Guys,
Respecting the rule that we are not permitted to discuss any 3rd party provided Snaics that may or may not be available I often wonder why Naim don’t make available an improved Snaic. We have the SL interconnect and SL XLR-DIN but strikes me that the Snaics between my Superline and HC and elsewhere are a potential weak link?
Regards,
Lindsay
I was told they tried a SL Snaic but it did not satisfy their SQ requirements etc. Does seem a bit odd now, many years on from SL launch.
I recently purchased a brand new SNAIC 4 to replace a twenty year old one that goes between my HiCap DR and SN3. I have noted a slight increase in audio quality. Not sure if Naim have changed cable manufacturers over the years but i can defo hear a slight improvement over the old one upon installation. Or maybe things just vary…?
As @Gazza points out, comes down to their experimentation as a manufacturer and conclusion that if something isn’t broken it may not need fixing!
Thanks guys.
Sorry, I don’t buy that. As to why Naim don’t do SL versions, it’s probably true that SL versions really didn’t sound that good.
Should rephrase that to “sorry, I can’t buy that” perhaps!
I’d expect if they felt they could create a cable that did more than what the existing one can they probably would have done so by now.
It’s the same logic with the Burndy cables, those haven’t changed either but I don’t see many owners moaning that their £20k+ digital source sounds below par as a result of the Burndy design.
The SL cables come in various terminations also for carrying audio in 11 flavours today so apart from 4-4 and 5-5 SNAICs I’m not clear what “problem” anyone is attempting to solve here?
Let’s also not forget that the current SNAIC cables are a revision of previous versions, they just haven’t changed for a while.
Well with other non Naim components, connecting a preamp to a power amp is largely an unknown. The quality of the cable to carry a delicate signal from two unknown endpoints without them adversely impacting each other is paramount.
But as noted, NACs and NAPs are designed as two parts of a whole where everything is known on both sides. To that end, SNAIC and Burndy cables are much closer to the internal wiring within an integrated amp. Nothing too fancy but then nothing too fancy required when the specification of the conductors can be precisely matched to the endpoints.
A friend of mine recently upgraded to a TQ Ultra Black IC between his Cyrus pre and power. He’s really pleased with the improvement this made. Seems a shame that Naim users remain restricted to the ‘basic’ cable and unable to upgrade. This has surely got to become a SQ bottleneck further up the Naim range. I think a “Hi-SNAIC” would sell very well indeed.
FullACK. However, no new fundamental and exciting new inventions on cabling and insulations were done within the last 40 years. Everything (on cables) that is sold as fancy today was already there and is old hat. It is more likely that technically meaningful properties (e.g. Kapton insulation) fall victim to red pencils
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