I did not do a direct a/b with nordost valhalla, but listened to a demo with them and my speakers. They are obviously very quick and an excellent cable. My own belief having outfitted my system with the sonorans is that they are comptetitive with nordost. I did a direct a/b with nordost red dawns and it was not close. The sonorans are quite transparant, but have a certain warmth that I missed in the valhallas. The red dawns are great but when put next to the sonorans sounded shrill. The valhallas did not suffer the same fate in my demo, but still seemed to deliver a speed to the sound that I didn't feel was true to the original recording. At some point it becomes a matter of taste. The cost difference is enormous, which made the decision easy. For anyone who thinks my decision was dollar based I am thoroughly happy with my decision and would not trade the sonorans for anything else. I didn't skimp. I have a Levinson Media 40 directing Revel Studio's, 4 embraces, voice, and 2 sub15s. A crt projector with faroudja vp 3000 proceed pmdt. Amps are HP 110s which drive the studios+voice. Anyway these are fantastic cables.