I had a slight surprise today, while installing my new Grahams Hydra. I was removing 4 ‘standard’ Naim mains leads and replacing with a 4 headed Hydra. Problem free, but … I found my ‘standard’ leads were of 2 different lengths…!! I can see from the IEC plugs, that the 2 shorter leads are more recent (and match the Grahams ones) - whereas the longer leaders have an older/different style of IEC plug. The shorter (newer) leads are around 1,9 to 2,0 metres - whereas the longer (older) leads are around 2,4 to 2,5 metres.
The different age makes sense to me - in that 2 leads are from circa 1985/86, from my CB250 & original HiCap. Whereas the other 2 are from built-as-Olive units - or even Black units.
Guess something changed…? Perhaps @Richard.Dane or @NeilS can enlighten us, here…?
I’m not up on any recent changes to the UK mains leads, so I’m no authority here.
FWIW, Powerline Lite apart, I used to really like the old Pirelli cable leads. Sadly the cable could no longer be sourced; it happens, and then Naim have to select a new cable from the available options. Do you know whether the cable itself is different?
I’m afraid the 80s predates my time at Naim & I’m unaware that longer mains leads were ever a “thing”.
BS1363 states that 0.75mm CSA manufacturer supplied leads protected by a 13A fuse cannot exceed 2m in length, so if the older ones are a bit bigger, the extra length may have been allowable.
@NeilS - Thanks. Well, having checked a bit more, vs. a couple of unused/new leads from Black era units, these are definitely c. 2 metres - as expected. And look ‘the same’ as my ‘Olive’ era leads. Their IEC plugs are CE marked.
@Richard.Dane - I can see BICC on one of the long/old leads. The other looks like it could have had something on it, but its now lost through age. These 2 leads are clearly thicker in overall size - and definitely longer, at c. 2,4 metres - or about 8 feet in old units…