I would first like to say that my system is currently a Nova going into some Spendor speakers D7 with NACA5 speaker cable. I do have the chance of getting some of the old (not XL) chord signature cable at a reasonable price from a friend. I don’t however know what benefits there will be, if any. I know that the price originally per meter the signature is a lot more expensive but we all know that doesn’t always mean it is better. I don’t have the opportunity to listen to a comparison as I will need to pay for the cable so he could send it to me. I thought I would ask the question (I know that everyone hears differently) I would just like peoples opinions.
Can’t say for the specific cable but what I will say.
I used to have Chord epic and changed to NACA5 as the Chord was rather bright in my setup.
Silver in cable can have a tendency to have this quality.
Thanks hungryhalibut I am sure he will. Will it need time to wear into my system if hes been running it on a different system? I guess what I am trying to ask is if a speaker cable is used on one system will it need time to burn in on a different system?
It should be fine after running for a few hours. Just use it for a week and then put the old cables back and see if you think ‘that’s better’ or ‘that’s worse’. If you chop and change you will very probably just get confused. I do anyway.
I remember noticing that chord signature speaker cables was a popular choice for owners of naim with the B&W 800 series a few years back, this was before they introduced the diamond tweeters.
Then many changing back over to the A5.
Quality tweeters can be a ruthless taskmaster over cables and whats in front of them.
That D7 doesn’t have quite an exotic tweeter, but still a very high quality one, nonetheless.
I ran the old style Chord Signature for a while and it is a very good cable.
It definitely does some things better than NACA5 that wowed me enough to change but in my system at least the NACA5 was a better all rounder and I eventually went back to it before changing again to TQ Ultra Black.
Couple of questions. 1) Is there something about the SQ you’re getting or about the difficulty of working with NACA5 that leads you to want to change or is it simple curiosity? If the latter, I’d follow @anon4489532’s recommendation and try them first. 2) Were the ohmic plugs installed by a trained dealer? They are very good but need installing with Chord’s new electronic crimping tool. Some dealers offer this as an upgrade.
Hi PeakMan ideally I would like a wider soundstage I feel the naca5 is lacking a little in the bass area. Also the naca5 is a pain to route. I do realise that having a nova and a one unit system will have its own limitations and perhaps this is what is causing my issues I don’t know. I have only used a very poor cable before unbranded with the nova before purchasing a second hand naca5 cable. The ohmic plugs were installed by chord themselves about a month ago.
I might be getting my phrases confused. Basically I don’t feel I can hear all the finer details the system can produce. What would speaker cable do compared to cheap to expensive?
I have to confess to being a bit of a cable sceptic and not sure if your proposed cable change would improve sound stage. I’d be more inclined to look at speaker positioning and orientation, room furnishings etc, to fully optimise your current setup before swapping wires. I originally had NACA5 on my new Atom, but it was impractical in my small office so I swapped it for Chord Sarsen with ohmic plugs. Atom still running in so difficult to pin down SQ changes but very happy with the result.