To purchase my supernait 3 sold two audioquest hurricanes, still have two hurricanes and tree tornados.
With my older systems they worked fine, I think they are very good cables but not the best pairing for a Naim System.
Some audioquest cables in the mix could work, but all audioquest could be the problem, I will remove one by one and see what I will get.
If you bought your equipment from a competent dealer they should be able to help with this. A good starting point might be to go back to the standard Naim cables everywhere - power, interconnect and speaker cable. Then you will have a baseline, knowing that this is how Naim intended their equipment to sound. A dealer should be able to lend you some NACA5 and the other cables should have been supplied with the equipment.
That may improve the sound, but if the problem persists this would indicate that the speakers and/or room are the problem.
I’d be inclined to do as Chris suggests. Install all Naim cables first, and if you don’t like the sound, try other speakers, before trying to tune something you don’t like using cables as tone controls.
Why not sell all the cables you don’t need. You could use the money for an XPSDR or the new 300 power supply.
I meant to ask - do you have a good stand for the system? Something like Fraim, Isoblue or Quadraspire SVT can make a big difference, making things sound more relaxed and open, without changing the character in the way cables sometimes can.
I will sell some of them, the cables where here from past systems, my naim system is recent, the supernait 3 and the hicap have less than four months.
The sopra n1 work wonders out of the supernait, as soon I start connecting the audioquest cables and niagaras the supernait did not like them too much, so I got the powerlines.
The audioquest give too much punch and highs I Will have to downgrade some of the cables to the system start playing again, I never liked the amp´s on the Niágara power conditioners.
My system is now playing directly into the wall and with the robin hood and lavender interconnect, and is playing again finely.
Not allways better is realy better in this case.
This is good news. Hopefully you’ll get it sorted out without the need to made big changes. It’s good that you are happy with the Sopras once AQ cables are removed.
I have a Pair of NACA5 also, I like what they do but miss also what they don’t do.
What the NACA5 offers is an engaging sound full of body, the voices are human and beautiful, and is amazing to feel the bass that a pair of sopra n1 can produce with this cable. It’s a beautiful sounding cable.
What the NACA5 lacks is the air around the instruments, the sound that floats around the room out of the speakers completely with pin point presence. The depth and dimension is not something that makes you feel in the space, is more like a wall of sound, the layering is also not great. The Robin Hood has all this but lacks the musicality and that bass extension that the NACA5 has in spades.
The NACA5 is really sweet and rewarding, but after seeing what can be archived with the supernait I look at the NACA5 as a cable that hides some of the virtues of the supernait. I need an in between solution for the speaker cable, something that has the musicality close to the NACA5 but with better layering, dimension and air around the elements in the mix.
But in the end I think I will deal with what I have removing the more problematic cables and trying to get the best compromise.
I have an NDX2 with XPS-DR, a SN2 with Hicap-Dr with powerlines on all Naim boxes. They are all plugged into an Audioquest Niagara 1000, and a Shunyata Sigma NR power cord goes from the Niagara 1000 to the wall.
I have none of the problems you describe. My speakers are Harbeth C7es3-XD, which are very very different than your Focals. I would suggest as HH mentioned, that you try other speakers. Focals in my opinion are more “Hifi” than “musical”.
As for speaker cables, I use Tellurium Q Ultra Black II. It has a similar sonic signature to NACA5, but is clearer and more detailed with better definition. I have had it for 3 years and will never go back to NACA5.
The Niagara 1000 is very similar to the 1200, I had the 1000 before but had a problem with it and was replaced in warranties by the 1200, they are identical in sound.
I Am in the process of simplifying the cabling this week, also simplifying the network in complexity, then will start fresh.
The Focal’s work great, depending on what I mess or not with the system they can go from very musical to not so musical. They are very revealing when things go wrong.
I messed things up when I started installing the new Niagara 3000 and connected the audioquest Hurricanes, it was too much energy and extension. Removing those the things have gone back to normal.
Removed the Naim Powerlines and back to the in the box power cables, and a strange thing happened. The sound is great again, even with the hurricane and Niagara 3000!!!
All audioquest back again and now sounds great. I Am scratching my head at the moment on why the powerlines here in my system do not work. They were expensive………
The sound is great again and I Am now happy with it.
I use NACA5 and didn’t get the “air around instruments, the sound that floats around the room out of the speakers completely with pin point presence.” etc.
BUT that when I was using Naim Ariva speakers, although musical and engaging, not very refined and coherent.
Now with the same speaker cable and new Graham LS5/9f speakers, I very much get what you describe. A completely different soundstage and depth/width etc.
So I would say the NACA5 isn’t the limiting factor… To some degree perhaps, but the choice of Speakers are far more limiting.
I wouldn’t go try to fine tune with exotic speaker cables, NACA5 = the naim sound I love.
The black boxes provide the slam and with it’s intended cableing, the speakers should just be as neutral and accurate as possible by design and then it’s all good from there.
I like what the Powerlines do over the standard, I like the added weight and authority to the sound. Inkier blacks is just a bonus, lol
I will suggest that you have your NAC A5 cables made up by a well seasoned dealership. Something isn’t right here. You shouldn’t even be contemplating different speaker cables at this stage.
My NACA5 was made by the Naim representative in my country.
All my cables were before the naim system audioquest, and they work very well, but recent changes like the powerlines and the Niagara 3000 did not result that well with the powerlines.
Another user suggested to plug the original cables and remove what I was using. And I first connected the powerlines directly into the wall, things worked great, but I had better sound before.
So I reverted all naim gear to the default in the box power cables, lavender included, and for me the final result was better, or at least more in the way I was more familiar.
Then reinserted the Niagara 3000 with the audioquest hurrricane and the NDX2 only on the Niagara 3000 with the sock power cable. Reconnected the audioquest earth. I still prefer the amps without any filtration from power strips, so the amps are always connected directly into the wall.
My sound is now big, tridimensional, with great layering and detail and playing great with the audioquest Robin Hood.
The powerlines could not result very well in team with the audioquest cables I have, other than that the system is now working great.
I have read in another thread on this forum that it is possible to have too much of a good thing with multiple Power Lines.
I don’t recall which thread it was, but the basic lesson had to do with finding balance in which components to use the Power Lines on.
Sounds like you’re experiencing that as well.
Have you tried adding them back one-by-one to understand the individual impact on your system?
Interesting. It took me awhile but I have Powerlines on all my black boxes and they are wonderful. I did them one at a time and noticed the difference pretty much immediately.
The powerlines are great, I do not think they combine well with the rest of the cables I already had.
Is easier to me to ditch the powerlines than the other cables to the Niagara 3000.
Have you also checked the connection?
If the NDX2 is the only box on the Niagara, surely it’s serving no purpose, other than filtering. It makes for a vastly expensive mains cable; maybe you could try the Hurricane connected directly to the NDX2.
It is the only device when I was making the changes, I have 3 systems in the living room, 2 stereo and one home cinema, but to identify what was happening only connected the NDX 2 to the Niagara 3000.
My wife once asked, why we need 18 speakers in the living Roon when most of the time you only listen to two?! She has a point here…
Indeed, she does 
This topic was automatically closed 60 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.