Cable Asylum: HMS VS VALHALLA-showdown-long by calloway

SYNERGY AT ITS FINEST-a tale of two cable systems..

Nordost 'valhalla'-
interconnects-1m pair-$3300
speaker cable-3m pair-$8000
HMS 'gran finale'-
interconnects-1m pair-$1090
speaker cable-3m pair-$3250

Nordost Corp.
420 Franklin St.
Framingham,mass. 01702
email-info@nordost.com

HMSelecktronik
AmArenzberg42
D-51381 Leverkusen
email-mail@hmselektronik.com

..........."my first nights' impression, after listening to both cable systems for 3 hrs.,with the same 4 cds,was that i had never before been so involved and immersed in the music i was listening to and never before had so looked forward to when i could hear it again."

Technical Details..
both companies' cables are made from similar wire..that of solid 99.999999 Oxygen Free Copper.the Nordost has 78u silver coating,polished,the HMS with 70u silver coating,polished.the Nordost has a 'high precision microfilament wrap'applied,helically wound over the 8 conductors.a precision teflon jacket is then extruded over each conductor.a dual layer of silver served shielding is then wound around the assembly.this reduces the dialectric contact 'by up to 80%'nordost claims the interconnects are extremely fast at over 87% the speed of light.
HMS has succeeded in developing a dialectric that is 98% air.signal propogation is said to be 97% the speed of light.each interconnect has a Top Match Impedence Selector that allows you to adjust the impedence,in 10 increments,of your components with the help of the cables.
Nordosts' speaker cables consist of 40 conductors divided into 4 groups of 10.again.each conductor is a 99.999999 oxygen free copper that has 78u of silver on the surface.the same micrmonofilament wrap is used with a teflon jacket extruded over the conductor.again,this reduces the dialectric contact by more then 80%.the speed of the cables is said to reach 96% the speed of light. with an effective dielectric constsnt of 1.12...the reference point being air at 1.0.
HMS' speaker cables,again use the 99.999999 oxygen free copper with the same dialectric properties.the cables are composed of 'ferrite blocks' composed of a special alloy.these blocks keep the electromagnetic field within the wire,retaining the full signal thus not dsegrading the sound quality.this according to mr. stassner,the designer and founder of hms.the cables also have an EMI/RFI filtering box and a 'revolutionary impedence/current rise time selector box that allows for fine tuning of your systems'performance.

BREAK IN

all ics and speaker cables were given > 48 hrs on an audiodharma cable cooker prior to audition.(the valhalla speaker cable had actually been a part of my system for over 8 months and the ics were demos,previously used before auditioning).

LISTENING AND SUBJECTIVE EVALUATION

all ics were rca/rca terminated. the CDs chosen for evaluation purposes were the following:
--Patricia Barber-'Companion';FIM xrcd2 027
--jesse cook-'Vertigo';Narada,72438-45988-2-2
--Rimsky Korsakoff-'Scheherazade'; Reiner-Chicago Symp.JMCXR-
0015
--Mary Chapin Carpenter (SACD)-Time*Sex*Love*;Columbia CS
85176

My first impression,of both these systems,after listening to only 3-4 selections,on one cd,was that both systems were truly superb.i had never been this emotionally involved in the music before.
my listening sessions took place over 24hrs,broken up into 2,10 hr sessions and 1,4hr session.my methods at comparing the systems consisted of playing 4 tracks on 1 cd/sacd and then changing the cables and listening to the same 4 tracks with the other system.i invited a friend,who is a musician (pianist),over to help with my subjectivity.the HMS cables were set to the neutral settings on the network boxes so as to not create any colored sonics and give a more even playing field.after each change in systems i waited 1/2 hr to let the next system warm back up prior to the next testing.
the Patcicia Barber 'Companion'cd was the first to be compared.rather then giving you a play-by-play of how each system handled each cd/sacd i am going to try and give you the differences that i/we heard with each.suffice it to say there were no deficiencies
with either system..just differences..both were superb.both systems presented a very real,'you are there'like atmosphere.the valhalla put ms. barber slightly rearward of the hms in the soundstage but only slightly.vocals were palpable with each.the attacks on the keys on the Hammond organ on track #1 were more obvious with the hms system which as was the cow bell transients on track #3.micro details seemed to be more the forte of the hms system although certainly only minimally.the standup bass in 'use me' was very tight and very tonally correct with both systems.cymbals were natural and shimmering.inner detail resolution was truly amazing in both but,as mentioned,slightly better in the HMS system.the soundstage depth favored the HMS system also.
the second cd compared was the Jesse Cook 'vertigo'cd which is a great test of a systems'ability to render transient responses realistically without blurring them.both the systems are so adept at handling the speed of these instruments,guitars.drums etc that there was no clear winner.the cello vibrato in track #3 was slightly more pronounced and expressive with the HMS system.the sound seemed to be a little more full bodied also.both systems were very airy and transperent with musical notes seemingly floating forever in the air.great decay.
the 'scheherazade' disc showed no clear winner either. both systems excelled at soundstaging.imaging and instrumental pinpointing within the orchestra.tonality was 'spot on' for both.inner detail with each was superb.violins were crystal clear and pristine in their presentation.if there was any difference it,again,seemed that the hms system presented a slightly more full or expansive presentation.
the Mary Chapin Carpenter SACD was picked to compare vocal differences.both systems presented stunningly realistic vocal pictures.inflections and intonations were scarey real.you could almost smell her breath.both systems exhibit an almost holographic presentation.

CONCLUSIONS

...i don't think i have had more fun in a long time...this was truely a pleasure....reason,these are systems without any obvious weakness,imo,with my system (see below).both of these cable systems are amoung a handfull that can be called 'the best of the best',imo.the surprise here is that the HMS system performed equally,in every way,to the valhalla system,and does so at a price more affordable to most audiophiles.these results,obviously,are my results and the same comparison done on another system may yield other findings...but i doubt it.they are that close to each other.

CALLOWAY'S ASSOCIATED EQUIPTMENT

AMPS--Tenor Audio 75 WI
SPEAKERS--Piega P10
SOURCE--SCD-1,fully modded by richard kern
POWERCONDITIONER-Shunyata hydra with python pc
TWEAKS--aurios pro MIB under speakers and SCD-1
carbon blocks under Tenor Amps
POWERCORDS--1-Shunyata,king cobra V2, 2-Shunyata,pythons