Chord cables

I’m thinking about upgrading cables before I do anything else. I remember playing with Chord vs Naim vs Nordost back when I worked at a Naim dealer so many years ago. The Chord was my favorite by far, followed by Naim, and I remember thinking Nordost was a poor pairing choice. I used Nordost with Rega and loved it. When I replaced my Brio with XS3, I replaced the Nordost with a few bits of BlueJeans twisted pair for fun. Yup, there it was. The Blue Jeans was a better match in almost way for me. Long story long, I’ve got my eye on two Chord ranges that I think are probably appropriate. So this is my question: With the XS line of stuff and Harbeths, is the Chord Shawline sufficient or is it worth spending twice the coin for the Epic range?

I’ve used the Chord Epic on Harbeth SHL5+ with great success. A full sounding cable with deep enveloping bass and sweet extended treble. I preferred the Epic to NACA5 in my system with the Harbeth. I do not have experience with the Chord Shawline.

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Hi,

I’ve tried various Chord cables between my CDS3 and 282 but have always come back to Naim. I do prefer Chord Odyssey speaker cable over Naca though. You’ll really need to do a comparison.

Regards,

Lindsay

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Conversely, I ran with Odyssey and NACA5 for a while but overall ended up preferring NACA5, finding Odyssey a bit too soft and lacking in tension - fewer goosebump moments. Note though that NACA5 takes an age to properly run in (think 100 hours plus) , but once it does, it really opens up and gains hugely in spacial dimension and in top and bottom end definition. I’m convinced that this is the reason why NACA5 polarises opinion so much - those who swear by it at one end, and at the other, those who dismiss NACA5 but who have likely never had the opportunity to hear it at its best, which is a great shame.

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Richard yes the Naca I tried was Peter Swain’s demo set so I’m sure it will have had 100 hours on it. In my experience speaker cable is speaker dependent as well as personal preference.

Regards,

Lindsay

Lindsay, true indeed, and here my using Naim speakers probably gave NACA5 a big advantage.

hi @SimonB, I can only comment on Chord speaker cable ,as I too, like @LindsayM, use Chord Odyssey.This replaced Chord Rumour a few years back and I am pleased to say has performed well and has certainly not been a bottle-neck in the system as I have climbed the Naim upgrade path.Certainly worth an audition, if possible :+1:

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Naca5 :ok_hand:

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Chord Epic is another level up, better base, cleaner midrange.

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No doubt, something to check out, if I ever get that itch :+1:

Is there anyone here following over the new Chord power block to come …any rumours?

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I had chord oddysey for a while in my system and I preferred it to naca by a margin. Have since moved to TQ black which I prefer even more. The only chord cable I have is Shawline usb that I have just fitted before my Innuos Phoenix

Very happy with my Chord Epic Twin here, there’s also the bonus of increased flexibility which makes sense to me …

Out of curiosity Richard,what did you think of SL speaker cables in your system?

I haven’t used SL speaker cables in my system. I’d probably have to get a mortgage for a 10m pair…

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Yes,big price tag for that length.thanks for the reply

Hi Ryder,
did you use only the Chord Epic (X?) speaker cable or also the analogue/digital cables?

Hi Airdavid, I only used the Chord Epic Twin speaker cables, not the X or analogue/digital cables. I now use Signature XL speaker cables though which replaced the Epic about 2 years ago.

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Also with Chord speakers cable the general recommended rule with Naim amps is the minimum length 2x3,5 m?

The 3.5 m for NACA5 are a result of its electrical properties, so the length for Chord will depend on their properties, which they don’t publish :slight_smile: I would ask Chord for their recommendation (though modern Naim amps are not that fussy)

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