Naim speaker cable - for all those in doubt.

[admin_exported]

Ive just plugged in my NAC-A5 and have been listening to various genres over the past hour. The difference between these cables and my 15yr old QED Silver Anniversary is like night and day, its unbelievable!

Of course, How they would fair against a £5-10/m cable I don't know, so I couldn't tell you whether it was worth the £180 (inc. terminated ends and Naim plugs at one end).

What I can tell you is that everything is WAY more seperated now, there is also bags more clout behind the bass but at the same time its less imposing, if that makes sense?

Only gripe is its bloody stiff stuff, so getting it tucked away neatly is nigh on impossible!

 

[the record spot]

Ah, the old "night and day"....!

 

[the record spot]

...and was anybody doubting about Naim's speaker cable? I mean, any more than they might about any other cable? FWIW, I ditched Audioquest Type IV (currently around £13/m I hear) for 6m of 400-strand OFC cable, unterminated. Cost, £18. Performance is not like night and day, which leads me to think the OFC and the AQ are rather close.

 

[plastic penguin]

How does one define 'night and day' when it comes to audio?

My little'un's clockwork record player and the Leema is 'night and day', but loathed to use the term ordinairly.

 

[Singslinger]

Fior years I used Naim's NAC A5 in my all-Naim system as per the company's recommendation.

Then I discovered that you could use any cable with similar electrical properties such as those offered by Chord. The switch was, er not quite night and day but I enjoyed more detail and body to the sound. Mind you, the Chord was twice the price of the Naim (I can't remember the model - Odyessy or something like that. One level below Signature).

 

[chebby]

Awful stuff.

Lived with it for 2 years (Naim system).

Only bought it because Naim instructions (and Naim dealer) sort of insisted on it for reasons of electrical safety. (Amp would vapourise without at least 3.5m x 2 of it apparently.)

Later found out that Linn K20 was much cheaper, much more flexible and identical to the previous Naim cable (NAC-A4) and would also not vapourise Naim amp.

Later still I found out that 3m of any sensible figure-of-eight, copper speaker cable of decent gauge would not fry amp.

Later, later still I also found out that 2m or 2.5m would have been fine with modern Naim amps (like my Nait 5i) and that the dealer was making himself at least 3.5 x 2 x £15 (plus fee for terminating with Naim connectors and banana plugs) on almost every new Naim amp he sold!

 

[Singslinger]

Just a small postscript to followon what Chebby said: for 18 years I never knew that Naim frowned on biwiring because it apparently doubles the electrical properties of the cable and could, well, vaporize the amp. I happily used biwired sets of NAC A5 into my NAP 135 mono blocks throughout this period but incredibly, with no adverse effects on the amps - nothing at all. I'm not saying Naim's warnings aren't valid - maybe I was just lucky - or that others needn't worry if they want to biwire with Naim but I did have a shock when I found out.

 

[MajorFubar]

Well I won't judge or doubt.
But for me £180 would be a lot of money to drop on cables where the same money i'm sure would reap greater benefits elsewhere in my system.
If you've got ten grands worth of kit then I suppose that probably doesn't apply.

 

[BigH]

Awful stuff.

Lived with it for 2 years (Naim system).

Only bought it because Naim instructions (and Naim dealer) sort of insisted on it for reasons of electrical safety. (Amp would vapourise without at least 3.5m x 2 of it apparently.)

Later found out that Linn K20 was much cheaper, much more flexible and identical to the previous Naim cable (NAC-A4) and would also not vapourise Naim amp.

Later still I found out that 3m of any sensible figure-of-eight, copper speaker cable of decent gauge would not fry amp.

Later, later still I also found out that 2m or 2.5m would have been fine with modern Naim amps (like my Nait 5i) and that the dealer was making himself at least 3.5 x 2 x £15 (plus fee for terminating with Naim connectors and banana plugs) on almost every new Naim amp he sold!

I think if I was told that Naim amp was that fragile I would tell them to keep the Naim amp and cables.

 

[chebby]

I think if I was told that Naim amp was that fragile I would tell them to keep the Naim amp and cables.

I had already bought the Nait 5i and CD5i at a very favourable discount and the cable termination (soldering on all the 4mm plugs and Naim connectors) was done free in my case, so it wasn't really losing me that much money given that I might have spent half as much on my own choice of cable at the time. So, on balance, I saved about £200 and lost about £50.

This was all 4 years ago anyway.

Almost two years ago I sold the lot (NAC-A5 cables included) and barely lost any money on the whole system (Nait 5i, CD5i, NAT05, n-Sats) so my Naim ownership experience was suprisingly cheap overall. It was 2 years of excellent sound quality but mounting exasperation with cables and boxes and clutter (especially after a DAC and a turntable and phono-stage were added) so, eventually it all went.

I'm not going to slag off the Naim system I had. It was my sensibilities - regarding space and clutter and the looks of the gear - that were offended. Not my ears.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing (back to NAC-A5 cables) and my objections were not their quality but their cost, the minimum lengths (too much for what I needed), and their sheer unwieldiness (heavy, thick and requiring heating with a hairdryer to bend them around corners).

 

[tyranniux42]

Just a small postscript to followon what Chebby said: for 18 years I never knew that Naim frowned on biwiring because it apparently doubles the electrical properties of the cable and could, well, vaporize the amp. I happily used biwired sets of NAC A5 into my NAP 135 mono blocks throughout this period but incredibly, with no adverse effects on the amps - nothing at all. I'm not saying Naim's warnings aren't valid - maybe I was just lucky - or that others needn't worry if they want to biwire with Naim but I did have a shock when I found out.

would depend on lengths used, 7 meters of bi wire would have approx equal electrical reactive properties (capacitance and inductance) of a single run at 3.5 meters.

as for fragile amps, naim use the inductance of the cable to load the output instead of adding a zobel network in the output stage. More than one way to skin a cat...

 

[Anonymous]

I knew the metaphor police would be after me for saying that... 😉

 

[jjbomber]

Ah, the old "night and day"....!

I had some direction naim interconnects that I wired up back to front. The difference was day and night.

 

[Frank Harvey]

Used to use NACA5 (may have been A4) back in its early days in relatively budget systems. A Rotel amp like the RA930AX went amazingly well with a pair of Celestion 3's or 5's when connected with the Naim cable. Other cables just didn't have the same sort of presence. And a few years ago when we had an open evening using a rather high end Naim setup into a rather large pair of Dynaudio Evidence Temptation, we initially set it up with Chord Odyssey. Changing to the Naim cable just sounded so much clearer. And that wasn't bias expectation, as the Naim cable was cheaper 🙂

 

[nopiano]

As someone who intrinsically feels that amps should not self-destruct, I used to distrust Naim for their apparent dependency on cable. However, in their early days there was no Naim cable. I used a borrowed NAC12/NAP250 (if I remember the numbers correctly) for a few weeks on my regular 79 strand, which was the standard of its day (c. 1975?). No problem.

i have no doubt Naim cable betters stock stuff, nor that Chord cables can improve on those, at a price. I often wonder if Chord's influence relates to its proximity to Salisbury! Must be the stones?

 

[chebby]

As someone who intrinsically feels that amps should not self-destruct, I used to distrust Naim for their apparent dependency on cable. However, in their early days there was no Naim cable. I used a borrowed NAC12/NAP250 (if I remember the numbers correctly) for a few weeks on my regular 79 strand, which was the standard of its day (c. 1975?). No problem.

I recall that RS 56 strand cables (twisted together) used to be recommended.