Loudspeaker Cables For SN3

I’d avoid braided Cable
But have no problem using KS-1 with my Supernait 3

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I agree with Mike, loads of cables are silver plated. That includes Naim’s Super Lumina, all Chord except the few cheapest lines, Kudos KS1 and others.

I said “I understand”…
That’s the impression I have/had from what I have read etc. Some say they can sound harsh.
Not my personal view.

Yeah, I had some lead cables once, but they sounded dull and heavy so I got rid of them.

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Rule of thumb, if the amp gets hot and shuts down or blows up you have the wrong cable.

OK maybe not completely helpful but heat is a clue to oscillation which can result from too low an inductance in the cable, which comes with a high capacitance thrown in. Look at the cable construction and if it’s made up of lots of separately insulated conductor in parallel avoid it, unless it comes with an extra inductor at the amp end and I’d wary even then. Widely spaced twin parallel conductors, either braided or solid are safest and will leave you well placed to upgrade to a power amp should you get the urge later.
The first manual quote is more recent and relates to the supernait and a few other recent Naits, which are a bit more tolerant apparently, the direr warning quoted second has been pasted over and relates the current and older power amps.

While your Supernait is a little bit more tolerant than the classic power amps, be guided by the recommendations in the speaker cable FAQ here and you won’t go far wrong - so stick to cables that combine low capacitance with moderately high inductance and stear well clear of anything that’s of either high capacitance or low inductance - at best it’ll make the amp perform under-par, and at worst it will stress or even possibly damage it;

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Hi @Skeptikal

Thank you for answer.
Are you using Kudos speakers, mine are not Kudos.

Hi @Yeti

Thank you for very full answer
Would Star-Quad come under “lots of separately insulated conductor in parallel”?

Hold on a minute. You’re advising someone to avoid silver plated cables with a Supernait, while using them yourself?!

For what it’s worth I recall chatting with Derek, designer and owner of Kudos, some years ago, and he confessed to being a big fan of silver plating, which might explain why he used Chord cables before coming up with his own silver plated cable.

Well it’s not what I’d call lots but it does increase the capacitance, by 1.5 times according to wikipedia. It’s advantages are with balanced connections where it helps reject common mode noise but which the supernait doesn’t use. I have an LCR bridge so can measure inductance and I’d want to do that before trying such a cable.

@RogerGround
Hi
Yes I’m kudos X3s but the cable does just a great job with any other speaker too.
I used Linn cable for nearly 30 years and never found anything better even when they brought out their new K200.
I was going to re terminate my cables after home improvements and unfortunately to do this I’d have been short on length for one speaker “ it really was that neat ‘
I contacted Cymbiosis my dealer hundreds of miles away and as my cable was very obsolete it was suggested I try the KS-1 and it has been the only cable I have heard that bettered what I had before so I’m happy with them.
But please don’t have the view that Kudos only works with Kudos that would be a big mistake to dismiss other options.
Hope this helps. :+1:t2:

Hi I meant Litz type braided wire Dugh.

I see you have edited your post to remove the ‘avoid silver’ suggestion!

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Like many, I’m using Kudos KS-1 on my SN3, replaced much more expensive cable and its fantastic value for money and great all rounder.

My second system is Densen based and it performs just as well there.

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@ChrisSU
Hi
I was so carried away with my findings about my previous cables the word silver stuck in my head as they were Linn Silver K200.
Apologies for any confusion.
:scream: :+1:t2:

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For all I know the SN3 is very different to older Naim amps with regards to speaker cables tolerance and particularly shorter lengths. I use 2 metres long Chord ChordMusic on mine without any issue at all… well, rather quite the extreme opposite, sounds wonderful!

Since I’ve acquired the ChordMusic I’ve not had other Naim amps to try apart from with my Nait 2 which of course, not surprisingly, does not like the shorter lengths.

Hi @Skeptikal
Yes it does thank you. Cymbiosis are only 30 minutes from me, I will ahve to see if they have any auditon sets.

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Hi @Richard.Dane
Thank you for all that information.
Just as a piece of customer feed back.
If different Naim amps have different speaker cable tolerances it would be helpful if Naim published the max and min values of speaker cable capacitances, inductance and resistance for each amp.
One would like to think that as part of the calculations, in the design of each amp, these figures would be available without a great deal of effort.
Then of instead of the confusing wording in the manual, about speaker cables, crystal clear guidance could be presented.

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Roger , if only it could be that simple…

If you want simple just buy NACA5 or Super Lumina.

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I started with a NAIT XS 2 with NAC A5 cables and they have stayed on with a SuperNait 2 and currently with my NAP 250 DR. They have been used with ProAc D2D, Ovator S-400, ATC SCM 7 and ProAc D30RS speakers.

Ask your dealer for a demo pair and see if you like the sound, if not lots of suggestions in the forum and search is your friend. Type in Speaker Cables and 50+ threads are available to read through.