Chord Signature X vs Naim Powerline

Hi-Fi Corner
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Did anyone directly compare these against each other?

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Yes the signature X is better - more detailed

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Does it not ruin the Naim sound? Some cable I tried before do things better such as detail, blackness/silence, soundstage but lose on PRaT reducing the sound I bought Naim for.

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I am demoing a SignatureX at home and I find it quite bright. Very detailed but it lacks any warmth, in combination with ATC’s the highs are overly lit. It’s impressive and still musical but the over prominent highs and lack of warmth makes it also hard to relax with these cable. Maybe too detailed? Also, music is a bit slower sounding than with my Belden cable which gives me a reduced PRaT feeling.

Has anymore directly compared the Powerline yet to this cable? Not a lot of responses here…
In the Netherlands the dealers almost never use Powerlines and they all prefer to use Chord (Naim and Chord are represented by the same distributor here) so it’s hard to home demo the Powerline. Often their argument is that Chord kept improving power cables over time while Naim hasn’t improved the Powerline in nearly 20 years.

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Naim cables were designed for Naim components. Less hifi more music is a cliche but never more true than when it comes to Powerlines v Chord Sig X IMO. I like the Belden mains cables also. I have one feeding my KRad2. The Belden Cat 6 is also very good IMO

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It’s all a bit disappointing to see “only” a Furutech FI-E11 (G) Schuko connector on a €1750 cable.

Perhaps a good way to put it is like the soul (emotion?) of the music is gone with the Chord

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I have not a moments regret swapping Powerlines for Chord Signature X cables. More detail and less background noise. Not a bit tiring.

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I’ve had Chord Sarum, Vertere Redline, Oephi Transcendence, Audioqueat and many other power cables on Naim boxes but always preferred Powerline.

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I’ve also tried Serum, Redline, Transcendence, Russ Andrews and powerline. For me, Redline beats everything. The thing is though as with all these things, unless you try all you can afford you will never really know. Plus, we are all different, so we hear things differently.

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I thought they all changed the sound but with everything else than Powerline sound became less cohesive and Naim. But some might like a drift and some might get exited just hearing a power cable makes a difference. I’d recommend everyone changing power cable from Powerline to 2 months later put it in again.

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But we have to factor in that the Chord sound has significant appeal from a hifi sound perspective and in my case only when I went back to Naim did I hear the advantage of that Naim cohesion that you refer to. Then there is ownership bias. Perfectly understandable. Who wants to think that they’ve spent thousands of £€$ on a mistake? Then of course some of the guys will just simply prefer that impressive over less is more sound philosophy. It’s all one subjective merry go round isn’t it?

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For ÂŁ260 in s/h, the Powerline is a perfect mains cable.

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I have so far tried Furutech S022N, DPS 4.1 (both with 50 NCF connectors), Belden with pure copper Monosaudio connectors and now Chord SignatureX.
The Belden is so far the best in musical enjoyment and doesn’t change the Naim sound. Not that it is an extremely high end cable but it’s simply pretty neutral and doesn’t do anything wrong. It improves over a Hydra with updated connectors and a lot better than the standard power cord. It costs about €120 and beats the Furutech and Chord that both cost about €1800 each. Highly recommended, this DIY cable.
The Furutech didn’t match well on the Naim devices. It made things too relaxed. The Chord is very detailed, quiet and fast but too bright and the mids lack warmth. It makes me keep turning the volume down with orchestral music that contain trumpets.
Will try to find a dealer that can borrow the Powerline from the Naim distributor.

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I agree with your findings CNNL. There really isn’t any ‘right or wrong’ here though which is a notion that is a little too sobering for some who like to turn their personal perspective into universal law. Happy experimenting :+1:

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Definitely. It is more a matter of taste and system matching. The Chord might work very well with other speakers but my ATC’s are not speakers that I would describe as very colored speakers. Very lively though so the Chord in the chain makes things too bright and over the top lively. After lots of experimentation with connectors I suspect it’s the silver plated IEC connector that causes this bright, clean and detailed sound.

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Agreed.

In my all Naim chain of source/ amp and speakers Naim cables simply sound calmer with better cohesion. Maybe we should reflect on the fact that Chord cables work really well in many different manufacturers systems but Naim cables were voiced specifically for Naim components.

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