I would like to know if power cords shipped with Naim equipment in the U.S. come with US or UK plugs. I am asking this question as I noticed the Powerline is only available in UK plugs.
Also, has anyone compared another mains power cable from say Audioquest, Furutech etc. which come in U.S. plugs to standard Naim mains power cable, either in US or UK plugs?
Thanks for the information. I’m mistaken then.
Maybe you mean Powerline Lite. Then I believe it’s UK only.
I was generally referring to the Powerline. Anyway, I’m curious if anyone has compared other mains power cables to the standard Naim or Powerline (in the U.S.) and found a difference in sound quality?
I’m also interested to hear of others experiences. I’ve been using LessLoss DPFC cabes with my equipment to good effect. I briefly tried an Anticables Level 3 cord that isn’t burnt in yet but switched straight back to the LessLoss as the SQ suffered.
I am in the U.S. Powerline Light are a UK only cable, but the regular Powerline comes in a U.S. configuration. I have four of them. I started with the std Naim supplied 14 AWG cables, switched to the AV Options TibiaPlus12 cables, and in the last few years I have replaced them all with secondhand Powerline cables.
I can’t honestly say whether or how much they are better than the stock Naim cables. I never directly compared, and have done other upgrades along the way too. However, if you want Powerline cables, you can get them to U.S. spec, and come up used for $500 or less often enough. I haven’t paid more than $450 for any of the four I have.
I run the Naim Powerline cables and did notice a bit of a up lift however I wouldn’t say it was dramatic.
I use AV Options TibiaPlus12 Deep-Cryo AC power cables in place of the NAIM AC cables supplied with my XPS-DR, SuperCap DR and NAP 250 DR as well as a SuperWiremold Deep-Cryo Power Strip.
AV Options is a company that services and sells NAIM products as well as speaker cables and interconnects. There are some reviews on their website from NAIM owners.
The US PowerLines have a big advantage that might offset the lack of an air plug: they aren’t fused.
Anyway, I found the PowerLines gave an [unexpected] lift in clarity to the higher frequencies. In terms of impact, adding three of them to the main system was comparable to going from HCdr to SCdr on the 282. They did for the highs what the SCdr did for the lows.
As for comparison, I have to admit they seem like good value, and I was a major skeptic going in. Perhaps the only better value is the power cables from Furutech’s pro audio range like the Empire. Not as good as a PL but close and one third of the price.
Yes, I’ve read that mains power cables with US plugs have an advantage as they aren’t fused like the ones in the UK.
Although both cable and connectors are equally important, with Furutech the connectors are claimed to contribute more to the sound than the cable. Some people match the highest quality connector such as FI-50 (R) NCF to a mid-range Furutech wire to get the most out of the mains cable.
I currently have a mid-range Furutech (FP-TCS31) in a non-Naim system and it’s sounding great there. I’m not sure how a Furutech cord will perform in the Naim system but if I happen to acquire another Furutech sometime next year (looking at the DPS4.1 + FI-50 (R) NCF), I’ll move the current one to the Naim system and compare it with the standard Naim cords. About 7 or 8 years ago, I compared some of my “boutique” cords to the standard Naim cords that come free in the box and they all sounded worse than the freebie cords. All the boutique cords cost below £250.
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