It will be interested in your take on Nordost XLR cables. While I am familiar with the brand I am not familiar with the cables.
Having spent more than 20 years in Naim world our peak performance cable is considered to be Chord MUSIC. The MUSIC cable used for many years in my Naim system is now back with Chord and in the process of being transformed into an XLR cable. Once returned I will slot it between my Rossini APEX and DarTZeel and compare to a Black Cat Graceline level 2 XLR (I stole from my Stax headphone setup).
Gregg, very interesting. Even if the Dartās balanced and unbalanced interfaces performed almost equally well, the advantage of dCSā balanced interface should come through in slightly better sound quality.
In fact, looking at it from a strictly stereophile measurement standpoint, the Dartās Balanced interface has better Frequency response, better THD+N (into higher impedances at least), and lower noise-floor!
If your dCS and the Dart Preamp are far apart, I highly recommend MITās Oracle MA-X SHD (their TOTL Analogue XLR cable). Itās stunningly good, trounced my Argento cables effortlessly.
@glevethan I think thereās a lot more people like us, but darTZell does not invest in marketing and shows, but for me they are the best.
Iām happy for you, but Iām not in a āPre+powerā mode, because I donāt have place to put the gear but because I truly believe that the price diference does not justify, but I respect fully the other opiniƵes. Other thing for me is importante, less cables and so i can invest in better cabling.
I use the XLR from Nordost, now the TYR2 but Friday ill receive the Valhalla 2 XLR that is in Vidar process of bur in .
I just arrive from snow vacations at home at 16h, its 21h now and im listening to music until now, my wife told me āyou are with music hangoverā I was
@glevethan I only had a right comparison with the transparent cable in this set up and i think the Nordost is a better āmarriageā with the darTZell and dCS than the Transparent cable.
The Nordost have something special, is like they do not put anything on the way of the signal and when you think things can not go further, you move to the next step and they do.
Is the first time im doing just one step up on the range, i always did at least 2 steps up (Heimdall 2 to TYR2) and felt a huge difference. The gain i had in SQ from all spectrum was amazing.
Now i have the Odin as the main power cable to the QB8 and i will only go for one step up to the Valhalla 2 but from what I heard on my dealer with a system with all TYR2 and changing only the XLR from the dac i was very happy with the result, i canāt wait to tomorrow have my new set of power and XLR cables.
The the speakers cables TYR2 outperform in my opinion the original Valhalla and thatās why i will see if i go to the Valhalla 2 or the Odin 2, but the Odin is very very expensive and the Valhalla 2 is very close to the SQ of the original Odin that was already in the TOP of the game. If i go to the Odin 2 speaker cables i also have to change at least the XLR and even given my current cables to the trade itās a lot of money. Lets see, thatās why i like to up-grade cables from line to line to see if the up-grade justify the cost.
Like i say, i strongly advice to keep all with Nordost and do step by step but for my experience, every up-grade was a huge step on performance and Nordost have thingĀ“s i love, soundstage, speed and detail.
Tomorrow after i have my new set of cables, Iāll give an up-date.
Another thing, go to a Nordost dealer and ask to try the grounding system from Nordost, the QKore6, you will be blown away with the improvement and dont cost a legā¦. If the QKore and cables are not burn in, give it a week and you will seeā¦
Anup thank you for the recommendation. Unfortunately I had a look at the price and almost had a heart attack. At those kind of numbers, Ben @all2ofme would insist I purchase a Vivaldi clock instead
Before the clock I recommend the grounding, the switch and cables first, the up-grade in sound quality is higherā¦ Donāt forget that the grounding eliminate a lot of the work that an external clock do and have even more advantages. It was one of the best up-grades i did.
I already have a Rossini clock which was purchased at the same time as the DAC - imho this should be the first purchase.
My good friend @all2ofme Ben keeps on pushing me to upgrade to a Vivaldi clock. The problem is, he can be very persuasive. This is witnessed by the fact I am now the owner of a new pair of DarTZeelsš
I was 
