I have used Superlumina Din/XLR’s previously and moved back to the standard cables after swapping the SL speaker cable for KS1 and the SL interconnect for the HiLine.
My question is what length are the standard cables and has anyone had any positive or negative experience of using longer cables?
I am thinking of getting the Witch Hat Morgana in a longer length (unless Naim make longer cables which I believe they only do for SL)
My 552PS is currently above the 500 and below the 555 Digital. I like to have the 552PS as high as possible as I ‘believe’ it sounds better that way… my previous layout pre turntable allowed this but I compromised the layout with the recent addition of the P10/Aura/P10PS and a longer pair of Din/XLR’s would help me move the 552PS higher up.
I found the standard 1m length fine for a single stack but barely enough for a brains/brawn set up (channel 2 strained at the connecter), so I purchased 1.25m from Witch Hat. Both channels hang freely and though channel 1 is a little long now, the Witch Hat cables can easily be shaped so they don’t touch the ground.
I found the 1.25m WH XLR to provide a significant uplift in sound quality vs the standard Naim XLR but I haven’t compared to SL.
@Elfer thanks for the reply, this is exactly my problem. The twin stack means the left side of the 500 to the 552 is a stretch and also impossible to hang free, even if longer as the plugs are short and the rear fraim leg will always get in the way unless you use cable ties, foam etc as the cable are very thin and flexible.
The 1.25 would probably work for me also. I suspect the Which Hat ones don’t degrade the signal for the longer length which is my understanding as to why Naim settle on their set lengths for all cables. The 300/500 burndies for example are way too long to dress in the Naim suggested way unless you have either the PS or Head pretty high up the stack on a double. On a single I can’t see it being possible to stop them sitting on the floor without intervention. I wonder just how much better they are at the current length and lying on the floor vs shorter and off the floor! I have mine off the floor but it takes messing about and compromising other boxes somewhere!
Glad to hear the WH cables gave an uplift. The SL did not make a big difference imo. I almost did not notice them when removed. Certainly the next day I thought the system sounded as it always did. I like detail but without brightness, no hifi impressiveness, just music reproduced in a natural way. Chord cables do not work for me, they lean to much towards hifi for me.
@Richard.Dane thanks for the info. I probably should have searched in those articles first but good to know now that Naim will maybe consider doing custom lengths. I suspect they will say it impacts sound quality somewhat though.
I once pushed the guys at Naim on this issue during a factory visit, and while I don’t doubt that some cables have an optimum length, my impression was that they simply didn’t have the inclination to start manufacturing, and holding stocks of cables in a variety of lengths, with all the extra logistics and costs that would incur. It would certainly make it harder for them to provide the required cables free in the box with all their products.
I think they are happy to let the likes of Chord take up the slack here.
Even if it might be a stretch I guess a 1m XLR DIN works in a twin fraim setup since it is naims standard length? My 552 arrives on Thursday to be hooked up to my 300DR so
What I might have to plan is where I place the 552PS and the 300DR in relation to each other since diagonal placement will stretch it bit more I guess.
My guess (and it’s only a guess) is that Naim offer a 1.5m variant of this particular cable precisely because it’s required if you have twin racks. After all, they wouldn’t want to stand in the way of anyone who was proliferating their stack of black boxes.
Sadly the price list only mentions this choice of lengths in the Super Lumina section!
To confirm the 552PS can be 3 boxes higher with std fraim levels in a twin stack and 2 boxes higher in a Med level twin stack vs the power amp head unit using std cables.
I want to have my 552PS at the top of my stack which would be a chunk higher.
I have found the power amp p/s is good on the bottom but that necessitates the head to be quite high up to avoid the burndys hitting the floor. Pre amp P/S is best on top in my experience also. You can get the cables to work in this configuration. If you have multiple sources it can be harder though.
Do the Burndies hang free? Thats my biggest struggle tbh which for me necesitates higher box positions vs what I would ideally like. Having said that my Fraims are quite close and may benefit from coming apart a chunk.
Could be the size and weight of the 500 ones dragging themselves down more on mine I guess. I never seem to remember having such issues with the 300 now you mention it!
