Nordost Valhalla 2 Ethernet cable

Where the printed specification was slightly awry at first was in the listing of two overall braid screens, when Valhalla 2 actually includes three in succession before meeting the cable’s final outer sheath. The middle and outermost braids are now also detailed as being significantly larger in size than the first inner braid screen. Grounded from plug to plug, this seems to act as a floating screen without itself being connected to system earth.

The plugs are impressive pieces of engineering, all die-cast zinc alloy with a full gold plating, based on industrial field-termination plugs. They slot snugly into the usual network ports and are removed the normal way with a plastic release tab, here sturdily executed and not likely to snap off as with many mass-produced versions. The cable comes with detachable caps to keep dust from the tiny inset pins when not in circuit.

At just over 8 mm thick, the V2 ethernet cable is comparable with the Valhalla 2 analogue RCA/XLR cable, reasonably pliant although it will resist being coiled into tight loops. The cable is finished with the familiar semi-opaque white jacket along with wooden cylinders each end, these branded with name and serial number. One barrel is also marked with cable directionality arrows, and given the bi-directional application of wire pairs in the full-duplex gigabit standard, this is a can of worms best left unopened for now. Nordost supplied two cables for test, nominal 1-metre and 4-metre lengths, which were thoroughly burned-in on the company’s Vidar machine, which also now accommodates network cables.

Nordost describes its top three cable ranges as mechanically tuned in length, and to this end actual supplied lengths are a little longer than specified. In the case of the V2 ethernet, the samples were closer to 103 and 412 cm, with a puzzling discovery that they did not sound the same – the four-metre cable was clearly the better performing of the two. Where the four-metre was relaxed and flowing, the 1-metre was more clenched and highly strung. Further discussion with Nordost revealed this to be a recognised theme, with biggest performance improvements arguably found between one- and two-metre lengths. Unwieldy coiled bunches of Nordost cable chaining together a system may not be so elegant, but by golly I now appreciate the need to supersize sometimes.

A phenomenon that I noticed ten years ago in an earlier age of computer audio was how music could sound different depending on its storage source – with variable results depending on whether the digital audio was derived from an internal hard disk, direct-attached USB drive, or streamed from NAS over a local network. And typically, the network-attached storage was the least-best in terms of digital coloration, sounding repeatably less natural in extended trials.

Listening to the Valhalla 2 ethernet cable reminded me of those differences again, only more starkly this time, as its effect in the system was to remove the haze and subliminal jumble that network-streamed audio can introduce.

In soundstage terms, V2 ethernet cable set the panorama gently further back, making a return to reference Cat 5e and Cat 6 cables sound almost unendurably too forward and lairy. It made me wonder how much the Nordost secret of network cable manufacture lay in the latest Category 8 standard, with its additional screening and improved bandwidth. But no, substitution with three different off-the-shelf Cat 8 cables bought in specially showed that while the latter were a trade-up on Cat 5/6 performance, Valhalla 2 ethernet cable was further removed again from any other available SFTP cable.

To quantify the changes further, bass replay was notably tighter and better controlled, appearing as essentially smear-free against the bloom of the reference cables. Top-end detail was improved, if more subtly, but enough to make it easier to pull apart ride and crash cymbals in a cluttered rock kit. Noise floors were perceptibly lowered, allowing for a more nuanced ambience, to the point of allowing the character of older recordings’ varied tape hiss to shine through. These kind of revelations were not at the expense of exaggerating flaws in archive material, merely to make such artefacts’ presence another layer that could be sifted away from other musical strands. In fact, it is the V2 ethernet cable’s very lack of digital edge, of undue emphasis, that make it a natural performer, and night-and-day A-B demonstrations so easy.

Expectations were kept in check for this review, and yet now I have to concede that this is a network cable that’s not just a bit sonically different, it’s a palpable triumph in digital audio sound reproduction.