Secondly, the new WBT connector
locks to the jack. As shown in the diagram below, you loosen the connector
barrel, then put the plug into the jack, then tighten the barrel. This not
only keeps the plug from accidentally coming out, but it also enforces good
contact.
The speaker cable is shown below.
You can see that the conductors are arranged in sets of six, for a total of
twenty-four.
In the second photo, a close-up
shows that the spiral repeats itself about every 1/8".
OK, so what does all this do for
the sound? I tested the Heimdalls with a Sony SACD player, BAT VK-5i
preamplifier, BAT VK-75SE power amplifier, and Magneplanar speakers.
I really didn't know what to
expect, but what I found was that the sound was not necessarily more
detailed, but rather, more delicate. Everything had a very fine edge to it.
Not sharp. Just delicate. It is very hard to put the sound into words, but
that is the best I can do. The sound was so finely woven, in fact, that I
found myself drifting off to sleep as romantic harp solos played. That does
not mean the sound was uninvolving or soporific. It simply felt so good, I
went into an Alpha state of meditation, which is one of the things I love to
do with chamber music.
The bench tests showed some
interesting
results. Capacitance for the
interconnects was about average, while the capacitance for the speaker
cables was the lowest we have measured so far. Inductance was about average
for both types of cables. Resistance was higher than average for
interconnects, but lower than average for the speaker cables.
I could not get a capacitance
reading at 100 kHz for the Heimdall speaker cables. The capacitance was
apparently too low to measure.
Conclusions
Although still not what one would
call "inexpensive", Nordost Heimdall cables give consumers the Valhalla
micro-mono-filament technology in what is at least, more affordable form.
I classify the sound as more
"delicate" than am used to (I am not wired with Valhalla at this point),
which I found to be incredibly relaxing.
- John E. Johnson, Jr. -