What are the “Best practices” for cable dressing with Naim equipment? I have to admit, despite a mega-investment in Naim and Chord gear, I haven’t been paying attention to the cable dressing part, now keen to explore that bit yet hard to find info in one place… Any good online write-up on the topic?
The main tips I’ve picked up from others are, free hanging and not stressed, and separation between power, signal and speaker cables and avoid touching walls, furniture, floors etc. Easier said than done I think.
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Hi thijazi,
I think the best places to start are to not coil any excess speaker cable - wrap it in a figure of eight. Also, don’t allow any signal carrying cables to run along side any mains cables - if they must meet, make sure they cross at 90 degrees to each other.
Regards
Neil.
I too is confuse by if the 252 and SuperCap case, does the Burndy need to really touch the SNAIC cable or not. I am receiving conflicting advice. Some said need to loop over and touch. Some said don’t. Is Burndy consider power cable and thus cannot touch the signal cable like SNAIC? Or power cable meaning power cord?
A definitive guide is indeed needed once and for all.
Surely easier said than done, especially if you have more boxes and a tight space at the rear of the components.
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I was told by the dealer I bought my s/h 252 from to loop the SNAIC around the Burndy a few times so they stay together. That’s how I have it now. When my 300DR arrives in a couple weeks I plan to rebuild my brain/brawn Fraims and re-site/re-dress everything.
It would be nice to have a FAQ on cable best practices.
Yep, a definitive guide is needed, it is bad enough trying to figure out the naming conventions used with our beloved Naim interconnects and components 
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This is how I loop it twice on the cable. But somehow feel it is wrong and stressing too much on the cable. Some says need to go in parallels and just briefly touch will do.
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THat’s what I’m doing. The only difference is my SCDR and 252 are on different racks so they hang differently, but I twisted the SNAIC around the Burndy like you did.
Also leave all Din connector nuts loose and pull back 1mm from being fully in.
Make sure you have one or more Dreamcatchers in the room as well.
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Oh you mean the DIN is not supposed to be tighten? As in do not twist the locking mechanism? I tighten all my DIN btw.
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I purchased 0.5m cables for the psu as it’s one shelf below the SN2. Might not be ideal but reduces the spaghetti behind the boxes.
Thought about getting the hiline shortened by 300mm as it would then hang free - which is worse slightly shorter or touching and clashing with equipment/cables…
My advice is to run the SNAIC and Burndy as closely parallel to one another as possible without touching. If that’s not possible then one loop (to keep the SNAIC close to the Burndy but minimise actual contact) is fine.
You want the burndy to be as unstressed as possible. A trick is to hold to by the connectors in each hand, with each connector orientated exactly like the sockets, and then gently swing the cable while twisting the connectors slightly. You should then end up with a cable that is “formed” to fit easily straight into the sockets. This gives very real performance benefits.
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AFAIK, Naim don’t do SNAICs shorter (or longer) than standard 1.25m, this being the optimum length.
Wow tks for this definitive answer. So I guess mine is totally wrong and stressful to the cable. I should re-dress to the following:
- Run the 2 cables in parallel as close but not touching. The key point here is not touching as the Pre-amp manual also did not mention touching but do mention as “close” as possible.
Sometimes, try as you might, it can be difficult to get them nicely parallel. If that’s the case, then a single loop of the SNAIC over the Burndy should help, but don’t do any more than that if possible.
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Interestingly the usual advice for cables dressing is to leave them loose, hanging. The goal being to avoid mechanical stress.
I’m a bit dubious about such a solution.
Hanging cables undergo a permanent stress, caused by a permanent force: gravity.
I use quite a different approach. I gently shape the cables, then attach them to an aluminium structure I tinkered. The cables then “rest” on foam loops which are attached to that structure. The cables never touch the rack, nor the floor (except for the PowerLines). This probably leaves some mechanical stress, but really not much. Like such:
(This is an old picture. I did some optimisations when I installed the NAP500DR)
Burndy and SNAIC from the NAC552DR run parallel to each other without touching one another.
Speaker cables simply hang on the air, touching nothing, using cheap threads.
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May I said this is the best Burndy and SNAIC parallel dressing I see. Totally parallel and not touching. I got to find the foam to do it myself! Tks for sharing the picture.
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