was for me!

Nordost Reference Dealers, like us happy folks at Audio Federation, now have another tool that will make sure that the cables their customers receive now sound even more better, yes, more better, than the competition than they already did before. And what a monster, er, make that kick-ass tool it is.

Physically the unit is about 9.5 inches by 17 inches and weighs, I don’t know, say about 10 lbs.

What does it do? And how does it do it?

What it does, using 44 amplifiers, is:

1. Neutralizes spurious charges that build up around the cables and its insulation.

2. Conditions the conductor core, which changes the way signals pass through the metal using wide-band sonics

3. Conditions the surface of the conductors using ultrasonics

How does it do it?

The VIDAR “uses a proprietary combination of composite and complex signals to condition the cable.” I bet you could have probably guessed that part.

The process involves ultra-low frequencies (to condition the core of the conductor), ultra-high frequencies (to condition the surface of the conductor), bouncing the signal ping-pong fashionup and down the length of the cable. The manual then goes on to describe how the VIDAR conditions the rest of the conductor as well as the dielectric area above the conductor.

Does it work?

Don’t know yet. It was very cold when it got here so applying power anytime soon was out of the question.

But sometime…. we really should do some listening tests; perhaps one interconnect brand new, and another brand new but burned-in / broken-in / conditioned.

Our general experience has been we have never experienced any deleterious effects from burning in anything, and burning in does seem to add some predictability to the sonics, taking some of the edge off that seems to be occaisionally heard with a brand new cable sometimes… [sometimes we are in too much of a hurry to hear a cable and wham bamm out of the packaging and into the system it goes - so we do sometimes experience what un-burned-in cables sound like ].

In any case, it at least looks cool - and it is heavy enough that the cables won’t tip it over. About 95% of the time our customers do want their cables burned-in before we send them out - and we are always happy to do so.

Neli finally found a happy spot to burn in new cables: hanging off the back of a DVD bookcase in the middle of the second listening room.

One of the problems is finding a place so the cables hang down naturally - twisting them up UNnaturally tends to affect the sonic qualities, seems to take them longer to relax when the finally get put into use.

Another problem is keeping them out of the way of foot traffic - stepping on the cables ain’t so good for them either.,.. not to mention tripping over them and sailing into the Walker turntable… or something…

Seems to work really well.

The cables, interconnects and speaker, have both ends connected to the burn-in device - which sends a number of signals through the cables, simulating music - but presumably at a very high volume with lots of dynamics and lots of frequencies. all in order to speed up the burn-in process by a factor of 10 or so.

We use the Nordost burn in device for our cables. There is a newer model that may now be available…

Unfortunately, we did not get to hear these new cables (the Nordost Frey) before we sent them out on audition… so us cats still have a big curiosity that needs scratching.

The new Frey interconnects look slightly different that tne old Valkryja interconnects… and use different (Nordost-branded WBT) conenctors.

The new Nordost Frey interconects are a slightly darker purple and slightly skinnier than the old Valkryja

The old interconnects…

The new interconnects

The new interconnects

The new interconnects. Like the speaker cables, the green indicates that these are demo interconencts and not for resale.

The new connectors come with instructions, but they are of the common (counter-intuitive) turn clockwise to loosen, turn counter clockwise to tighten and fasten the connector to the binding post.

Nope, haven’t heard how these sound yet either…

The new Nordost Frey speaker cable looks exactly like the old Valkyrja speaker cable.

Here is a picture of them side-by-side. Both cables are purplish ribbon cables a little less than 2 inches wide.

The green on the spade connectors indicates that these are demo cables, not for resale (they have to be sent back to the factory for retermination before they can be sold).

We haven’t heard them yet..

Stay tuned…