NORDOST Heimdall

MJ17.02.2009

Speaker cables

For those looking for an affordable Valhalla the Heimdall may be a good start. The basic attributes of the iconic Valhalla are there with the Heimdall too. On top of that, Nordost products are the only cables - as far as I know - that can be bent in 90 degrees or routed under a carpet.

Function and form

98%
Ease of use
62%
Sound
90%
Appearance

Air is known as the best dielectrics, right after vacuum. It is difficult to gang a conductor in air so the only option is to approximate such a situation. Voila! Here comes Nordost. If a thin spiral filament is running around the conductor then the conductor's contac with the dielectrics is minimized. To prevent unwanted interaction between individual conductors Nordost arranges them in a flat architecture, a kind of ribbon. The Heimdall's flat ribbon is 34mm wide.

Bass management

Weight
62
Slam
62
Articulation
69

The filament as well as the cable's insulation is made from Teflon. In the Heimdall there is just one filament, in Tyr, that sits above the Heimdall in Nordost's hierarcchy, are two. The filament has red colour so the Heimdall looks like a flamingo.  There are 24 solid core conductors in the Heimdall - they are copper, silver plated (60 microns) and polished. Nordost makes its own wires in a rather complicated extrusion process and the wires are immediately sealed in the Teflon.

Clarity & delicacy

Detail
66
Air
63
Transparency
63

The Heimdall speaker cables are supplied with either spades or Z-plugs. The Z-plugs are golden plated bananas that look like small crocodilles and are very light. It is very easy to connect a speaker's binding posts with the Z-plugs - they slide in the terminals and then open their crocodille mouths to ensure perfect contact. It was much easier to work with the Nordost's Z-plugs than with Cardas's bananas that required quite a lot of pressure to get them in (and even more to get them out again).

Tonal accuracy

Timbre
60
Dynamics
63
Temporal resolution
59

Switching from Cardas Golden Presence to the Heimdall was like jumping from an autumn afternoon to a spring morning - the scene got washed in light, the sky was clear and I could smell blooming flowers in the air.

Spatial resolution

Holography
86
Soundstage width
85
Soundstage depth
85

The Heimdall provided me with tons of trasnparency and nice focus - the cable was precisely imaging, everything got locked in the right positions and outlined individual elements in the soundstage. The vocal parts in Gloucestershire Wassail (Loreena McKennit - A Midwinter Night´s Dream) were drawn by a sharp pencil and I could easily visualize the vocalists gather around a microphone. The Heimdall was very good depicting the beginnings and the ends of sounds - the transients and the decays. If I should make a wish then wished for a bit of tonal warmth and emotional involvement.

Price as reviewed:36 000,- Kč

Recommended resellers

Perfect Sound Group, Praha, tel. +420 722 960 690

Associated components

  • Sources:  Accuphase DP-78
  • Amplifiers:  Accuphase A-60, Luxman L-590AX,
  • Interconnects and speaker cables: Cardas Golden Presence, Nordost Tyr, Homegrown Audio DNA
  • Loudspeakers: Audio Physic Virgo V, Dynaudio Confidence C1

Gallery

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