Naim is reorganizing its business model in my part of the world and my current dealer will no longer carry Naim. In the process I was offered a superlumina 5 Din-Din cable and two powerlines at 50% off. The deal was too good to pass and I bought them and flew back hom with my new toys.
listened to the system for about 30 minutes and then turned it off and took out the lavender cable and put in the superlumina to connect the NDX2 to the 282. I don’t typically complain but getting that damn SL plug into the terminal took many many attempts. Wonder if other people find it as finiky as I did.
Powered everything and got listening. Initial impressions are of improved details, increase in presence and bit more separation between instruments. On the negative side, the bass although became more controlled sounded a bit drier. The overall sound although more detailed brought in some of the character I did not enjoy with the 122x.
Listened for about 30 minutes, turned everything off and put the Powerlines on the NAPSC and Hicap. The NDX2 was on a powerline since purchased. The powerlines pulled the bass closer to where I like it to be but still not as fluid as it was with the lavender cable.
Am assuming some burn in needs to take place for the SL cable. Hearing the thoughts of other members on the SL would be much appreciated.
I have recently removed my SL interconnect from my NDX2/282 and gone back to the Lavender.
I liked what the SL did when I was using it with my Supernait2 but when I upgraded, I naturally just used it with the 282/250DR and thought nothing off it.
After a year, I swapped it out for the Lavender and I prefer its presentation. I swapped about for a while but the Lavender stayed and the SL got sold in the end.
I think if you are using NACA5 and all other standard Naim cables then there is a coherent sound character/presentation.
I believe this to be that all cables are using copper only. If you go the SL route then I think it wise to go for SL everything so there is uniformaty and silver within everything.
The talk about full looms has merit in my opinion following my personal experience.
Power lines are fantastic no matter what btw.
Let the music play for a few hours while I was away and the sound is improving big time. The somewhat dry and every so slightly mechanical tone to the bass has gone. Vocals have become more organic. Adel’s Hello is sounding the best I ever heard in my room. There was a bit of tension on the SL cable which I took out and that might have a bit of a contribution as well.
To clarify, any change in sound that I describe with all three cable changes does not exceed 5% in any direction. I felt the need to say this as in a previous post I said that cables fine tune a system after all the boxes have been sorted out and I stay true to this.
Used the Lavender for many years last year swaped it with an Hiline,some weeks ago I put back the Lavender.Liked the result sold the Hiline.
Maybe should change it’s name to SUPERLAVENDER.
As I’m sure you are aware, Superlumina does take forever to burn in and I’d therefore reserve judgment for at least few weeks. However, I’m also a Lavender fan and fully appreciate why it is so loved. There’s a fantastic raw but live sound, where as SL is much more refined and realistic.
I think it’s also important to remember that SL was originally designed for the Statement, so I imagine it is perfectly voiced for the Statement sound and may not work quite so well with other source/amp combinations. Lots of people love the Hiline but I could never get on with it. It always sounded a bit overblown in the bass for me.
The one thing I do know is that I’d struggle to live without Superlumina!
Hi @flame_rose , I hear your troubles connecting the SuperLumina ic. Same here, and even my dealer struggled. Suggested a few times here that Naim would make videos deminstrating how to do it exactly, but no success so far
I remember going from Lavender to HiLine was a relative big step in which I clearly preferred the HiLine. When I moved from HiLine to SuperLumina the change was very, very minimal in favor of the SL. Maybe the comments in thus thread that SL needs quite some burn-in time, are correct
In my experience both the Superlumina and vertere cables are all about preservation of the musical energy - other cables can lose this.
The Lavender is a great cable no doubt, but the new technology in the SL cables are much better at preserving the dynamics.
There’s been a lot of negative comments on SL over the years, sometimes I do wonder that accounts for these, but I find no negatives in SL other than the high price.
I do think think that given the high prices, were really meant for 500 series and Statement systems, but I found excellent performance below that level, but then I do have a Chord Dave as a source which deserves a SL interconnect.
Well all I can say, is I had and used the SL for a couple of years now and auditioned back and forth between it and the Lavender. There is certainly no “loss” of anything with the Lavender, only a gain, and that is coherence.
Once again, my findings were completely different when using on the Supernait2.
My first experience from Hi-Line to S.Lumina with CD555 -552 was a bit confusing. Since i had the opportunity to swap the cables for a few weeks, i preferred the former, the SL though, was brand new so probably required some burn in. On the other hand when i upgraded from Naca5 to SL (7m+7, pre owned, Nap 500 to SL600) the improvement was more evident. Now i’m still waiting the Din-XLR one i ordered last summer and due for mid December but not arrived yet.
As others have said, the Super Lumina takes an age to burn in - sounds to me like you are starting to hear the benefits of this. Keep going and enjoy the ride!
FWIW, I found using SL interconnect a significant step up and while the price made me draw breath, once I had heard it in my system, it simply had to stay. It may just be me, but I knew that I would be forever thinking, “What if I had …”
To be completely honest when I installed SL interconnects and speaker cables, I assumed these must be better whether or not I was able to convince myself there was a difference.
They cost more and look better and designed by Naim so must be better, right? I know this doesn’t make sense but just being honest in how it happened with me. Too lazy to try going back to stock cables to see if I can detect a difference
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I can only refer to my personal experience with S.L speaker cable.
On an Olive based system.
After hearing for about a month, it can be summed up like this-
More hi-fi, less musical.
Naca5 has returned to its natural place
Well we have been seeing increasing posts about the several-K options that are now being offered by not-to-be-named companies. There seems to be a market …
