Just been comparing

The SL is probably revealing your source more so than the stock cable is in your system. Your source could really benefit from a XPS DR or 555 DR to be in the same calibre as your amp and speakers. Then the higher-end interconnects may shine through…

Not the case at all as what I am finding is the SL was amazing with the NDX2/Supernait2 but not so much with the 282/250DR…

That would make sense if you were running ‘lesser’ speakers at that time…

Everything else the same

Interesting.
I ran the trial in company with a friend musician. Piano player. He listens to a not big hifi at home.
Source NDS-PS555DR-282-SCDR-252DR all interconnections SL.
I changed the NDS to 282 cable from:
SNAIC, HILINE, SL.
We ran the trial on a selection of 5 carefully selected pieces from baroque, classical, jazz and electro.
To my hearing, there has been with each change a subtle improvement of resolution or definition, image wideness and depth, precision. PRAT? Not that I remember. The improvement was never huge.
My friend denied feeling any difference. He was driven by a refusal of “expectation” whereas I had of course some sort of expectation. Is that subtleness worth the cost? Once I have perceived it, I surely do not want to go back.

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Interesting thread.

When we added XPSDR to 272 it was a night and day/jaw drop moment and so we decided to invest into ex demo/used cabling as well.

We thought adding the SL Din->XLR between 272 and 250DR brought an immediate and obvious improvement to midrange/vocal clarity, treble definition and separation/spacing within the soundstage.

Upgrading to SL speaker cable further improved reproduction of small details, and wife commented the treble was “crisper”. Much more subtle changes than interconnect though.

Can’t say we noticed any loss of bass weight, attack or drive with either change. Final outcome is the music just seems more detailed with a very rounded presentation which is most enjoyable across many music types (anything from death metal to classical/musicals goes in our house depending who has remote lol).

Don’t get me wrong the 272/XPSDR/250DR was very, very good but we don’t for a second regret adding SL cabling.

Powerlines improved things in subtle ways, but most noticeably complex music less muddled at high volumes, bass is tighter.

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….Wha’?…now that’s heresy :face_with_hand_over_mouth::thinking: …anybody got a Lavender I could try? Best Peter

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driven by all the above I wanted to check my lavender and I realised that I might have sold mine :slight_smile: When I bought my custom furutech din din I decided that lavender is not needed and off it went… rather stupid decision but well

Peter, your dealer probably has a drawer full of them. Failing that, they seem to be widely available secondhand for very affordable money.

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Fully Lavender and/or standard Naim leads here.

Lavender IC from CDX2 to 82. Black SNAIC’s from 82 to HiCap(s). Black ‘Main’s Lead’ IC from HiCap to 250. NACA4 from 250 to Kudos X3’s.

Also several Lavender SNAIC’s not in use, but kept for posterity.

The lavender IC may be the single biggest bang-for-the-buck/quid in the entire Naim product line…past and present.
I got an early Hi-Line in the days when I was running active DBLs. I swapped out the lavender (which actually was one I had selected after listening to about 10 different ones) and didn’t think too much about it, as I expected that eventually I would adapt to the superiority of the Hi-Line.
Except…that never happened. Maybe 6 months later I replaced the Hi-Line with my (select) lavender, and found out that I actually preferred the lavender.
After this, three of my Hi-Line owning friends actually went back and tried out their old lavenders, and all of them sold off their HiLines.
The HiLine never offered what I considered a meaningful upgrade over the lavender, let alone a value-for-money one.
BTW back around 1994 or so, I tried replacing a lavender with a $1100 pure silver custom made interconnect (this was 1994$ so it was very expensive for an interconnect at the time). It was that $1100 cable that went into my cable drawer and the lavender stayed in the system.

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…to me, anyway, none of this is a great surprise. At these high levels in the hi-fi hierarchy, the differences between (good) cables can, in my opinion, be used to tune in towards an individual’s preference.

….and compensate for a less than ideal room response also. :face_with_head_bandage: ATB Peter

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…and probably other things too! J

I disagree. HiLine is king. Best interconnect cable Naim ever made, so long as it was ‘well’ made. :sunglasses:

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I agree with Stephen. Hi-line is superb.

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I had a HiLine prior to SL on the old system and the SL blew it away. Another reason why I am flabbergasted that the Lavender is sounding superior with my 282/250DR

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The Lavenders contain old Salisbury Magick… :slightly_smiling_face: :upside_down_face:

Blimey, this thread is almost as sycophantic as a Nait 2 thread :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye::stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye::joy::joy:

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Just need to give them a good shake now and then.

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