Well… my system rack is not between the speakers, so there is a couple of metres straight away. The run to the left speaker is the long one, so there is (with my now 7,5 m A5 leads) a maybe 1 metre loop…? The right speaker is closer, so its lead is looped up, under my LP12’s stand.
Not ideal - someone will be along shortly to tell me… But it works OK for me…
(you can see the A5 run to the left speaker, going around the fake chimney breast - and if you look hard, both runs just to the right of the Black Telecaster)
Don’t care about numbers my post said it all.
Fine by Julian at the time fine by me.
Maybe if they had made better output stages in the amps they wouldn’t depend on wire length for balance.
Seems like that doesn’t matter now.
Hi
I agree but that’s how it is.
Not so with the newer gear but strange indeed.
It’s always been my opinion that the early Naim tech was really just high gain small PA or guitar practice type amps and they had held on to that
“ vintage ‘ technology until recently.
IMO.
The use of the cable length is not for attenuation. Its used to protect the output stages.
Solid state amplifier output stages can become unstable due to a speakers capacitive reactance that typically occures at very high frequencies above the audio band, this can be minor parasitic ringing up to full oscillation, but it affects the whole amp output range including the audio band.
Solid state amp designs have a zobel shunt circuit that is installed to stabilize the amp output stage. Problem is the zobel alone is not enough with reactive speakers and it requires a series inductor as part of the Zobel shunt circuit. This in addition to the speaker cable inductance can be too much & result in HF roll off.
Naim choose to use only the speaker cable to provide the correct inductance & avoid that possibility. Hence why it’s recommended to use 3.5m of NACA5 ( which has 1uH per meter) , what this is actually saying is the amp needs a 3.5uH series load to be part of the zobel output stage circuit.
I understand later Naim amps further counter this problem by limiting the preamp section output to the 20Hz-20kHz audio band.
By later Naim amps you mean the New Classic series? I’m currently using an XS3 with 2 x 2m NAC A5 so I’m wondering if I need to get a longer cable. Sometimes the sound is a bit harsh or sharp so maybe a longer cable will help? Thanks!
The longer cables will certainly help with relaxing the flow of sound. Anything from 5 to 10 metres are regarded as optimum lengths. More importantly will be how they are terminated. I would use the right angled SA8 Naim plugs that came with the XS3 at the amp end and whatever plugs that will match your speakers on the other ends. Make sure the soldering is top notch at both ends.
First off, I’m not saying what I “believe” to be the case is 100% correct. I’m only looking at data and technical reports.
But no, I was not thinking as “later” as the New Classic models.
I had in mind the 5 series Nait’s and onward.
My own Supernait will take any cable without showing any ill effects, including 5m lengths of Kimber PR8 that my Nait-2 seriously objected to with running hot.
I suspect your XS3 might be the same as my Supernait, but I’m only suspecting.
Maybe it will sound sweeter with a longer cable, only you can tell with your speakers.
Not forgetting the speaker cable inductance loading is intended to prevent output stage instability, a secondary effect is the SQ.
The speaker cable inductance loading applies to the power amp, either the power amp as a unit or the power amp section in an integrated.
I’m aware that some of the pre amps and most of the source outputs are rolled off over 20kHz.
Amer, Sorry I dont recall the actual name of the Witch hat cable I used previously. They weren’t massively expensive though…black nylon brading and quite thin neg and pos wires. Nac a5 a definite improvement.
I like to think of speaker cables as been an integral part of the crossover network, if you look at it as a schematic that’s exactly what it is, having both L & C components, so given this it would seem logical that a speaker cable (with particular L&C) will behave differently depending what speaker (crossover) and amp (output stage) it’s connected to. So A5 in this case will sound different in every situation where different amps and speakers are used. Just my theory anyway! It also probably explains why some cables sound bright in different setups, cables are not active so cannot amplify a particular frequency, they’re just modifying the crossover points.
