1 Proberbly wanting, some still lead sheath rubber insulated cables (cut and isolated), from the 1930’s, never “re-wired”
2 Consumer unit is a replacement Hager, one box for whole house
3 “Cooker Cable”
4 2 double MK unswitched sockets
5 No idea, even if there were a meaningful way to describe sound quality changes.
It seemed the right way to do it, a “clean supply” spur makes sense will have less clicks and pops than sharing the hifi on a ring main with all the domestic rubbish (fridge for example.
Anyway, there is only a choice between adding to the downstairs ring main sockets and running a spur under the floor. There is an upstairs ring main for power sockets (four of them), downstairs and upstairs lighting, and some oddities here, and a gagage supply spur (also added later) that feeds a box for power and lighting in the garage, and the attached room (known as the ‘little kitchen’). All done over 40 years ago when I could do it myself.
I didn’t keep a record of how many cables I tried, however I took a photo of the rejected cables when the scrap metal merchant arrived to take them off my hands, and yes, they were all listened to both ways. It took about 18 months to work my way through them all. The upshot of it all was that I ended up with what Naim have consistently recommended for the last 30 years or so!
The situation in Uganda can’t be taken as indicative of UK, so if there is similar report on cables in the UK it would be of great interest to see it. Meanwhile a survey of cables available in markets is unlikely to be applicable to twin-and-earth cables sold by electrical supply stores used by electricians in the UK (e.g. CEF, Voltimium, Walsall, TLC), or even DIY stores like B&Q and Do it All. To the best of my awareness, in the UK concern has mainly been about cheap products such as extension leads and multiway trailing sockets, often from the far East, which is quite different from mains installation cables.
Certainly no T&E cable I’ve ever bought (and I’ve bought a fair few) have been copper coated aluminium, which would be evident on cutting and, at least for anything other than thin conductor sizes or short lengths, by weight. Nor have I come across substantially different conductor size from stated, though not having measured I can’t be certain there hasn’t been small variation, and I have not been struck by any abnormally thin insulation layers.
If it wasn’t a blind test, and Ken’s friend was a power cable non-believer (which was more common in previous decades) that may have influenced the result.
[But then of course similar issues will apply to any such results - because most of us sane beings who know that power cables can change SQ will expect thicker, more expensive cables to sound better, and that will also influence our judgement.]
Over the past 35 years I’ve moved around 6 times and installed at least 2 dedicated mains per property.
I’ve used T&E 6mm, T&E 10mm and several specialist cables.
Both the 6mm and 10mm T&E were easy to beat in terms of SQ. Compared to the specialist cable, the T&E sounded more mechanical, more ‘hi-fi’. I actually tore out one new 10mm2 after it refused to lose its harsh ‘running-in’ sound, despite several months of conditioning (The system at the time was a 4 pack SBL based package with LP12. Armageddon, Aro and Troika and CDS)
Most of my installations only required relatively short runs between CU and hi-fi room sockets, around 6-8 meters, so I could afford to use more expensive cable without major penalty.
By far the best SQ I’ve achieved so far is with copper foil screened Acrolink 7N P4030II, a 99.99999% pure copper with 4mm2 stranded conductors, run in 2 radials to 2 ea. duplex Furutech Gold unswitched sockets. The consumer unit tails (25mm2) are split off the incoming phase and neutral using a Henson block after the meter to a grounded steel Hagar CU. The CU has no cut-off switch, a Doepke RCCB differential switch and 2 Gigawatt 16A MCBs. Live is routed through the Doepke, where it splits to the 2 Gigawatts. The return neutrals are taken directly to the Doepke, so no bus bars. Earth leads go directly to the low impedance supplier ground in the meter cabinet.
Finally, the topology used was a Radial (single cable to 2 daisy chained sockets). A ring, while providing double the conductor cross-sectional area has proven less effective from a SQ perspective, which is just as well given the price of the Acrolink cable . The foil screen is grounded at the CU end.
This was not a low cost installation….about £3,000 including labour and all parts but the results were well worth the investment. To get similar results via HW would have probably required an amp upgrade and possibly a pair of quality subwoofers (the bass is deeper, faster, more detailed and substantially more sonorous)
The installation replaced a dedicated radial based on Lapp Cable and Hi-fi AHP Hi-fi Tuning fuses, which already provided a substantial SQ boost.
In my previous house I used a ‘fat’ 6 mm2 installation cable from a respected manufacturer here (Draka Cable). This was mainly based on the common agreement in the community that a fat 6, or even better, 10 mm2 cable was the Naim preferred choice. Back then, I also auditioned other cables. I wasn’t completely convinced but I installed the 6 anyway, against my doubt. What do I know? ‘It must be down to more running-in time’…
I regretted it for years as it never sounded quite right. Running a complex route behind a toilet and a kitchen, both build and installed later, it was virtually impossible to replace so I was stuck with it. Indeed, it always sounded a little harsh and mechanical. You live and you learn…
Would you please let us know what your system is at present (or when the Acrolink cables went in) - and also how long the Acrolink cable took to come on song after installation.
One of my friends posted on social media - “If you’re not comfortable (with something), move. You’re not a tree.” I’ve been a tree alot of my life… Being a tree is sometimes a part of life and that’s ok as long as we eventually uproot to better soil and pastures with Naim music systems to listen to.
Thomas Edition went through 1000 failures which I found deeply inspiring.
Thank you. I apologise for my ignorance having been away too long but will enjoy gradually exploring.
Hi JimDog,
My system is based on a highly optimised network feeding an Innuos Statement server, Devialet Expert Pro 440 monoblocks/DAC and Magico S1MkII all on Finite Elemente Master Ref. Stands (highly recommended for detail, naturalness and musicality)
The system in all took about 3 months to reach its pinnacle SQ, but the improvement was instantaneous following installation, then improved in a series of steps. I was totally happy with the sound 2 hours after the electricians left, but the final sound left me ecstatic in terms of ease, fluidity, dynamic ability, bass depth, detail, timbre and sheer musicality. What always amazes me about the system is hearing very deep, very quiet bass with extremely well defined timbre……bass timbre normally all but disappears during extremely quiet passages but in this case its literally spine tingling….whispers of bass gorgeousness
Don’t know what a CU is but I have a hospital grade power strip
Gauge of cables was 12 gauge don’t know make
Two sockets connected to aforementioned custom strip
3a. I use a stack of tapon connectors from New Zealand to connect all equipment power at bottom, source to the top.
Vast improvement in sound quality. The tapon connectors are just about as important as the dedicated mains.
CU stands for Consumer Unit - which is the fuse box.
Many people get a separate feed from near where the mains cable enters the house, with a separate CU to try to minimise interaction between the dedicated hifi line and other parts of the electrical system of the house.
Are the tapon connectors those plugs that you can pile one on top of another?