I’m curious to know the total cost of cables which people currently own, all types of cables in your system(s) including spares in the closet. Actual price paid and not MSRP.
I just checked the total cost of cables which I still own and am rather shocked. It’s all recorded in an Excel sheet, actual price paid and not MSRP. The numbers have changed in 2026, latest purchased cable is a Shunyata Alpha-X NR mains power cable.
Although I have overspent on cables, I’m sure there would be people here who have spent more. I may have mentioned this many times but I’m going to say it again anyway. I’m seriously done for good. No more. No more adding and only selling from now on.
Sounds obvious but a key learning for me has been to keep an open mind, in both directions. Skimping can clearly cripple a good system, equally one often easily gets carried away and goes overboard, or creates mismatches over time with different cables put together at once or added gradually.
Cost wise I guess my cables are still on the high side but recently I had a couple of changes that worked really well while decreasing cost - a Flashback DIN to XLR impressed me so much that it replaced a Chord Signature and, similarly, a pair of Swisscables Reference speaker cables replaced my ChordMusic ones. On both occasions, just by chance, taking an opportunity to listen.
As you rightly noted on another thread, no knowing without trying and listening (again).
You might be interested but I haven’t got a clue, and I’m not about to work it out, but there’s R3 on a great hi-fi, and good coffee and a hot x bun. Sorry!
for me its £0 - using the stock cables in the box and my dealer kindly supplied free 8m naca5 speaker cables. at some point i may investigate other options but fear i may fail to distinguish between different and better - as for me better means more enjoyable over time - not easy to tell with a/b comparissons
I don’t know how much I’ve spent on cables, other than as little as I felt possible to.have everything work well, preferring to spend the serious money on speakers, electronics and room. I think my 2m DIY Mogami interconnects totalled perhaps £80, and some pure silver conductor ones maybe about £120.
I had my cables made up by an artisan down in Ravenna. I used Mogami cable and some decent, but not incredibly expensive connectors. I saw a shop selling the exact same cable/connectors at double the price I paid.
My headphone cables all came with the cans.
I am not convinced that hyper expensive cabling makes any discernible difference. I just went for the same grade of connecting cables, that are used to record the music I listen to.
I happen to love the DIN connections in my XS3 so purchased a proper Naim RCA to DIN grey/lavender cable to go between my streamer and amp and couldn’t be happier
My local lovely dealer gave me a great deal on this cable; pretty much cost price
I think it would cost hundreds more to better the Naim cable… I love it… thanks to Naim for making this cable available
I paid about £350’ish for my 3.5m NACA5 with proper Naim plugs on the amp end and great quality plugs for the speaker end. The soldering is first rate and I absolutely love the sound NACA5 brings to table as it were
I consider NACA5 as a bit of an audio bargain… it’s a great sounding speaker cable that doesn’t cost a fortune
The best speaker cable I’ve ever heard was Tellurium Q Ultra Black (the original not the current iteration)
I purchased a long length of Ultra Black at a bargain price and it was superb but I knew I could sell it for twice what I paid for it which is what I did in the end
It’s probably the only time I was convinced that speaker cable actually made a difference. Honestly the Ultra Black was an incredible sounding cable and I’ve heard nothing since that comes close
However now I own Naim I believe that NACA5 is all you need to complete your system
My NSS333 was bought ex-demo and as such came without the Naim DIN to DIN, more is the pity. So I have used an old Chord Anthem, which cost me about £300. 7 metres of NACA5 have been in use since 2008, and I can’t remember the exact price I paid. Between NAC332 and NAP300 I have hand modified, ie resoldered, a pair of Chord Clearway XLR to XLR cables costing £175. It all works, and the system sounds good to me. A wire is both a filter and an aerial, so any change will make a difference, but I am not minded to keep trying different options. It’s the quality of the boxes that count for me.
I’m currently using a Chord DIN to RCA interconnect that I got for free when I purchased a used 252 years ago, a $19.99 Vandesail XLR cable from Amazon and 2 x 5m NACA5 (IIRC $650CDN including welded banana plugs and the Naim plastic connectors).
I spent $900 on a HiLine DIN to DIN interconnect, repaired twice and broken again. I’ll get it fixed once more and try to sell it, as I no longer have a need for it.
Have always used what Naim/Linn put in the box plus NACa speaker cable & since last year a Mark Grant DC1 substitute to link our Core to the NDX2. That cost £30 odd quid and is beautifully made. So, short answer, not very much.
