Banana plugs for Naim A5 speaker cable


Happy with AQ Suregrip 300 along with Chord signature jumpers. Cables bought from Signals originally installed AQ Suregrip 100 at speaker end and SA8 at the amp end.

What’s the additional Black and Yellow cables?

DG…

I know it’s repetitious but I get £1 for everyone who follows this link.

Not.

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These are the cables going to the high level connection on REL T9i.

Honestly soldering reasonably heavy gauge wires is not difficult … ensure you have a reasonably powerful iron with a big tip ideally around 60 watts… (you don’t want an electronics PCB iron and tip) you can get an old piece of wood and drill hole(s) in it as a jig for the plug connector… clean the wire and connector with some abrasive paper and to make it super easy use extra solder flux and put it on the NACA5 and plug connector and then heat them with the iron and a tinned tip - a tip with a bit of solder on it to help heat transfer - (a large tip will make this easier) and then after heating so the flux just starts to bubble apply solder… the flux will ensure the solder flows to make a good connection…. If unsure practice a couple of times before hand. Once complete, brush off any extra flakey dried flux from around the joint, as it is corrosive. The joint should look shiny, and smoothly flow between NACA5 and plug metal. If not on both accounts, simply re do.

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This post (and the rest of the thread) might help:

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Thanks again everyone. Perhaps to help someone in the future: I did find the Deltron banana plug mentioned here from two good US electronic suppliers: Mouser and Newark. The nickel ones are $3 each and the gold plated one $6 (each).

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This thread is perfect.
I also need new banana plugs on my nana 5 cable. The old ones came a bit loose.
I know the deletion ones.
But what about these

They get crimped only with a special tool. Sitting rock solid - a dealer showed me.

You can crimp the Deltron ones with the Airloc tool and they’re a lot cheaper.

Is crimping as effective as soldering?

You’ll probably get a 50/50 split of answers to a question like that!
Personally, mine are crimped and I’ve used them that way for a long time including those QED Airloc ones.
The one benefit of it being it’s much harder to make a mess of it (vs a soldered joint) and quicker.
A skilled pair of hands with the right tools will produce a superior result with a soldered plug, the matching of materials between the male and female of the connection is also important, the Naim SA8 plugs are Nickel plated to match the material of the NAP speaker outputs. Most speakers will use brass terminals that are gold plated and so the speaker end will require material matching accordingly.
Any of the options will work but if you want to do it properly, match terminal materials and solder the plugs!

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I bought NACA5 from TomTom Audio for the NACA5 on my Nait 50/Falcon LS3/5A system. It came terminated with Chord banana plugs on both ends without me specifying anything. I have no idea whether the plugs are crimped or soldered.

Thanks a lot.
The plugs are for kudos 606.
Seen a pic of the crossover - so golden will be better! Did not know that. .
As I really do not want to pull the cable out (dressed behind the rack) it will be the best option to ask my dealer to come by with airlocks and crimping tool.
Laying on the floor and soldering could be less optimal :laughing:

By the way - what is the diameter of the copper lead in naca5

As Mr. M indicated you are going to get a split on your crimp vs. solder connections. I’m in the camp that says it doesn’t really matter which method is used provided the joint between the plug and wire is made well. For crimping this usually means having to use the right crimping tool for the connector. Crimping with a generic tool or with something like a pair of pliers often does not work out well. For soldering I have found that a big help is to have some sort of simple DIY jig that firmly holds the cable and connector in place while you solder it.

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Naim have always advised to properly solder plugs to NACA5.

I did once compare some NACA5 at the factory that had arrived with crimped gold plugs on the end. It definitely sounded off compared to the lengths with soldered SA8s on. Of course, the gold plugs were probably partially to blame here.

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Crimping is better. This assumes correct crimping. Solder adds more material to the connection and can over time fracture. A proper crimp is gas tight. And many believe it sounds better. Both WBT and Furutech use crimped connections. There are of course exceptions, RCA plugs, XLR plugs… AC power is always crimped, most connections in cars and so on

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Thanks you both - that is the 50/50 situation mentioned above :joy:

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Get them soldered. :+1:t2:
Deltron and SA8s :heart_eyes:

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You’re welcome, it’s a pleasant distraction from moaning about Class D if nothing else :grinning:

I got my nac a5 5m pair from Signals UK, I requested Sa8 on amp end and banana plugs on speakers end, when received I got surprised to see the audioquest suregrip 100 on speakers end which was neither soldered nor crimped, As a biggest naim dealer in UK I was hoping to get the cables soldered as always educated by naim itself.