You’d be amazed how many times that is the case.
Putting petrol in a diesel car obviously will be a 100% percent failure within minutes. Not really like cable synergy with naim amps…
1 Like
To be fair, there is a good reason for ensuring that an appropriate inductance is placed between the amplifier transistor output stage and the speakers, it is to minimise the risk of ultrasonic oscillation, instability, which can be caused by a reaction between the amp and the load, I.e. the speaker.
Most amplifiers include this inductor and it is accommodated within the amp, Naim saw an opportunity to remove this component and utilise their speaker cables to put it back in circuit, hence Naim speaker cables are selected/ designed to provide an inductance in an approximate range of values, by means of a length of cable 3.5m or more of NaC 5 and now SL. Note that the Naim approach does not allow for a single specific value of inductance, this would change with cable length, just a safe range.
And this is the point, It is there because it broadly ensures amplifier stability over a range of operating conditions, Understandably Naim seek to avoid complaints from customers who deviate from the guidance, it does not mean that the amplifier will spontaneously go into oscillation if you don’t use their cables or advised minimum length.
5 Likes
Yes I’ve ‘had issues’ with a cable that has been listed as not suitable for the classic Naim amps.
It didn’t break the amp, but the sound was poor and the amp started to get warm.
During a time of room refurb., I tried to temporally hook up my Nait-2 with 6m of Russ Andrews 8 strand Kimber weave cable, why? because it was long enough for the job & in my spares box left over from a previous Audiolab amp.
It didn’t sound right & I could feel some heat from the previously always cold casing.
I gave up on it & returned it back to it normal 2nd system duties, wired with a VdH A5 look alike.
Sound & cool case all OK
3 Likes
This isn’t true.
It’s a touch more than synergy. The cables are a component that is part of the amp hence the particular specification.
If the supplier of you potential new cables is confident then they will surely repair any damage caused anyway so you have nothing to lose. 
1 Like
Naca 5
- 3.5 - 20uH
- 48 - 320pF
- 17.5 - 100 mOhm
Or for Super Lumina
- 2.22 - 20 uH
- 48 - 597.6 pF
- 28.8 - 100 mOhm
If I understand it correctly.
This of course has nothing to do with the op’s Q😊
1 Like
There are no silly questions, just silly answers…
8 Likes
@Blackbird – the classic amps are more cable-tolerant than the old ones. How do I know this? A Naim engineer said so in an interview – a statement that was then walked back assumedly by the bean-counters who no doubt enjoy tremendous markup on “Naim brand” cables.
I’ve never heard of anyone roasting a newer amp by using the wrong speaker wires.
It’s true that the older amps lacked a specific circuit (as mentioned above) that necessitated the use of NAC A5 – but as far as I know, no one at Naim has officially weighed in on whether this is still the case with the new amps. I’m not holding my breath on that one!
2 Likes
There are posts in this forum which show a Naim print out which describes how to make your own suitable speaker cables, I guess this pre dates NAC-4 or 5 and gave an RS components code for a single core cable of which you would of course need a pair for each speaker and to loosely twist them to achieve the desired characteristics, ‘approximately’.
1 Like
@Blackbird I think your question is warranted and perfectly sensible. After using NACA5, WH N2 and then WH Phantom, I never knew how INFERIOR these cables were (in my system, to my ears) until I tried a brand that is used by the manufacturer of my speakers for demos and by the FPBN dealers in my country. It works fine, looks fine, sounds fine with Naim and has nothing near the electrical values of capacitance, resistance and inductance recommended by Naim. I might add that after 8-10 hours of moderate play per day, the 250DR is literally COOL to the touch. I understand that my experience is heretical. Brgds.
2 Likes
@lucifer But your post is indeed relevant to the conversation. To be on the safe side, I used those two value sets multiplied to 2x5m lengths to get and acceptable range. I simply made sure my unknown-in-the-UK brand cables were within or close to those parameters. My amp runs as cool as a witch’s you know what…
1 Like
What on earth is YMMV???!!!
1 Like
Your Mileage May Vary.
1 Like
Thanks, never would have guessed! TBIT
I bought my current pair of 135s second hand (to replace older CB135s), had them serviced and Naim reported they had fixed HF oscillations probably caused by using out-of-spec cables.
I think that, in general, all manufacturers should declare optimal load they designed the amp (outputs from any device) for. The current circus of reviewers/users trying and making various claims all over the place is ridiculous. We are not talking rocket science here.
3 Likes
Speaker cables more than any cable have made my system change dramatically. Like two different systems. It might not be rocket science but one can ultimately change the sound performance with different speaker cables so if one settle with naca5 and think that’s the deal then sorry to say they might miss out a lot more than they can imagine.
1 Like
Has anybody actually answered the OP’s question ?
All I seem to read is people telling him why his question is stupid.
6 Likes
@Wugged_Woy The absence of a clear answer to the question is preliminary evidence that no speaker cable has caused a Naim amplifier to “blow up”.
4 Likes
Why not rather ask which non Naim speakers cables work well and better than Naca 5 with Naim amps?
I use Audience 24 SX , wonderful.
Others: chord Sarum t, Music.
Tellerium
Luna
Kudos
Which Hat
3 Likes
If any cable caused damage it would be interesting to know. For others I got this from Shunyata support. Venom X speaker cables won a big test recently.
With the above being said, we are confident that the Venom-X would be fine with the Naim 300DR based on the measurements we recently took of the Venom-X showing very low capacitance and inductance, so its LCR should work great with Naim.
I have not used Shunyata myself but Oephi and Esprit and my amp is cold and feel fine.
1 Like
Our SuperUniti has been used with 2m lengths of QED XT40i cabling for the last two years. For no reason other than the cable was bought for a Denon mini system in the office.
So far the SuperUniti hasn’t blown up.
We’ve used 3m SuperLumina with SuperUniti, 250DR and 300DR without any issue.
1 Like