Speaker cable options

[Dan Turner]

When I had a bi-amp set-up i bought a set (4 * 3m mono lengths) of Atlas Hyper 2.0 cables, and they made a modest but distinct improvement over the Van Damme I was previously using.

When I bought my SuperNait I asked my dealer whether it was worth converting the cables to bi-wire my speakers (PMC TB2+ at that time) and that I had always found that single wiring with a single run of better quality cable was better. He advised the best thing to do was to single wire and to combine both conductors in each length into a single plug, to effectively double the cross-sectional area (i.e. making it "Hyper 4.0" basically) and isloate +ve and -ve from each other in their own screen/jacket.

This sounded sensible to me and I went ahead with that, but obviously I don't know what audible benefits that gave me over alternative arrangements because I changed the cable configuration at the same time as I got the SuperNait.

Since then I have bought my Neat speakers (which were factory made as a single wire version - contrary to the normal spec), and things are sounding fantastic. The only slight reservation I have is that on some tracks the bass is a little too strong and I also get the sense that it's just slowing things down slightly. I've got the speakers about as far from side and back walls as I can feasibly have them, and they are toed in so that the baffles are dead-on to the main listening position. I've tried bunging the ports with some rolled-up socks and that cuts the bass too much and most things end up being too bass-light.

So finally to my question!

Do people think that I would be able to subtly trim-down the bass output by changing my speaker cables and if so, what should I go for? I can obviously try converting 2 lengths of the Hyper 2.0's back to their normal configuration, but I'm hesitant to do that because if it doesn't work or I also lose in other areas or overall performance, then I will have just cut off £20 worth of air-lock plugs! However it stands to reason that reducing the cross-sectional area ought to tone down the bass slightly.

I don't want to make any drastic changes - we're talking about a slight bass excess on maybe 10% of my music collection.

As a supplementary question - do I need to have a minimum length of cable with my amp, or is there an optimal length?

Thanks all.

 

[drummerman]

I'm not sure what to suggest other than contacting either your dealer or Naim for advise. They know best how speaker cable affects their products. That or some light foam lining to the ports, leaving the middle section open?

 

[Dan Turner]

drummerman: some light foam lining to the ports, leaving the middle section open?

Funny you should say that - I was thinking of trying exactly that, but didn't mentioned it in my OP because I thought I'd already said enough and was starting to ramble! I am going to try to find something suitable to try that.

I am planning to speak to my dealer, although I have a feeling that Naim will just tell me to use NACA5 (which I am by no means opposed to), but I was hoping to get some alternative options, as even my dealer reckons you can do better - in fact he specifically said that Atlas Hyper 2.0 performed better with Naim than NACA5 in his experience.