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How to re-terminate Valhalla

Hi there. This is my first posting in this forum. I have a pair of 26” RCA terminated Nordost Valhalla IC’s which I would like to re-terminate to XLR. I am planning to do this myself. I like to tinker and am pretty good with a soldering iron.  I have removed the RCA sleeves and studied the connections=4 red wires to hot center pin and 4 clear wires to negative pin. The outer shield, far as I can tell, is not connected. My questions is, when I solder to the new XLR connectors, do I solder the 4 red wires to pin 2 (hot) and the 4 clear wires to pin 3 (neutral)? And what do I do with the outer shield? Do I bundle it and wire to pin 1 (ground) or leave it floating? And if I connect ground do I do both ends or just the output end? Thanks in advance for your help. 
angelinareef

Showing 3 responses by dgarretson

dgarretson
2,609 posts
 
That's a shame. After moving to Bocchino and Eizz, I've got a bag full of cut off and discarded Neutriks that I could have sent gratis. 
dgarretson
2,609 posts
 
I’m unfamiliar with Valhalla, but with such premium wires use solderless XLRs like Bocchino, EIZZ, or Vampire. You definitely want an end-to-end ground connections at Pin 1.  If all Valhalla offers for that is a shield, then you could add a separate high quality ground wire at Pin 1.  The shield is general connected at the source and floated at the other end.
dgarretson
2,609 posts
 

@labtec 

I’ve recently sourced all three types of Bocchino XLR and RCA connectors, Tomcat RCA panel connectors, and Mayflower ICs, from their US importer Carl Ruzycki (aka Cromium on Audiogon, 312-402-8388, or carl.ruzycki@gmail.com.)  He is helpful and reasonably priced relative to the rather extravagant MSRPs.  Inventory can be spotty.  It seems a minimum commitment of around fifty pieces from a distributor is necessary to trigger a production run with economies of scale.  I’ve explored the possibly of a group buy at preferential prices, and he is receptive to it for the XLR and B11 RCA connectors.  Feel free to PM me or contact Carl directly if that’s of interest.  At the moment I’m most interested in a bulk purchase of the XLR connectors.

I’m told that the designs passed through several running improvements toward maturity.  The recent examples I received are well designed and beautifully finished.  They sound better than KLEI Silver Harmony, WBT Nextgen, EIZZ, and Oyaide, and far above Neutrik.  I really like the way they have thought through the compression fit and strain relief with multiple set screws for each.  Hot glue for strain relief is unnecessary.  The Bocchino connectors are way off the grid of everything else. 

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