synergistic des. ref vs nordost Valhalla


I have a system of interconect cabling consisting entirely of synergisitc designer reference with active shielding; speaker cable is FIM gold. The electronics are CJ art, dcs gear for digital and krell 650 monoblocks to JM LabsUtopias speakers. The system sounds great as you might imagine. At the recent home entertainment show I lsitened to a demo of Nordost Valhalla speaker cable and interconnects that made a very inexpensive system make MP3 file sound excellent. Has anyone got any experience comparing these cable systems? I am obviously reluctant to move from an expensive investment in the synergistic cable. My listening experience and recent reviews lead me to believe that the Valhalla may be a breakthrough product worth the trade.
cantor
Adsal says it all. Valhalla (IC & speaker) sounded good on my system -- but only slightly bettered the residing and modest bearlabs (again, full system) on the hi register.
But then, again, their qualities should be much more apparent in your system than in mine...
Good luck!
As the old saying goes "try it you'll like it" Seriously,
I use Synergistic Desingers & Res Refs with Active shielding
and Designers Ref cable. I tried both Vahalla interconnects
and speaker cable. Although the interconnects are incredible, the biggest improvement came with the speaker cables. I thought they worked extremely well with the Synergistic interconnects.

Best of luck
Hi,
I own all Synergistic Designers Reference speaker cables. All my interconnects are balanced Synergistic Designers Reference with discrete active shielding, except for one pair of Resolution Reference (also with DAS).
I recently tried the Valhalla speaker cables and 2 pairs (out of 4 pairs on my system) of Valhalla (balanced) interconnects. I found the Valhallas to be significantly superior to the Synergistics, *especially* the interconnects (the opposite of previous poster). The Valhalla speaker cables were a slight but noticeable improvment over the DRs, but even with only two pairs of Valhalla interconnects (with the 26' pair of Resolution References still in the system), the improvement was larger. I can hardly wait to hear what using all Valhalla interconnects will do. The Valhallas are more resolved and detailed than the DRs. The DRs do have a somewhat fuller and more lush sound, but they sacrifice considerable detail compared to the Valhallas.
Obviously, these conclusions may be very system dependent, but for my system I've decided that switching to Valhalla interconnects is a clear choice. I'm a bit less sure about the speaker cables--the Vs sounded fine, but very expensive and not as big a bang as with the interconnects. I think I will audition some other speaker cables (notably the new Audio Magic Clairvoiant) before deciding.
Craig Zastera
Guys, if you can, give a listen to Audio Magic Illusion speaker cables. They are !*x%$ to install, $$$ and take looooong to break-in but they are absolutely terrific. I'm using all MarkLev with B&W N802 and SynRes Des Ref Act Shielding.
I've tried both cables in my system with good results. the better cable is Audio Tekne.