Hi as a newbie to the forum and to naim ,looking for advise on speaker cable. Am planning to get a nap 200 or a 250 if budget allows have been using nordost heimdale speaker cables on a 5 mt run . If any one has any experience I would like to have any advice you may have regard T
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I tried Van den hull once and it was a problem for the AMP. but Nordost is low capacitance, usually, I am not familiar with the entire line and should be OK for inductance. A lot of money to put out if it doesn’t work… My 140 and my Nait 2 ran hot and oscillated some times with Vandenhull. I was able to try it without buying.
I moved my system temporarily to accommodate the Christmas tree. During that time I used a 2m pair Flatline Gold cables. The SN2 was fine with them, both sonically and temperaturewise.
A dealer I know has used the current Red Dawn and likes the combination with Naim.
This is timely. I have Kimber Kable 8PR and just called them because someone said don’t use them on the naim. They did some checking and said Naim vintage has to be used with Naim cables but new Naim products like the Atom doesn’t. He said on page 5 of the reference manual it says the best sound is from Naim cables but other cables can be safely used. I sent an email to naim and tried to call from the US but could not get through and haven’t had an answer. I will post when I do and if anyone else has been there please let me know.
JH
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Should be fine. Most Nordost are pretty Middle of the road and benign in the gear stretching of legs department.
Thanks for all the replys Willett you know how I get on regards tosh
While more recent designs such as the Atom may be more tolerant of different speaker cables, they are certainly not completely immune to problems from cables with very high capacitance and low inductance. Those Kimber cables are an extreme example of exactly that, and I would strongly recommend that you try something different.
Kimber is really not recommended and ideally should not be used with naim.
With my previous previous system I had various nordost cables including heimdall 2 speaker. Also tested some other models (lower and one higher). They were all rather good but really great from heimdall up 
I had zero issues, my amp was nap200dr.
ANSWER:
I spoke to Naim today and Henry in tech support said he has only seen two Uniti Nova’s be damaged due to heat issues and said if you want to be 100% safe do not use twisted cables. He then looked up Kimber 8PR and said wow they are more than twisted. Bottom line I plugged in the 14ga crutchfield house brand. Any recommendations on non twisted cables?
JH
If A5 isn’t an option DNM speaker cable has a pretty similar inductance at around half the price, it’s reputed to be a bit lighter and tighter in the bass. Watch out with their online shop as you order half metre lengths so for a 5m cable you have to enter 10 as the quantity. It’s sold as joined pairs so one length ordered covers both speakers, split the pairs where they diverge.
I think the same is true for van den Hull Clearwater regarding inductance, and it’s cheaper.
DNM is only 1.3 mm diameter, so I wouldn’t run it for 5m lengths personally.
That would depend on the speakers.
True, but personally, and that might indeed not apply to the OP, I would buy cable that wouldn’t limit any future purchases/upgrades.
Personally I bought A5 and for several years it was the only Naim I had.
I think A5 is always safe, 4mm2 should be fine for most speakers at reasonable lengths. It might be a bit expensive for what it is, but it’s a good cable.
CONFUSED
Please let me know what you determine. The Uniti ref manual does not say only Naim cables can be used and instead says “Naim Audio speaker cable will provide the best results, however, a range of speaker cable types may be used without risk of damage to the amplifier.” section 2.5 Speaker Outputs. I have included the link to the PDF below. What is confusing to me is that this is a simple issue. Either it will or it won’t damage the amp, and Naim seems to make this clear in that sentence. Am I missing something? I have the Uniti Atom. Thoughts appreciated.
jh
In order to avoid opening another speaker cable thread,could I please drop a relative question here?
I am between of two speaker cable options:
Cable option 1 specs:
- CAPACITANCE: 24pF/ft
- INDUCTANCE: 0.09 µh/
Cable option 2 specs: - Capacitance - 35pF/m
- Inductance - 0.57 µH/m
Which of these two will work better & safe with my SN3 & Ivators s-600???
Cable length 10m+10m.
Your second cable would be closer to the spec of Naim cable, although it’s still lower inductance and higher capacitance than the ideal. The relatively long 10m length works in your favour, though.
For comparison, see here for a comparison to NACA5:
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Not sure how this was meant and I agree it is not clear, but taken literally it could be read as there being a range of speaker cables that can be used without causing damage, and it makes no statement about speaker cables outside of this range. Though this is not very helpful without knowing which cables are within this range and which are outside of it.