IC´s:Stealth Indra, Prana Cosmos or Kubala

IMO, the Valhalla is a dated product. Nordost is working on a replacement. If you want to save many dollars and get better than Valhalla performance consider Pure Note

No offense Eddy , but to my ears in my system , the Pure Note Paragon , while good , is far inferior to the Valhalla , much less the Kubala Emotions. I in fact sold my Paragons , all of them the afternoon I auditioned the Emotions. No contest , in my opinion . But I respect your opinion and to each his own.

After a summer of personally getting to know Brainwater (I love the moniker) I must tell you he is as detail orientated, if not more so than me. He makes his decisions on cables and tweaks after long auditions where his attention to detail is beyond any I have seen. I feel confident in what his experiences are, and so I thank you for voicing your opinion on the Pure Note. For me I will not need to audition them!

Just needed to say that...

Thanks for the kind comments JD . I am rather obsessive but you are yourself serious and dedicated . People who know you respect you as a person of experience , knowledge and attention to minute details that many seasoned audiophiles overlook as cumbersome. One look at your fabulous system is enough to see that. Again , thank you. On the Pure Note issue , I am not in any way dissapointed with their performance. I still have a pair left for a bedroom system . They are fast , detailed and a steal for the price they sell for when the half off sale is offered. To compare them to the above cables is not fair for a few reasons . Performance being foremost but they sell for a fraction of the cost and to be fair , its not fair to compare . They are simply not in the same league but their price performance ratio is outstanding. Break in is legnthy and critical with them also. Again , thank you for the unexpected nice comments on my compulsive obsessive disorder. hehehe

Brainwater: Were your Paragons the newer "enhanced" version"? Pure Note went to a ribbon wire in this version for higher accuracy. I have owned the originals which were a bit lean and dry. Compared to the Valhalla, the Enhanced Paragon has much more body in the mids and a better focused high-end compared to my well worn Valhallas. Of coures this is JMO in my system.