Community posting rules permitting, it might be helpful to get a feel of who people have used to do the soldering, as in Naim dealers, and if they felt they’d done a good job.
I know whenever I’ve asked mine to do it he was reluctant to do so and I ended up defaulting to alternatives like QED AirLOC or Deltron type with screw down connections. I’m sure others local enough to make sense may have a more willing response but that would be a blind exercise with unknown results, certainly based on how specific and critical it seems to end up with a good result vs an average or poor one at least.
It also only factors for the amp end of the circuit of course so what is optimal at the speaker end and how is that determined!
This is really down to the individual person doing the soldering at the dealership.
It isn’t difficult and you do need the right tools to do the job on the chunky metal used in Naim plugs, but it is a really useful skill to master for all sorts of repairs and future cable experiments!
A good, branded iron to do the job costs less than £40.
Really, give it a go, when you get it right it’s quite satisfying.
Practice with other bits of wire first.
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Like all things the key to soldering is right tools, right preparation, right skills, right…
The idea is to allow the molden solder to be drawn into the small, clean gap by capillary action.
If the solder does not flow, no amount of blobbing on more will help. It may look like it has worked, but it’s not a good joint.
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First have a 100W or so soldering iron.
Second have a reasonable amount of prior soldering experience.
or…
Have a friendly approachable dealer.
I’ve done a lot of soldering in my early career, without this I think I’d have found soldering to Naim (or any other speaker plugs) challenging. I’m not convinced it’s a job for people without prior soldering experience.
Exactly. Know what you are doing, or find someone who does.
The key is knowing how to know that they know , what they are doing!
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Very interesting, thanks.
I’ve always been curious about whether the small contact area offered by a banana plug, for example, doesn’t compromise the connection.
Does mashing bare wire between a screw connector, which presumably achieves a greater contact surface area, have any benefit over the small area offered by banana plugs?
I have a picture in my head now of a pile of NAC A5 bits on the floor and me with little burns all over my hands swearing repeatedly 
Quickly turning a perfectly decent length of speaker cable in to a useless 1m remnant!
Good point though on taking some time and effort to work it out for ones self, with a little practice and patience I’m sure I could get something half decent out of it. I’m sure there’s some guidance on YouTube to be had to kick off the process!
If you are a dab hand at soldering stuff, then NACA5 is merely a bit tricky. But if you really haven’t done a lot of soldering, then NACA5 is not a good place to start.
Don’t forget that the contact patch of a banana plug is quite long and is a good line contact all the way.
Bare wire contact isn’t like that:
If you twist it you only get a few point to point contacts with the outer strands.
If you don’t twist it, then you run the risk that even fewer strands will actually make any contact at all!
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Been there, done that - determination is key! 
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The problem can be that experience is not always an indication of quality experience. Just because someone has done a job all their life, doesn’t make them an expert unfortunately. This thread has been really useful to help us look out for the right indicators.
Wow, it makes me wonder how I mastered it!
I agree, starting on NAC 5A and Naim pins is not a good thing to do, but you can practice with other things first.
Indeed, power and size of solder iron tip… you should go for a large wedge tip just slightly larger in cross diameter to the plug tab you are heating. You may need to get a larger tip for your iron just for this job.
Yes Simon, I know what I need but I’m not re-tooling for something I might not need in future.
Problem is, back in the day when I was the service & training boss I had fully equipped shops.
All the various electric irons you could want, plus super high BTU gas powered, and a whole truck load of different tips shapes, sizes & applications.
Soldering battery lugs on 120mm/2 was easy with the right tools, soldering 4mm/2 without the right tools is not.
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Exactly it’s all relatively straightforward with the right tool… I was agreeing with you and your comment on the OP.
I guess many don’t know how to solder properly, and the result is a weak joint with possibly properties that may affect SQ.
The only soldering method that in my experience that is very different is SMD, but with a very fine tip, illuminated magnifier and practice desoldering (with Chip Quik or similar) and soldering SMD can be quite straightforward … but in all cases apart from having the right tools, the key is to use plenty of flux and more flux. You can never have too much flux when soldering… just ensure cleaned off afterwards. I always use liquid flux as opposed to flux paste… oh yes you certainly can’t rely on the flux in solder alone if you want an optimum joint.
These days I can’t even see SMD without a d@mn great magnifying glass 
Bring back RLR05s!
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Agree… lots of flux. Back in the days when I used to solder instrument boards together each board had something like a thousand plus SMD solder joints to do. One was an 80+ pin SMD IC. Lot’s of flux was needed and those were the days when you were allowed to clean the boards with flux remover! Even more amazing was I used to do the whole board with the naked eye. Nowadays I can’t even see the PCB without glasses!
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Just to finish this off … my large soldering iron has interchangeable tips.
My go-to tip for Deltron & Naim pins is an 8mm chisel (wedge)
With the 100 watt set for 360’C (lead free solder) & 2.5mm/2 wire, its perfect. It does the job with 4mm/2 (NACA5) & I suspect most peeps would be quite happy, but its a tad slower than I like.
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That sounds a good setup - nicely doused with solder flux - not much should go wrong
Apart from breathing in hazardous flux fumes. 