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
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Reading the website I find it hard to avoid the impression they’re made of pure bullshit, or maybe that’s just the website.
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I very much doubt it, if as your profile shows, you have Super Lumina.
Yes, it’s the best to do. Give them the specs of the Naca5. Naim amps don’t 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. There’s 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.
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It seems good then 
Can you return these Shunyata if you are not satisfied?
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Yes I can get them on loan so no worries sending them back😁
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That’s actually not an answer, from Shunyata. No actual numbers are given.
“None of our cables have caused any problems with any amplifier.”
Wow… that’s quite a claim… 
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 “Litz” 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.
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Hi Richard, many thanks for the reply and also thanks for your patience. Reading the threads I’m amazed at your enthusiasm in the face of often the same question repeated over & over. And as for Clare’s patience on the Solstice forum - well, I couldn’t 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 Naim’s ideal? I know this is rather technical, but I’m ignorant of this area but, like most pilots (see my avatar for a younger me) I can’t stand not knowing how things work. Also, following on from the information I’ve already gleaned, you recommend between 3.5m - 20m of NACA5 which (if it’s 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
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No problem Stilts, it’s 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 I’m not Julian and no electronics engineer, I’ll try…
In short, the implication of using inappropriate speaker cabling is instability. I remember when I started at Naim and I thought I’d 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 wouldn’t like it - much too high capacitance and too low inductance. Sure enough, the sound didn’t 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 that’s usually what happens in a somewhat extreme case when the amp doesn’t like the cable.
As for Naim’s recommendation, you’re over-simplifying somewhat I feel; it’s the combination of low capacitance and moderately high inductance along with a particular resistance that’s the important thing. This usually comes as a product of the cable’s 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.
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Thanks Richard, I very much appreciate the insight. I never imagined that HiFi could become so complicated - or compulsive (or expensive), for that matter!!
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Since when is it all about numbers? Shunyata products are outstanding you might want to try some of their Power Cords…
I remember a while back mostly everyone here said: Oh no power conditioners are bad!
Then someone tried an AudioQuest Niagara 3000…Holy Cow this chap said what a big difference.
Now AQ products are OK on a Naim System…
They are?
That’s a bit like plugging a 120 V unit into a 240 V socket and saying “who cares about numbers?”
It’s not about numbers being used to discuss SQ but about basic electrical compatibility
Some may be, some are not
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