Power cables nest

I have a single column rack, signal cables and burndies hang freely, but at the bottom of the rack the 6 power cables generate a nest over the mains block. Does this worsen the sound? And suggestion in case?

Naim say that some of their cables should be a certain minimum length, below which performance is impaired. This does make cable dressing more difficult though, and of course that includes the issue of keeping them apart from each other.

When I rewired our house I was able to choose the exact location I wanted for the sockets, so I was able to put them just far enough away from the rack to ensure that the power cables were the right length, with no excess. I put the sockets low on the wall, and off to one side of the rack.
Another approach used by some is to install the sockets high on the wall, so that the cables hang free in a loop. This may be hypothetically better, but then you need to keep them away from signal cables.

If might seem a bit excessive to relocate wall sockets just to help with cable dressing, but it’s not that expensive compared to the cost of a Naim system.

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Keeping signal cables from overly intimate contact with power leads may well bring an audible improvement. Otherwise, I have never yet noticed an effect.

To be fair, my cable dressing is a mess- if Burndies don’t lie on the floor and signal cables aren’t wrapped around/ lying alongside Burndies or power leads, and I haven’t made circles in any cables, I reckon I have done enough.

I did find that using some WH Morgana cables (other shielded cables are available) made things fractionally cleaner and quieter in exactly the way that some have achieved with perfect cable dressing.

Others with better ears and/or less laziness and 3 full Fraims side-by-side may have very different answers.

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I’ve understood from others on here that have gone through a greater upgrade process, that it becomes a bigger priority the higher you go, specifically NAC52 and onwards

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Interesting, I thought that was opinions from end users, is that documented?

Yes. Both 52 and 552 seemed to enable me to hear when I had made a real mess of Naim signal (and Burndy) cables in a way that I really couldn’t detect at all with my 82.

However, as mentioned, using non-Naim shielded signal cables (and another I can’t mention here) made any effect of that sort too small for me to hear. Since I had those cables before the 552, I only confirmed that there was any difference when obsessively swapping cables to try to get everything 100% right with the 552. If there is anything more sensitive to bad Burndy dressing than a 552, I don’t know what it is.

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It is certainly documented for speaker cables - even if you don’t believe that you should only use Naim speaker cable, it would be brave to have them shorter than 3.5m for CB and olive kit. Iirc, there is a little more latitude with recent boxes.

For power leads, I don’t recall seeing anything on this, apart from the usual advice to use only the power lead that comes in the box (or an expensive Powerline instead) and not to modify it. Of course, those seem to be of one length…

As always, I will be pleased to be corrected if I am wrong.

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thanks,
I understood there are 3 possible solutions:
1 place sockets high in the Wall: this is interesting but quite difficult
2 change cables to shielded cables
3 shorten the cables

Did anybody try to tighten the cables and let them run together avoiding loops or and other shape?

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I’ve made my own power leads,
(1.5m length and Martin kaiser plug)
And wired straight into a dedicated block,
Tried 2mm and 4mm cable, could not tell the difference in SQ
Even when I swap out them out for the naim power leads with plugs,

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Thanks, at least now you don’t have a cable nest… do you think sound improved with the ordered confifuration?

I could not tell any difference to be honest,
I even rested my speaker cables deliberately on top of the power leads
Then lifted them off, put back,
Again could tell no difference in SQ
Did the same with interconnects having them touching, again I good tell no difference, can’t comment on burndy’s
Don’t have any,

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I personally think cable dressing is down to how OCD you are,

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Or depending on how resolving system one has.

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@Blackbird, I can relate to that,
I can only comment on the equipment I use,
Seems the higher you go up the naim tree, the more twitchy everything becomes,

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That is indeed my experience :+1:

I am exactly looking for these practical experiences, thanks

What is your experience? What do yoi suggest? My system is quite revealing I think

That the further up you go the more sensitive the system become to everything. Which is logic when you think about it. Vibrations and power cables close to low voltage signal cables for example. It’s the sum of all parts that makes a system sing.

If you have the time why not experiment if possible?
Atleast separate power cables from interconnects,
I also think sometimes suggestions on here makes you think there is something wrong with your system,
When in reality it sounds awesome,
But plenty of threads on here for massaging your burndys

:grin: I enjoy massaging something different than burndies usually

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