Ive just had an amazing weekend trying out Naim nac a5, tellurium blue and chord company speaker cable. I invested in some QED XT25 4 years ago and have been fairly happy. Im reconfiguring the
lounge and now need longer cable. I demoed all of the cables (kindly lent out by my local hifi dealer in Exeter) All were compared a/b tested on three reference albums. BLOW UP, GETZ GILBERTO 45RPM and Muddy Waters Folk Singer. My 5si loved it! Ive kept an open mind when it comes to investing in cable but i have say after hours of switching and (basically geeking right out!) the difference was incredible. Basically the naim came out on top in every department. The Tellurium which everyone raves about was muddy at the low end imo. Anyway, ill be investing in Naim cable and that will be me for many years!
The law of diminishing returns surely applies to all hifi upgrades be it cables or components. The S1 is better than the 552. Is it Ā£50k at retail better when we consider how excellent a 552 is or even how very good a full system costing Ā£50k can sound? It surely is relative to our financial situation and appreciation of the value and merits of those incremental changes.
My recent experience with cables is that over the past 18 months Iāve moved to almost all Chord Music cables which has cost me similar to the 552 to S1 upgrade and if pushed Iād say the improvements are on a par, very satisfying and for ME worth the cost. However even extravagant hifi spenders like me have limits. When a Chord rep paid me a visit at home a month or so ago he suggested that using a Ā£5k Music mains cable on my Core and taking a Ā£4K Music Ethernet from the Core to my EE8 switch was worthwhile. I felt that the incremental changes with both were there but way too small to justify the price. However IMO stating in an absolute sense that spending money on cable upgrades is a waste of money is the sort of thing Iād expect to read on PFMš¤®
Tellurium blue is not a range Iāve heard many rave about.
You need to ask that already spending good money buying a brand new car? 
Probably a good reason why NAC A5 has been, well, NAC A5 for near on 34 years.
OK, so riddle me this: why can systems much much much more sensitive than human ears not find any differences in cables?
Yes.
Not sure I understand that question 
Wise words.
Iāve become a cable sceptic when it comes to digital as IMHO DSP is a much more effective (and far cheaper) way of achieving the same results.
My advice donāt upgrade any cable until youāve tried something like this.
.sjb
So far Youāve told me that:
- I donāt appreciate the benefit in changing cables
- I feel that expensive cables are a waste of money
I agree with neither of the above. Just to put the record straight I believe that:
- There are benefits in changing cables, just not enough for me to justify the cost
- Expensive cables are not a waste of money if you have the money to spare and no other priorities and it helps you enjoy your hobby.
There is no inherent reason to upgrade the cables that come with the system we purchase, they are more than fit for purpose. Some choose to āupgradeā them because they have the money to and it makes them feel better. The uncomfortable fact is that many people just canāt tell the difference. Why would you try to convince them otherwise? Itās your system, your money, your satisfaction. Why care?
The key question may be āsensitive to exactly what?ā I suspect.
Itās OK. Everyone is entitled to their opinion and itās perfectly fine and acceptable to me. However, it is the comments about all cables sounding the same which baffles me. Still, I respect their opinion or experience. Itās just that I donāt engage with their relentless assertions that the cables donāt make a difference, on PFM. I am not sure if they are serious when making the comment, or perhaps they want to have some fun. Maybe they all sound the same to their ears on a more serious level. 
Fair enough. Obviously those not so profound changes to sound arenāt appreciated to the same degree by all ears but when I browsed at the system profiles of those questioning the merits of high end cables none of them own expensive systems. Go figure! Different opinions and expressions of taste are positive. But the truth is that Hifi forum threads are full of conjecture and people trying to justify what theyāve bought or dissing what they canāt afford. Itās transparent and something we have to accept. For my part I try to contribute if I feel that someone might find what Iām posting interesting or informative and search for similar for myself. There are plenty of ārounded outā members using this forum who post with genuine intent that keep me mildly active.
I own a very high end and expensive system. And if there was any evidence at all that certain cable could somehow improve sound quality then Iād be keen to try. Iāve demoāed Ā£65k cables. Huge snakes of braided speaker cable that make claims about changing the way the music soundsā¦which would be sooo easy to measure. But for some reason the manufacturer doesnāt ever do thisā¦weird
People who swear they can hear differences make very specific claims about where the sound changes. Why not back these up with actual tests rather than anecdote?
My ears are by no means in peak condition after a life of gigging (on and off stage), sports cars, motorbikes and other loud hobbies, but the differences are so fundamental to me (and others that have sat and experienced trying different cables alongside me) that I would never think about a system without thinking cables also.
Why bother - just let your ears be the judge. if you donāt hear anything, move on
What sort of test did you have in mind?
I offered to invite musicians and mathematicians to my house, plus some of the hardline/ rude PFMers and a studio engineer, for just such a test, and even offered to make the tea. We started to discuss statistical significance on results and over what period the tests would need running (an hour or two really wonāt do). No-one took up the offer, but they did carry on suggesting that tests were unnecessary because āitās obviousā.
As you can see from PFM, several people have tried similar suggestions, but without success.
As mentioned, I lost my hardline-theory-before listening stance later than many here. On the other hand, my tests on WH cables involved 2 musicians as listeners who did not know what I had done and could not see the interconnects. They managed to agree consistently with each other and my more tentative and slower results. I am usually a poor tester and double-bad at snap judgements, but even I found swapping back after a month a definite downgrade.
Of course, if a tossed coin gives 50 heads in a row, it can be a coincidence. It is possible we were all fooled, and happened to be fooled in the same direction.
On the other hand, no one sulks at my reporting differences between speakers and turntables - to me, this should be much more open to doubt as they are not tested āblindā.
In addition, my wiring is a mess. WH cables are shielded, but Naim cables are not. An assertion that shielding cables can make no difference seems to fly rather in the face of physics. At least my understanding of Naimās stance (shielding is not perfect and better cable dressing is their preferred option) does not ignore the issue. Would anyone argue that twisting a signal cable around a mains cable makes no difference to SQ (apart from the loud buzzing), whether or not the cables are shielded?
I also just got an electrician to add a dedicated mains radial. Anyone who believes that the cabling makes no difference is welcome to come round and spend an afternoon swapping between my old mains sockets and new and collecting written notes from a representative audience if they feel the need.
These discussions seem rarer on this site, perhaps because the moderation is heavier and the higher level of courtesy seems not to suit some of the more vigorous posters from both extremes.
I donāt recognise most of the gear you own so did look for some graphs and charts that proved the turntable was better than a Rega or Technics. But I couldnāt find any. I did see some claims that it āpushed the limits of engineeringā and was ātechnically perfectā. Is that why you bought it? Or did you listen and compare?
The science of shielding cables is good but is only relevant if your cables are picking up noise. If your system is not picking up noise then shielded cables are not doing much. Shielded cables may be the only solution in some cases but in the first instance they are simply treating the symptom rather than the cause.
I discussed recently with Witchhat their recommendations for my system. The response was āThe cable in which you would get the biggest benefit would be upgrading the XLR cables that go between the PS and the 135s. This is because the standard Naim XLR cables have no shielding in so are very susceptible to interference which affects the sound quality.ā The rest you can read on their website but the main benefit for Ā£675 is shielding.
My cables (inc. power and speaker) are well dressed and my system is on a separate mains spur which is maybe why I donāt feel the need for better cables.
Iāll say again that I donāt think expensive cables are a waste of money. I will say that they can sound different and they can address a problem. However, not everyone needs them.
Oh, and my system wasnāt cheap (to me anywayš).