It's the NACA5.
Should have twigged ages ago, when accompanying a friend looking for speakers for his Naim gear. We only went to dealers who carried Naim, and they always set up the systems with NACA5 cable.
The majority of Naim owners use NACA5 cable partly because it's what Naim make and recommend, but also because in the case of older Naim amplifiers it's a requirement.
The effect of having a cable geared towards the amplifier and not the speakers is to give a level playing field to all speakers used with it. No more using a cable to bring out the qualities of a speaker (taming treble, cleaning up the bass etc), it's the speaker that has to bring out the qualities of the amplifier and cable combination. Whether that speaker is inclined towards the warm or the ruthlessly revealing doesn't matter, the point is that it must work with the amplifier and cable combination.
Thinking about it further, this is the way it should be. The speaker cable should be entirely transparent in combination with the amp, just as it should with the speakers. Using a cable to try to tune a system implies that the speaker does not match the amplifier and cable combination to begin with.
Extending Naim's philosophy further, it is not just the amplifier and cable combination that needs to be seen as a single unit, but the speaker and cable combination, too. The constant therefore is always the cable.
What I'm suggesting is the cable becomes effectively becomes the constant when combined with the source or output media. So,if, for example, upgrading the amp, you would try it with the existing cable/speaker combination, and if looking to upgrade the speakers, then you'd audition them with the existing amplifier and cables.
Thinking about it, there's no sense in doing otherwise. Continuing with the speaker upgrade example, you should always try speakers with the same amp+cable combination, as that combination is the point of reference. If the sound seems to lack a minor something, as in the treble is slightly forward or whatever, then the worst thing to do is to swap in a different cable, since you no longer have a point of reference. Instead, change speakers until you find a good match. The same obviously applies when looking for a new amplifier, it should be auditioned with the same cable. It's a test pair strategy, where the cable is the one constant.
I'm not really sure if the NACA5 is the best cable around, but I like the idea behind it. Neither am I suggesting everyone buys Naim or NACA5, more that speaker cable is bought only once, after which it becomes part of the test pair. After all, I presume What Hi*Fi tests in just this fashion, and makes recommendation from their reference cable/component set.
This methodology may not be good news for cable manufacturers but it is for manufacturers of amplifiers and loudspeakers. There's another big plus, too. Were everyone to adopt a cable-constant strategy, there'd be no more endless cable debates on HiFi forums.
Should have twigged ages ago, when accompanying a friend looking for speakers for his Naim gear. We only went to dealers who carried Naim, and they always set up the systems with NACA5 cable.
The majority of Naim owners use NACA5 cable partly because it's what Naim make and recommend, but also because in the case of older Naim amplifiers it's a requirement.
The effect of having a cable geared towards the amplifier and not the speakers is to give a level playing field to all speakers used with it. No more using a cable to bring out the qualities of a speaker (taming treble, cleaning up the bass etc), it's the speaker that has to bring out the qualities of the amplifier and cable combination. Whether that speaker is inclined towards the warm or the ruthlessly revealing doesn't matter, the point is that it must work with the amplifier and cable combination.
Thinking about it further, this is the way it should be. The speaker cable should be entirely transparent in combination with the amp, just as it should with the speakers. Using a cable to try to tune a system implies that the speaker does not match the amplifier and cable combination to begin with.
Extending Naim's philosophy further, it is not just the amplifier and cable combination that needs to be seen as a single unit, but the speaker and cable combination, too. The constant therefore is always the cable.
What I'm suggesting is the cable becomes effectively becomes the constant when combined with the source or output media. So,if, for example, upgrading the amp, you would try it with the existing cable/speaker combination, and if looking to upgrade the speakers, then you'd audition them with the existing amplifier and cables.
Thinking about it, there's no sense in doing otherwise. Continuing with the speaker upgrade example, you should always try speakers with the same amp+cable combination, as that combination is the point of reference. If the sound seems to lack a minor something, as in the treble is slightly forward or whatever, then the worst thing to do is to swap in a different cable, since you no longer have a point of reference. Instead, change speakers until you find a good match. The same obviously applies when looking for a new amplifier, it should be auditioned with the same cable. It's a test pair strategy, where the cable is the one constant.
I'm not really sure if the NACA5 is the best cable around, but I like the idea behind it. Neither am I suggesting everyone buys Naim or NACA5, more that speaker cable is bought only once, after which it becomes part of the test pair. After all, I presume What Hi*Fi tests in just this fashion, and makes recommendation from their reference cable/component set.
This methodology may not be good news for cable manufacturers but it is for manufacturers of amplifiers and loudspeakers. There's another big plus, too. Were everyone to adopt a cable-constant strategy, there'd be no more endless cable debates on HiFi forums.
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