Time to chime in with a related question to this thread (as I care not to comment about the use of posh cables - being guilty as the user of Chord Music interconnects on my sources going into the 552).
Several have commented about balanced cables being “immune” to the need for cable “trickery”.
I am need of a set of balanced XLR cables to connect a Stax headphone amplifier to the balanced output of a new dCS all in one Bartok unit I have incoming which will be used in a strictly headphone system. I am in the States so please no recommendations for Mark Grant cables
Any suggestions? I am also easily amenable to spending more than the usual $50 which people tend to recommend for balanced cables.
I have been looking at Oyaide Tunami copper or even their silver interconnects (still reasonable at $400 copper or $700 for the silver) as well as the generic studio xlr’s of Mogami or Canare ($35 which simply just seems to cheap to me).
Suggestions for something well made and performance oriented would be appreciated.
If I can talk my wife into it, I’ll swap in my old NACA5 and see what we hear (vs SL). I never sold it off and it’s been sitting on the floor of my clothes closet for a few years now.
Thinking to trade in my SL 5m speaker cable with a normal NACA5 and buy a 555PS as I do not hear much difference also. Maybe a PSU for my NDX 2 is more impactful.
I agree re more detailed and ‘brighter’. What I felt also (with my previous speakers, ProAc Response 1)
was a widening of the soundstage. Instruments seemed to project more laterally and have more depth (not explaining this well, no good at audio descriptions!)
I was very pleased in comparison to the TQ Black 2 - which itself is a very nice cable.
I have just had a closer look at the NAIM Powerline cables and I’m a little shocked to find that they are a little larger in CSA but they are NOT shielded from what I can see. the cable retention clamps are a little more flexible to reduce vibration noise I suspect ( microphonics ) but seriously £600 a bung I don’t think so.
No not screened, surprised you’re surprised, I thought that was well understood
Its 4mm/2 x 3 core, the standard supplied with equipment Powerline Lite is 0.75mm.
Thats why they dont like to be touching other cables like hiline, etc.
I now run fully shielded mains cables that i made up myself from quality components and then soldered all the wires to the pins.
They work fine and i even tried laying my morgana cable along it and it made no difference to the sound at all, so happy days lol
I tried a demo SL cable between my NDX and 282, and was very hard pushed to hear any difference at all compared to the standard lead, so you are not alone. I did find the SL speaker cables a big step up from NACA5 though.
Ditto; I also take care to separate power from signal, in my case they are nowhere near. Only exception is about 1.5m of a parallel run of screened power cable in its own conduit running alongside Cat-6 ethernet in its own conduit, all perfectly OK & easily conforming to regs, but I have additionally wrapped the ethernet in mu-metal foil in the conduit section.
I think the best use of SL for bang for buck is the interconnect from source…for me that was really worth the money…others are more…take it or leave it.
Hope all’s well. I’d be willing to bet that Mark Grant will send stuff to the States – Flashback sent a suitable DIN to RCA cable to me when I got an external headphone amp (and was puzzled why no sound was coming out when I connected it with a standard DIN-to-phono cable!). Flashback was great value and I recommend them, and I’m sure that Stateside, Blue Jeans Cable will hook you up (yeah, pun intended – I’ll get me coat) with whatever you need.
You might look at Transparent Cable for balanced cables in the US. My dealer is a Transparent dealer and uses their cables for a lot of applications of balanced gear (like the Boulder and Simaudio stuff they sell).
Thanks guys for the Flashback/Mark Grant recommendations (Flashback actually sent me a cable some 15 years ago). No need really as the same can be readily obtained on this side of the pond. Benchmark (of the DAC’s) readily has available Canare Star Quad /Neutrik cables on the cheap.
I’m actually looking for something a little better - however not wanting to get near Sarum prices as it is for the headphone system and not the big rig which already has Music.
The Oyaide cables look interesting due to their own proprietary XLR connectors.
Two people have mentioned Transparent cables (dCS rep and separately my dCS salesman (who also was a premier Naim/Linn guy in his previous life)).
Josquin - which Transparent are you familiar with?
I have a few of their cheaper power cables I use on subs and phonostage. I have their speaker cable on my HT system. The pricier cable I use is their Ultra RCA interconnect for phonostage to 252.
I am auditioning the Boulder 508 phonostage. If I go with that I will likely use Transparent cables. It will require adapting the single-ended RCA connections of the 252 to the balanced connections of the Boulder, but Transparent does custom cables like that to order.
If I were to consider a balanced cable from Transparent it would be either a Musiclink ($400) or Plus($800).
It’s one thing buying Chord Music cables for my 500 series - another buying a crazy priced balanced cable for a headphone amp which costs $4500. I really doing not want a cable which costs the same price as the electronics
Curious to know if Transparent has made it over to the UK or if it is only an “American” thing?
I am always curious to know what our Naim/Linn brethren think.
