I’m not sure why you find it funny. Everything Naim choose is based upon best performance for the money - this is always done through listening over the years and building up a comprehensive knowledge base, while also auditioning new options and possibilities. This is an important part of R&D.
Of course cost is also a factor - it would be daft to throw the lions share of the budget for making an Atom on just the speaker connectors, but don’t dismiss those basic looking 4mm connector sockets and plugs - they work really well and allow more money to spent elsewhere. The trick is in getting the best performing device you can for the money and spending money where it counts the most.
I know it’s more than a month later, but I just came across this. How did you get on?
I soldered some NAC A5 to Naim bananas within the last few days. I am not sure of the gauge but it is at least 10. I used a 100W iron to do it.
The tips in the link Richard have are good. I drilled two 4.5mm holes in some scrap wood, 19mm apart to match the Naim plugs. Then removed the bananas from the plastic (make sure you do this!) and poked them the holes.
Then trim the NAC A5, bend the ends a bit and I clamped the cable to the wood to hold the wires in the slots of each banana plug.
Even the 100W iron took over a minute to heat the join enough the get proper solder flow. You need to put in a fair bit of solder as it’s a large cavity to fill, but not too much otherwise it would overflow and end up further along the banana, which would compromise the intentionally loose fit in the plastic plug.
Yes they’ve told me that they’ll substitute plugs per special order. I’ll need very long lengths as the cables will go inside the walls and one has to go up and over an in-wall gas fireplace unit, so this will be a special order. They seem happy to use Audioquest plugs.
I’ve used the AQ500 and the AQ1000… I much prefer the WBT or even the Furutech Bananas… On the speaker end I’d do Spade’s they make a bit more contact. Since you are in the US you could get the connectors from VH Audio and he’ll loan you the WBT Crimping tool. FYI both WBT and the Furutech are locking bananas !
I’ve used WBT bananas and spades. My speakers use WBT female connectors. FWIW: I don’t think my AQ500 bananas are worse than the WBTs. I didn’t really like the WBT locking bananas. They don’t stay snug so I was always checking them. Now they sit in their boxes unused.
Ok first I don’t want you to think that I meant in any way thay AQ plugs aren’t an excellent quality product they are.
What I prefer about the WBT bananas and spades is their use of “Ferrules” to terminate cables to their connectors. Also I’m speaking of the WBT Nextgen product. So a ferrule is a thin metal tube that the bare wire is inserted into then crimped with a special WBT crimping tool. When crimped correctly one ends up with one side of the ferrule crimped the other side is left rounded which matches up to inside of the connectors. The little screws can then be tightened down on the ferrule making an excellent connection that is virtually gas tight.
There are several good videos on uTube showing the crimping process. Fwiw I’ve used crimped ferrules on Furutech and AQ 1000 connectors. Both bananas and spades.
Thanks. What you describe is something I have already used. My WBT terminators (both locking banana and spade) are the NextGen versions. I even have the necessary crimping tool for the ferrules, although if I ever use them again I’ll need to source a new set of the ferrules.
When I mentioned the female connector, what I meant is my speakers (Dynaudio Confidence C2 Platinum), use the WBT receivers on the back of the speaker, and they accept both spade and banana. I use the banana connector for my speaker cable and the spade connector for the REL high-level cable.
I really just didn’t like the locking banana. The spade worked fine. In the meantime I have yet to have any issues with the AQ500. They stay put just fine and are very easy to deal with.
Thanks for the advice, Richard! My supplier helped me by soldering my speaker cables to the Naim metal plug, and the speakers now sound great with the Atom!
