does anyone have any experience with shunyata speaker wires with a naim system?
You could ask Shunyata if the specs can match Naim Naca 5 cables.
Naca 5 specs:
Capacitance: 16pF per metre
Resistance: 9 milliohms per metre
Inductance: 1uH per metre
You need to specify which Shunyata cable, Sigma, Alpha, Delta or Venom
And good luck getting the L & C specs, they donāt publish them
1 Like
Just checked the Shunyata website. They have āSpecificationsā for each cable variety - but they are almost meaningless. And - as @Mike-B said - R, L & C are not quoted.
Avoidā¦?
hi, its the alpha cables i was interested in, i asked if they would be alright in my system and the dealer said they would be a great addition
thank you i will email Shunyata prior to connecting them to my system
2 Likes
Reading the website I find it hard to avoid the impression theyāre made of pure bullshit, or maybe thatās just the website.
1 Like
I very much doubt it, if as your profile shows, you have Super Lumina.
Yes, itās the best to do. Give them the specs of the Naca5. Naim amps donāt work good with all cables. Be careful.
Be sure that they are low in capacitance and with a moderately high inductance. If not, best avoided. More info on speaker cable requirements for Naim power amps can be read here in the FAQ;
Answer from shunyata director
Hi Dave,
I dug a little deeper this morning and spoke to Caelin here about the specs you included below and our speaker cables. Caelin is our owner/designer and provided the following feedback
Some amplifiers like the older Naim and specifically Spectral can be sensitive to speaker cables that have a high capacitance. The type of speaker cables that have high capacitance are foil types (like Goertz) and multiple strand cables with many conductors side by side which results in a high capacitance. None of our cables have caused any problems with any amplifier. Our cables have relatively low capacitance and relatively low inductance. So a balanced approach. If a cable is designed for extremely low inductance it will have a high capacitance. If it is designed for extremely low capacitance, it will have an excessively high inductance. Thereās no way around this - it is the electrical physics of cable design. So it is very likely that he will have no issues using any of our cables.
2 Likes
It seems good then 
Can you return these Shunyata if you are not satisfied?
2 Likes
Yes I can get them on loan so no worries sending them backš
2 Likes
Thatās actually not an answer, from Shunyata. No actual numbers are given.
āNone of our cables have caused any problems with any amplifier.ā
Wowā¦ thatās quite a claimā¦ 
What they say
Can this really be an issue with a NAP300?
What would be considered very high capacitance/low inductance and, forgive my ignorance, why?
An example of high capacitance and low inductance would be braided āLitzā type cables. For example, take my Kimber 8TCs that I used on my valve amps, which, IIRC, have an inductance of around 0.15uH per metre and a capacitance of around 300pF per metre. Compare that with NACA5 which has an inductance of 1uH per metre and a capacitance of 16pF per metre.
The reason for their very different measurements likely boils down to their very different construction.
2 Likes
Hi Richard, many thanks for the reply and also thanks for your patience. Reading the threads Iām amazed at your enthusiasm in the face of often the same question repeated over & over. And as for Clareās patience on the Solstice forum - well, I couldnāt do her job!
Anyway, back to the topic in hand. What I meant to ask was: what is the implication for the amp for cables outside of Naimās ideal? I know this is rather technical, but Iām ignorant of this area but, like most pilots (see my avatar for a younger me) I canāt stand not knowing how things work. Also, following on from the information Iāve already gleaned, you recommend between 3.5m - 20m of NACA5 which (if itās as mathematically simple as it appears) gives an Inductance range of 3.5 - 20uH, and a capacitance range of 56 - 320pF. As an amp clearly cannot know the length of your cable, just the effort (or not) required to deliver the signal, are you safe so long as the total values for your cable of choice fall within this range, or am I over-simplifying??
Thanks again
1 Like
No problem Stilts, itās my pleasure.
Sometimes I wish Julian were still around and contributing to the forum. Your question would be a perfect one for him to answer. However, although Iām not Julian and no electronics engineer, Iāll tryā¦
In short, the implication of using inappropriate speaker cabling is instability. I remember when I started at Naim and I thought Iād try some of the Kimber 8TC that I used very successfully with some big valve amps on a NAP250.2. This was a pre-production unit, but apart from a few minor details was pretty much the same as the production units. I had been warned that the NAP 250.2 wouldnāt like it - much too high capacitance and too low inductance. Sure enough, the sound didnāt exactly knock my spots off, but more alarmingly, after a short while the casework on the NAP250 was really warm, and getting warmer by the minute. This was alarming because the NAP should run cool, only getting warm if really working out at high levels into something like a pair of Isobariks. I was playing into some very benign ProAc Studio 100s so the NAp250 should hardly be breaking sweat. A little while longer and the casework was now almost too hot to touch for more than a moment or two; time got switch off before the amp decided to shut down. So thatās usually what happens in a somewhat extreme case when the amp doesnāt like the cable.
As for Naimās recommendation, youāre over-simplifying somewhat I feel; itās the combination of low capacitance and moderately high inductance along with a particular resistance thatās the important thing. This usually comes as a product of the cableās construction, hence why anything that deviates away from the construction of NACA5 or NACA4 needs to be approached with caution as it may not be suitable. Braiding cables typically lowers inductance and increases capacitance. Large flat solid conductors are often very high in capacitance. So long as you stick to cable that is low in capacitance and moderately high in inductance and run reasonable lengths, then you should be fine.
3 Likes