Longer Lengths of NACA5 and SQ

I remember seeing on the “old” Forum that longer runs of NACA5 had an effect on the SQ. Of course I can’t find it now! Lol So, I’m re asking this question. I’d like to know if longer runs affect treble performance, i.e, lessening brightness/increasing warmth?

Over about 6 meters gives a fuller and more balanced sound ,in my experience.

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Speaker cable has inductance and capacitance and over a long run acts a bit like adding those combined values to the crossover. Though A5 is extremely low capacitance and runs close to 20m are said to be perfectly fine before any noticeable degradation in sound quality appears.

Generally when both runs are the same length it is totally non perceptible. However, if you had one 2m run on one speaker and another 15m run on another, you almost certainly would notice the longer run sounds smoother at the top end.

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I have very long runs (20 feet?) of NACA5, the sound seems fine to me.

Some of the older Olive amps mandated a minimum cable length, something to do with the electrical load or impedance or something. Someone will know!

Untill recently clarified by Naim senior engineers in the New Classic thread, it was claimed that 3.5m was the minimum length for supplying the required inductance to make the amps stable.

They’ve since corrected that to say this was only for really early Naim Chrome Bumper amps and that everything after should be fine with any cable of any length but that they prefer 3.5m - 15m of A5 purely on sound.

It’s tempting to go with short runs because decent cable (even A5 these days) is expensive. But a room layout change making 3m runs too short resulting in a new set of cables costs more. So generally, a generous length up front probably saves money in the long run.

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I still have a 7m pair of NACA5, but have used WH Phantom 10m pair for years, since a few months after I got my 300DR.

I should pull my NACA5 out again for a fresh listen, but it’s not long enough to pull behind my record shelves like I have the WH cables, and it’s too inflexible to manage otherwise. But I have made some changes since the NACA5 days (subs, cartridge, phono stage) that might be worth a new listen. I think I need to re-solder the Deltron bananas though. Hmmm.

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I had 8m of NACA5 before graduating to SuperLumina. Both work well at that length.

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Ooof. The cost of 8m of SL ($11.5k) in the U.S. can buy a lot of other very nice things. I think I won’t get SL anything.

Hell, for that money I could upgrade my TT to a Clearaudio Innovation Compact Piano Black with 12" Universal arm.

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Worth it, just for the colour alone :sunglasses:

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I always wished my Ovation was piano black, but I bought my dealer’s demo so I got the wood.

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I bet they sound fantastic!

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Believe @Richard.Dane did some testing on this, at Naim…? Some years ago.

Am sure he can reiterate his conclusions… :thinking:

Personally, I have always had leads around 8 metres in length.

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Yes, we listened to various lengths of NACA5 at the factory many years back. I felt the biggest jump was going from 3.5m to 5m, the latter being far preferable to my ears. Moving to 10m was better still. I use 10m per channel at home.

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Considering it’s essentially like adding a capacitor/inductor to the crossover, like you said, I would expect this to be speaker dependent.

This was actually accidental. My set of A4 leads were bought on a visit to my then HiFi dealer, in 1982. I did not know NAC A4 even existed - and I did not (yet) own any Naim units. But it was just £1 per metre. 8 m per side was a guess - and has ‘worked’ in ever system, in every location I have had, since.

More recently, I source some A5 leads via eBay. The 1st set were a bit tatty and were only 7 metres. I then found a 7,5 metres set which I still have.

Longer, in the case, is better… :open_mouth:

(I do not ‘need’ such long leads, but the ‘stories’ are enough for me to use them - and loose the length, somewhere…)

I’ve used various lengths in various systems over the years from 3.5/5/6/7/8/and now 10 metres. 10m being my fave so far, but think 6/7/8m zone was really good too.

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I Am curious what changes the longer runs produce, i have a 3m pair, what chances could I expecto for example with 8 meter length in the sound.

Thanks,

A bigger hole in your pocket.

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I expect that you would get clearer treble and ‘fatter’, better defined bass.

But some think that this is all in the listener’s mind (I’m not one of them).

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I remember the previous thread, I think between 8 and 10 metres was said to be ideal. I chose 8 thinking it was probably best for me.

I don’t know if 10 metres would sound noticeably better.