The shootout:

In one corner, weighing in at a slim $4K: the Nordost Valhalla interconnect

In another: the Stealth INDRA interconnect, at a nice $5700.

And the challenger: the Jorma Design Prime interconnect at a healthy $7K

First, the Valhalla.

The Valhalla is an amazingly competent interconnect. The sound is presented in a straight-forward, honest manner. Nothing artifical, no additives, musical without being overbearing.

Then, the Stealth INDRA.

The purity. The transparency. It was like this interconnect was made for the Emm Labs digital front end. Better separation, better soundstage depth, more harmonic color, more life than the Valhalla. Yummy.

Finally, the contender, the Jorma Prime.

Oh.

“Not bad. I think I actually like the Jorma better on this track than the INDRA!”

Track after track. It was the same observations over and over.

And when we switched back to the INDRA for a bit, it became very easy to understand much of the quality of the differences:

As the INDRA is to the Valhalla, so the Prime is to the INDRA.

More harmonic color. Not just that but more shades of harmonic color. Much more resolution, more bass, better separation, deeper soundstage. And some things I noticed right away, before the cables were even broken in: better integration of the music presentation into a single whole and just amazingly wonderful articulation of voices.

The human voice is so rich and full of subtle meanings – a richnes which requires the system to reproduce the most minute variations in harmonics, inter-vowel and consonant emphasis, and precise breath variations – all necessary to form and communicate the exact emotion of the singer.

It all becomes so… much… more… intimate. Like the singer is sharing something so very, very personal – do they really want us to know this about them? We have never even met!

To somewhat exaggerate:

If the Valhalla is a Black & White movie, and the INDRA is a color movie, on standard TVs, then the Prime is a technicolor HD movie on a giant HD TV.

We are really picky around here: many very expensive amplifiers, CD players, speakers… and cables, are nice in some way but have deleterious side-effects that detract from overall listening experience. Here, we strive to make every piece carry its own weight – to be as clean and perfect and wonderful as is technologically possible today.

The cables we like best are those without bloat, without artificial flavors, without preferences for this frequency (typically the bass) or that (typically the midrange), very capable of carrying the signal in its entirety from the sources to the speakers preserving those subtle, but so very critical Fundumental Music Elements like micro-dynamics, inner detail, presense, true-warmth – able to communicate the VAST amounts of information of a complex musical passage, crunched down into a split-second, without becoming sonic mud.

Well, now you have a better idea of what we mean when we say we like these Jorma Prime cables – both the speaker and the interconnect.

Personally, I am somewhat shocked. Really didn’t really epxect to like them so much, to be able to find some fault….

At the price, only incrementally more than some of the excellent competition, the interconnects ARE a real bargain.

The speaker cables are also really, really wonderful. The Coltane / Lamm ML2.1 system is just a-m-a-z-i-n-g right now. But even us here at Audio Federation experience price shock every so often. To deal with this personal, psychological block, I have convinced myself that the interconnects, at one third the cost, give the system some of the same wonderfull improvements as the speaker cables. And they do.

But I’d hate to hear what both of these cables in the same system would sound like.

No, really.

Wait. Not hate. Make that fear.

I keep telling Neli not to try it.

And if she tries it, I do not want to hear it. Or about it.

Why?

Count it up: we have 4(!) systems here.

Fair warning. Once you hear these, you will be spending lots and lots of time figuring out how to get them, and keep them, in your system. I know we are, ….dammit. 🙂

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.