Nordost heimdall 2 vs. Chord Shawline

I have been through the Nordost range on my Naim Dac XPS2.  I don't think I had Heimdall for long, moved on to a Frey , which I assume would be Heimdall 2 territory, and it was a well rounded cable.  I think my dealer even preferred it to Tyr.  I Still went to Tyr eventually and it was a more relaxed cable with less bass, but more sophisticated.  Valhalla, my current 2 interconnects, was a significant step up again, much bigger, fuller bodied sound than Tyr.  

i tried an Odin 1 last month and by comparison it was less exciting than Valhalla, very mature sound and very much a non- cable. In my system system its extreme neutrality felt like something was missing.  Put the Valhalla back in and the foot tapping came back.

Don't know about Chord cables so can't comment on that aspect.

Got to add, I have 3m of Valhalla and a meter of Odin power cord between my Ndac and XPS2 DR, amp and Preamp and the wall.  Even the last metre of Valhalla power cord added more than going from Valhalla to Odin interconnect. In your situation, If I wasn't using at least Brahma power cords, or equivalent, I would audition them before considering an interconnect upgrade.  On my turntable ( Rega P5 with power supply and Zesto Andros phono pre) I chose a Valhalla on the main preamp over a Tyr interconnect ( up from a Red Dawn) between the phono pre and my pre..

 Power cords made a bigger difference than interconnects in my system/home.

Briz Vegas posted:

I have been through the Nordost range on my Naim Dac XPS2.  I don't think I had Heimdall for long, moved on to a Frey , which I assume would be Heimdall 2 territory, and it was a well rounded cable.  I think my dealer even preferred it to Tyr.  I Still went to Tyr eventually and it was a more relaxed cable with less bass, but more sophisticated.  Valhalla, my current 2 interconnects, was a significant step up again, much bigger, fuller bodied sound than Tyr.  

i tried an Odin 1 last month and by comparison it was less exciting than Valhalla, very mature sound and very much a non- cable. In my system system its extreme neutrality felt like something was missing.  Put the Valhalla back in and the foot tapping came back.

Don't know about Chord cables so can't comment on that aspect.

Got to add, I have 3m of Valhalla and a meter of Odin power cord between my Ndac and XPS2 DR, amp and Preamp and the wall.  Even the last metre of Valhalla power cord added more than going from Valhalla to Odin interconnect. In your situation, If I wasn't using at least Brahma power cords, or equivalent, I would audition them before considering an interconnect upgrade.  On my turntable ( Rega P5 with power supply and Zesto Andros phono pre) I chose a Valhalla on the main preamp over a Tyr interconnect ( up from a Red Dawn) between the phono pre and my pre..

 Power cords made a bigger difference than interconnects in my system/home.

Hi, thanks for your opinion. For sure Din is better than rca; I just experienced that.

Nordost cables, God bless em, really need an all in approach.  If you get the Heimdall 2 RCA interconnect then you'd need a Heimdall 2 power and speaker cable as well to really get the most from it.  Same for the Shawline cables if you preference them.

I don't think Nordost offer a DIN DIN termination option.

TOBYJUG posted:

Nordost cables, God bless em, really need an all in approach.  If you get the Heimdall 2 RCA interconnect then you'd need a Heimdall 2 power and speaker cable as well to really get the most from it.  Same for the Shawline cables if you preference them.

I don't think Nordost offer a DIN DIN termination option.

There is an option (din to din ) for blue haven, heimdall 2 and I believe - fray. Prices for din to din are lower then  for rca. That's the part of the email which I have received from nordost headquarter office- "Yes, You can order Heimdall 2 interconnects with the 5 pin Naim connectors. Part of the scenario involved would they be 5 pin to 5 pin or 5 pin to RCA? If 5 pin to 5 pin then it would be made from a single cable and the pricing would be based on 1/2 a pair plus the connector upcharge."

TOBYJUG posted:

 

I don't think Nordost offer a DIN DIN termination option.

They do, you just have to order them directly from the company. I used for a short while their DIN DIN Red Dawn interconnect attracted by its opened high frequencies and transparency. That is, till I realized that it was also affecting in a negative way the timing and flow of the music, so I went back to the Chord that came with my 3.5 player.

It's sad that I have to directly order this cable which means I can't try first :-(

Yes, that is a real issue.

I have never purchased a cable without trying it at home for at least a weekend.  Sometimes it did not stay in for the whole weekend of course.  The Odin for example only lasted for about 30 minutes before being removed.  Tried it again for the same period at the end of the weekend.  Funny how I could hear that it was better but it just didn't grab me. At the price it simply had to be superb.  Maybe it was because it didn't sugar coat anything.  It was just pointing out that I didn't have  the more transparent LP140s amp ( I run a CJ LP70s, which a reviewer of the two said was not quite as good as its big brother) and the fact that I am running an XPS and not a 555.

 Odin is made for "uber" systems after all.  I only had a pair on loan because they were second hand and I had been so impressed with the Odin power cord  which made my system sound comparatively awful/ broken without it.

PS.  I did an interesting comparison once. This is a non-Naim amplification issue but it is cable related and I did ( and still do) run a Naim source.  

I was running the Conrad Johnson CA200 at the time.  The 200 is a control amp with a chip based ladder attenuator as a passive pre stage..  I had my CT5 tube preamp on loan ( which uses a discrete ladder attenuator) and I had a lesser interconnect to go between my pre and power amp, and a lesser power cord for the pre.  I did a comparison between 1. the CA200 bare ( with only top wires), vs 2. the same amp with the chip based attenuator bypassed ( Weiss INT202 as a digital volume control, CA200 in theatre bypass), and the finally 3. the CT5 preamp with the INT202 digital volume at 100%.

The result was in that order, with the CT5 taking out the full 3 points ( to use a football analogy). Of course everything eventually sounded even better going to my current valve amp, which is the matched pairing with my preamp.  I know it's just one set of circumstances, but interesting none the less. Seems you have to get the foundation right before playing with cables.

An easy one, stick to Chord Shawline as you like it. I use it and was amazed at the price/performance. I've never felt to need to change or buy a more expensive cable as I don't consider the cable is holding the sound back in any way, it just seems to tell the story as it is.

Kacper posted:

It's sad that I have to directly order this cable which means I can't try first :-(

You can ask the company if they are willing to take the cable back in case you don't like it and charge you just for the reverse termination. I never tried to sell my Red Dawn so perhaps it is time to put in on Audiogon.

Yes that's true I can stick to shawline but on the another hand isn't it like every interconnect cable ended with din connectors will perform better than any  rca cable ? I'm asking because now I'm surprised how nice is this shawline but actually is the first din cable which I have ever tried.

Haim Ronen posted:

Kacper posted:

It's sad that I have to directly order this cable which means I can't try first :-(

You can ask the company if they are willing to take the cable back in case you don't like it and charge you just for the reverse termination. I never tried to sell my Red Dawn so perhaps it is time to put in on Audiogon.

That would be the best solution. Unfortunately audioquest is so aggressive on the Dutch market that not so many shops are currently dealing with Nordost

If you try the search function much has been covered over DIN v RCA.  many agree that not to use DIN with Naim is missing the point as to why it's there anyway.   When I had an XS based system, the cable supplied with the cdp provided coherent, balanced and an assured result, but further experimentation I found I preferred the single ended RCA options.

What's wrong with a HiLine? You could look for a second-hand one. Also TelluriumQ make good DIN ones

You mean that cable Adam: https://www.lexicommultimedia....i-line-interconnect/