Me too was thinking for Old génération Naim amp but not the modern Era
XS3 will be fine with 2m. But it will sound better with longer lenghts. Steve Sells, Naim technical director, have said that to short lengths will make the amp oscillate and be more instable which will make the sound more stressed. The normal recommendation for best sound is somewhere 7-10m. I would personally aim for minimum 3.5m if you care for best performance and add some meters if feasible.
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I settled happily on 2 x 7m with Naim SA8 plugs at speaker and amp ends. Obviously you would not want SA8s at the speaker end if the sockets on the back of the speakers were non standard spacing.
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To my mind one of the best uses for Naim plugs is at the loudspeakers as they send the cables neatly down to the ground, minimising stress and aiding cable dressing. That’s unless the terminals are mounted very low on the rear panel, of course.
The 19mm spacing matches that of many standard socket assemblies, not just Naim’s, so they often fit. If not I would use them anyway and remove the little black boxes so that they will fit regardless of spacing.
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I initially purchased a 3.5 m length of NACA5 thinking the minimum would suffice but I should’ve just bit the bullet and went 5 meters plus. Now I’m looking at an ad for a 7 meter pair.
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I Found 2x3m NACA5
Still less than ideal, I would wait for at least 4m lengths personally
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Yes the idea is also to put the system to the side of the speakers, not in between.
So that accomodates 4,5m plus lenghts, and the shorties were used by the in-between people.
Yes system on the side of one speaker not at the center but I can stay with 2x3m it’s the same
Need 3m cable for each speaker
Auditorium sells online 2X4 m Naca5 , pre assembled, for 500 euros.
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Is this still the case with the XS3? The following is from the (presumably the most up-to-date) owner’s manual on the Naim website:
No mention is made of the minimum lengths or cable specs. I currently use K20 with an XS3 - the length is circa 2.5 metres per side. I do toy with buying up to 5m per side if it would be of any benefit? I couldn’t justify that length of A5 financially - my wife would be furious.
As a general comment, assuming sensible lengths of speaker cable and, let’s say a 4mm cross section (which both K20 and A5 are) would not the speaker and its load/impedance characteristics make more of a difference to the ‘safety’ of a Naim amplifier than whether the cable is 2 or 4 metres long?
Many thanks - goodness knows how I missed that!
So would between 3.5 m to 5 m of K20 per side do the job?
What would be the benefit of the slightly longer runs? Will the amp last longer (it doesn’t get anywhere near hot) or is the benefit purely SQ related.
I also use 4m per side of Rega Quattro (split in two) with my recently acquired NAP 200 - it seems happy. It is also a 4mm cross section cable.
For longer runs over 3.5m the benefit is mainly sound related. I found the move to 5m most beneficial. Beyond that, gains were there but much less so. I use 10m per channel.
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Thank you - that’s a relief. I may get on with ordering some longer runs.
For completeness, at the speaker end I also have 2 X 5 metre BK/REL type bare wire to Neutrik connectors running to 2 active BK subwoofers per side (high level). Other than the effect of the subs themselves, would this also have an effect?
Of the sub cables are run from the loudspeakers, not the amp, they will have no effect on the amp output, so you’ll be fine.
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I use 2x 2m runs of Tellurium Q Black 2 speaker cable from my Nova PE to speakers using standard banana plugs both ends. No problems with SQ.
I use 8m NAC A5 per side with a SN3 although i could get away with much lesser lengths in terms of practicality. Why? For me, in my system, 8m sounds the sweetest of all other lengths tried. One may need to experiment a little for personal satisfaction.
To add: a HiLine interconnect cable sonically matches very gracefully with NAC A5 also.
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K20 is a fine cable, equivalent to Naim A4 and a few other branded.
I’d not go below a 5M pair, my own pair is 7M. I’ve never had success with short length running, like 2-2.5M.
You really need to experience yourself, what the longer length provide in better overall performance.
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