Then I would kindly suggest, buy Naim NacA5 and you know you have something that is a perfect match.
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I have done so to hear with my own ears how they compare to TQ Ultra Black II and Oephi Adcendance. Report to come in a couple of weeks. Letās see if there is one naim cable to rule all naim systems or not.
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And I bought my NAP second-hand, no dealer in sight.
I have managed to avoid blowing it up!
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But those cables are much more expensive than the Naim NacA5,I think you will find it better to put the money on the source.
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IIRC in the early days several Naim amps were destroyed by using Litz and Kimber speaker cables. They were supplied by Russ Andrews. I am surprised that Richard was not aware of this?
Naim immediately asked users to stop using this typer of cable and issued the safety guideline about cables in the manuals.
FF
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Itās the dealers selling non-Naim cables who Iām saying should have the competence to say what amps their products are compatible with. Whether or not these dealers also sell Naim gear is beside the point.
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I agree that Naimās advice about speaker cable compatibility is not entirely clear. Nevertheless I maintain that the primary responsibility here lies with the seller of the non-Naim cable. At least Naim, via Richardās post in the forum FAQ, tells you what you need to know about a cable to ensure itās compatibility. The fact that many suppliers canāt even be bothered to make the relevant cable specifications available doesnāt allow you to make an informed choice, but you canāt blame Naim for that.
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The sellers of non-Naim cables who say there cable is compatible should be prepared to pay for repairs if their product causes damage.
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Naim knows what their amps require. The cable manufacturers in most cases donāt. If I have the cable specs needed naim should be able to say if they are inside or outside the compatibility span. Itās naim making things complicated due to compromises they have made which comes at a price. The compromises might very well be worth it in terms of performance but still they could be little more helpful than ānaca5 is everything you needā when obviously itāa not to thousands of ears.
Unless Naim have personally tested the cable they have no way of knowing if it is or isnāt compatible.
Is that your assumption or a fact?
How would they know otherwise without testing?
The requirements of Naim amps are not hard to understand. Just read Richardās FAQ. I would expect a competitor who wants to sell Naim compatible cables would easily be able to make their own measurements to determine whatās required if they are serious about it. All they need to do is publish the inductance and capacitance specs for their cables and anyone can then see whether they are a match.
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I think itās a good thing that Naim choose the way they did,to design their Poweramps to get the best sound ,not to make it easy for everyone.
The same when they started to use BNCĀ“s for the Phono ,because it was a better electrical match and improved the sound, it was not convenient but it sounded much better.
And that they use DINā¦
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Nothing to do with compromises, but a design decision, which is wholly satisfactory provided that Naim makes it absolutely and abundantly clear that their amps rely upon a speaker cable of clearly specified characteristics for stability in use. As for complicating things, surely the converse is true - Naim has made it very simple to be sure cables are compatible, by specifying requirements. How many other amp manufacturers give specifications for cables? (That said, some p do say no need to use fancy cables, any good quality wire will do.)
If Naim doesnāt make that clear in respect of any amp that would be damaged by, or be unusable with, common speaker cables then it is possible that they would be in contravention of the Sale of Goods Act. And if Naim does make it clear then, quite simply, the onus is on the user to ensure any cable they use meets the specified requirements. Whilst Naim could approve third party cables, they are under no obligation to do so. Under these circumstances I am of the opinion that the user can only pass responsibility to the seller of a cable if said user passes Naimās requirements to the cable supplier and the cable supplier confirms compliance. Then if a failure occurs the question in law would be whether the cable meets Naimās spec, if yes then Naim would be liable for any repair, if no then the cable supplier would be responsible.
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Absolutely an elegant design decision, and not unique to Naim, numbers of other well regarded audiophile rated amps of the 80ās & 90ās used speaker cable inductance loading.
Amps that use an internal inductor have no control over the actual inductance load when āany random speaker cableā is added in series, if too high, depending on speaker, it gives HF roll off (dull output)
The Naim (& others) speaker cable loading method completely avoids this.
However looking at independent test data I believe modern Naim amps have bandwidth limitation applied above 20kHz which makes the need for such strict cable spec requirements unnecessary
So yes Naim need to own up to this, but as it will do nothing for growing speaker cable sales, donāt hold her breath.
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AFAIK all Naim Amps have been bandwidth limited to some extent. I think the top end rolls off fairly steeply from around 40kHz (Iām sure @NeilS can enlighten here)
It might be more helpful if Naim would specify the requirements of the amps rather than providing the specifications of a couple of (their) cables that work. That would give people much clearer information to do their own homework rather than feeling the need to ask Naim.
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Not sure why people keep talking about the amp design per se? As if accepting and liking it (and ultimately how it sounds - which we do!) also means accepting a poor job in explaining what it means for the user? So liking a brilliant design really isnāt the point. At all.
Itās what Naim provides as information and guidance to the user and the dealers as result of their specific design, and associated risks. I also notice people talk about THE Naim amp as if all Naim amps are the same ā¦ which they are not, and this seems to be acknowledged also in my SN3 manual - but it all bizarrely ends there, all for us to miraculously untangle and discover! I also know from my own humble experience that my Naim amps are not the same in this respect, for sure - yet they have pretty much the same guidance in their manuals, more than 30 years apart? Here:
My Nait2 manual:
My SN3 manual:
I wonder how difficult it is to improve on the above?
Btw can anyone tell me which Naim amp(s) can be used with any high quality speaker cable and what is a āhigh quality speaker cableā?
Should a forum be the place to expect to find the most important (and lacking!) accurate and clear manufacturer guidance information? If so, should this then not be mentioned in the manual? (unless Iāve missed it)
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I agree that āsomeā and āanyā desperately need clarification. They canāt test every third-party cable but publishing the requirements and tolerances for each type of amplifier would help here.
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