That may be your suspicion. Perhaps there’s another possibility?
The older Naim amplifiers including the chrome bumper, olive and possibly the early slimline cased amplifiers are still bought and used by many, many people. These older amplifiers were designed for the minimum inductance provided by 3.5m lengths of NACA4 or NACA5. Could it be that Naim simply wants to look out for the owners of its older amplifiers?
Best regards from the owner of 3 Naim power amplifiers that DO need 3.5m+ lengths of NACA5.
This has been discussed before. If that was the reason, wouldn’t they supply the “specs” required (inductance) instead of an unrelated spec (length)? Or at least a recommended length per cable, as NAC A4, NAC A5 and SL all have different inductance specs.
And at the same time wouldn’t it make sense to specify for exactly which amplifiers this is relevant?
I’m not saying there couldn’t be other reasons, but based on evidence I suspect the one you suggest probably isn’t it.
The empty box is probably there to make it look nice, ‘balanced’ so to speak.
Judging by all the fancy packaging everything comes in these days people listen with their eyes too.
My recent purchase of a ‘line 6 Helix rack mounted unit’ came in what seemed to be a giant iPhone box, complete with a fancy outer sleeve. First impressions count, it seems, even for an item of pro style studio equipment.
The current manual is very clear and applies to the integrated and power amp range and states.
“ Loudspeaker cables are vitally important. They should each be at least 3.5 metres long and of equal length. The recommended maximum is normally 20 metres although longer cables may be viable with some Naim amplifiers.”.
But they don’t specify a length per cable, 3.5m of SL is different from 3.5m of NAC A5.
I guess as it’s a minimum the 3.5m could be based on SL (lowest inductance), in which case for NAC A5 the minimum would be 2.5m, but for convenience they prefer to specify only one value.
I can find it (the 3,5 metre rule) in the circa 1986 guide which was recently posted on here. I believe NACA4 arrived in around 1982 - ? That’s when I bought mine - my first bit of Naim kit…!
Yes the 3,5m recommendation is in my Nait-2 manual … and prior to NACA4 they recommended 2 strands of RS type 357-946 cable twisted at 4 turns per metre.
Twisting is OK, & the 4 turns per meter is just to keep it together.
The round section paired cables such as Chord, QED, Mogami etc all have an internal twist.
My Chord Odyssey has 0.6uH/m inductance, perfectly OK middle of the road & my Supernait loves them.
Braided, plaited & wide flat closes coupled conductors are the big no-no’s, all give high C & low L and are 180 degrees opposite what Naim amps need
In the manual, we advise that you should use Naim loudspeaker cable
with our amps. It is part of the amplifier output circuit which
expects a certain inductance and a very low capacitance (see below).
If your Naim amp is destroyed by using unsuitable cables, it is a
clear failure mode and is not normally covered by warranty.
julian
PS pulled from the past:
Date: 26-Aug-98 02:07
Author: julian vereker
Subject: Cables Again
Please can I draw your attention to the following notes:
Ed’s Note: MANY CABLES WILL ‘WORK’ IN PARTICULAR SYSTEMS, BUT IF
THE SPECS ARE VERY DIFFERENT FROM NACA5, THEN PROBLEMS MAY OCCUR WITH
CERTAIN SPEAKERS
That’s really interesting, especially the relevant specs, which don’t really seem to match NAC A5, while that cable is mentioned:
1.3-1.5 uH/m (NAC A5 is 1 uH/m) MAX 20pF/m (A5 is 16pF, but SuperLumina is 66.4 pF. So safe to say one shouldn’t use SL with older amps?)
About 0.25 mOhm (A5 is double that I think)
MIN is also stated as 3m, although 3.5m of A5 is normally / nowadays mentioned as the minimum.
