Shootout 1 – Introduction and the Interconnects
In one corner, weighing in at…
This shootout is primarily focused on Jorma Design cables. We compare and contrast their cables with their other cables, at different price points, as well as with the correspondingly priced Nordost cables.
This is another shootout that went on and on and just would not end [kind of like real shootouts – wouldn’t everybody at the OK Corral just hide behind something and fire a round every so often hoping the other people would just go away? Oh, but I digress]
Like I wrote before, this is based on about 16 hours of listening, with several people in attendance much of the time, and about 23 pages of notes [aka scribbles].
Why so long? Why so many notes? Thinking about it, it makes sense if you realize that we compared 6 interconnects against each other and 5 speaker cables against each other.
Upstream: This part of the shootout we used the Audio Note CDT Three transport and Balanced 4.1x DAC, Lamm L2 linestage, 10m Valhalla interconnect, Powered by an Nordost ODIN PC on the DAC, several ELROD PCs, all plugged into a Nordost Thor. Later we used the Brinkmann turntable with Lyra Titan cartridge, Valhalla PC on the Lamm LP2 phono, and the EMM Labs CDSA digital.
We also wanted to pay close attention to the differences, so that once and for all we would know what to expect when we propose inserting one cable for another.
One hopes, when one does these things, at least from a dealers point of view, that the more expensive cables sound better than the lesser prices cables, and that the performances are spread out more or less evenly, and correspond closely with the manner in which the prices are spread out.
Bargains!
And that is what we found [whew!] except that the performance of the Origo 1 meter interconnect [longer lengths increase the price rapidly] kills the competition at the $4K price point, including their own No. 1. It costs only $5200 and therefore represents a significant price/performance bargain.
This is similar to the Audio Note PALLAS 1 meter interconnect at $4500 [for use as a phono or digital cable] – either could go up several $1000 and still be good values. Just a heads up, people.
Interconnects
* Jorma Design No. 1 balanced interconnect.
Our first attempt to hear the No. 1 was on the back of the Audio Note Kegon Balanced. Previously we had the much more expensive single-ended Jorma Design PRIME on the back using a Purist Audio RCA to XLR adapter. What this taught us was that the adapter, previously thought to be only somewhat damaging, was voted off the island. Without the adapter, the sound was more open, relaxed, better macro-separation, better spacing in the sound stage, etc. Not as much resolution, or harmonic color, as the PRIME through the adapter, and in the end the PRIME probably sounded better – but seriously, the adapter is for emergency situations only.
After this particular shootout, we exchanged the Kegon Balanced for the Lamm ML2.1, which handles single-ended RCA and balanced XLR cables more or less with equanimity.
* Nordost Valhalla Balanced interconnect
Dire Straits and Radiohead: The soundstage was a little closer to the listener. More presence in the center position and less presence at the left of center, right of center positions. Neli thought it sounded more open and cleaner. I thought it sounded slightly more compressive. If you figure that our exactly opposite opinions cancel each other out – then you can rightly conclude that these two cables are remarkably similar to each other.
Opera: The singer is always quite distant in this piece, and my notes say 39th row. One might say that Valhalla accentuates the distance of the musicians from the listener, bring them closer or further away. Conversely one could say that the No. 1 dampens or moderates the distance. For my personal taste, I think I could care less either way – so I’m just saying they are different so that you, the reader, are well-informed. Valhalla has a slightly more powerful leading edge, which lends it to sound more substantial and powerful than the No. 1. The tops of the notes are slight muted in comparison to the No. 1.
* Jorma Design No. 1 balanced interconnect.
According to my notes we went back to the No. 1 again. Aren’t we thorough. We probably played things in reverse order, as we zig-zag through our 3 musical selections. The No. 1 seemed lighter-on-its-feet. Neli: better harmonics. Being a little quicker, and at the same time a little lighter presentation, gave the voice better articulation, more emotion and there seemed to be better separation. Neli: more veiled [maybe but I’ll lend her a couple of q-tips anyway].
The conclusion here, I think, is that in the spectrum of cables going from powerful sounding, like the Acoustic Zen and Audio Note [and other reasonable cables out there] to the lighter sounding like the Stealth INDRA, these 2 cables are close together, but the Valhalla being on the more powerful sounding side of the fence and the No. 1 of the more deft side of the fence. Note that the PRIME and ODIN have left the planet and are not on either side of the fence.
The Prime and Origo interconnects
* Jorma Design Origo
Funny ears are. We sat and listened to this on several cuts, as you will read below. It was easy to convince ourselves that the PRIME couldn’t be better than this. Listen to all that resolution, that even-handedness, that emotion. Uh, oh, Jorma Design has made this cable too good and nobody is going to like the PRIME anymore.
Of course, Neli and I had our suspicions that the PRIME might just be better than people thought – but how MUCH better was and is really hard to guess unless you do a shootout like this and compare them back and forth [or you live for one for a while and then do the switch insitu].
As it turned out, the PRIME killed the Origo in several different categories – but this just goes to show that 1) a person can be happy with any properly performing cable [not that there are many properly performing cables out there], and 2) unless you already have the very best cables, and even though you are more or less happy with what you currently use, an upgrade will make your system sound worlds better than it did before.
Anyway. I wrote only 2 words for the first 5 to 10 minutes of listening. Fuller Resolution.
I have been noticing lately how the better cables seem to fill in the music, making lesser cables seem weak and anemic and a sketch of the musicians instead of real-solid people.
Some of this has to do with resolution, obviously, but it is like looking down on a mountain range, and seeing only the peaks, versus seeing the valleys and the trees as well as the peaks. With lesser cables, the main players are on the stage, you can hear them, point to them, describe how far away they are, etc. With better cables, you can see the guitar, and stage, the auditorium… all the spaces in between are filled in.
Similarly, I think we could also think of it as only hearing the peaks of each note with lesser cables, compared to hearing much more of the lead-in and decay with better cables. Everything is filled in better.
Radiohead (House of Cards – what a weird song, they try and make the system sound broken by putting lots of sounds of things rattling around in the mix)
[Compared to the No. 1] More resolution. More full. Soundstage more filled in. Less cloudy. More sibilance [see below ***].
Kevin: More ghostly voice.
At this point, the Origo was so much better than the No. 1, there wasn’t too much need to describe it further – and with the change to the system [detailed below] kind of invalidating backward comparisons anyway, we are really setting the stage here for comparisons to our next cables: the PRIME, ODIN and INDRA.
Chinese Female Vocal: More separation, More midi-dynamics. Kevin: More subtle intonations in voice.
Eva Cassidy (Tall trees, Georgia) More immediate, veil lifted, more real – here in the room. Kevin: More hall ambiance.
* PRIME
Rachmaninov(?): Smoother. Better flow, better subtler texture. Not as rough. Kevin: more forceful, better start and stop. Neli: Better separation. Neli and Jim: More emotional. Neli: properly highlights soloist.
Chinese Female Vocal: More space. Subtle changes in loudness are more apparent, like when she performs a vibrato. Kevin: richer [I agree]. More intensity in midrange.
Radiohead: Neli: Better PRaT. Kevin: Juicier. Me: More subtle clues that this is a real voice.
* Stealth INDRA
The INDRA
Edgier, Grittier. Good tone. Some sibilance. Less controlled and muddier than Origo. Good separation. Some clustering around Left, Center and Right. Kevin: More forward voice. Neli: Good delicacy in the highs [yes].
[*** We switched power cords on the Marten Coltrane Supreme crossover/bass-amp box to the more expensive Acrolink from Valhalla, which cleared up most of the sibilance. We hardly ever get sibilance, and it was with surprise that 1) we had sibilance all of a sudden in the first place [although usually the crossover is on an HRS platform, which probably usually helps some to prevent this from happening in the first place :-)], 2) that this change in power cord such a large effect on something we thought pretty much sounded the way it sounded and nothing was really going to affect it much. We now have an ODIN power cord on the crossover/bass-tower-amps box. Oooo-la-la it is good].
With this change to the system [detailed above] kind of invalidating backward comparisons anyway, we are really setting the stage here for more intense comparisons of the cables: the PRIME, ODIN and ORIGO.
* ORIGO
Origo and Prime
Many good things. Less separation in the highs, less focus on the highs than the INDRA [the INDRA is really good at this – very light on its feet in the upper registers – which makes it not so good as a tonearm or digital cable, but great everywhere else]. The Origo is more of a whole. More body.
* ODIN
The Odin interconnect on the Lamm ML2.1 amplifier
Classical: Better balance between instruments. More dynamics. The violin is much more realistic.
Chinese Female Vocal: The voice is very 3D. The decay of the notes on the cello is amazing.
Eva Cassidy: Can hear the interaction between Eva and the microphone. Lots of subtle clues here make it seem like you are there. The dynamics are very real – a little abrupt like the mic is being overloaded slightly – very real.
* PRIME
Eva: To me the Prime harmonics has a slightly orange color. The ODIN is white with a tinnnnnnnny bit of blue. More focus on the midrange than the ODIN. Less hall ambiance. Less “light” on the presentation – more laid back. Jim: better highs [which the rest of us disagreed with – the PRIME is slightly rolled off compared to the ODIN – but I put this here because he heard something in the highs he liked better than with the ODIN]. Kevin: more exuberance.
