Hi, yesterday my Naca5 cables arrived. They are soldered at both ends (amp end – Atom plugs, speaker end – Chord gold plugs).
As everybody knows Naca5 is robust cable and it introduces quite a big stress on speaker connections, because it is hard to bend it. Despite this, I’m trying to arrange excess of the cable in “zigzag” form as many recommends (avoiding coils).
My question is how sturdy are soldered connections, especially at speaker ends? I’m not sure what force the soldered joints can withstand before breaking.
It seems that soldering is done nicely, at least visually.
Sorry if my question is strange I hadn’t any experience with manually soldered joints before.
Thanks Richard. Yes, one end of the cable is wraped with plastic housing (supplied with Uniti Atom). But my concern is more about speaker connections (chord plugs that go to my Focal speakers). They do not have any plastic cover, just red/black rubber wrapped around soldering:
Try not to bend cables too sharply - shape them with a decent radius to any bends before connecting to amp or speakers to minimise stress on the connectors. Plugging them in and then bending puts unnecessary stress on the connectors and is best avoided.
If you manage to snap a soldered connection apart, then it was improperly soldered and you did yourself a favour finding it before it quietly failed in use, introducing sound quality issues slowly but inexorably.
Best
If the fraim glass shelf protrudes further back than the supernait, how do you get the naim NACA5 in the speaker holes without the stiff cable being hard up against the glass? Surely not ideal
By the way avoiding coils as opposed zig zag is an urban myth. As the two conductors, both plus and minus run closely in parallel any possible induction added is cancelled out for a speaker load.
Now a coil will add inductance to capactively coupled ground, ie your floor, which is possibly a good thing…
The only time you wouldn’t coil parallel wires was if there was a very high current load where the cable heats, and a coil could impede the heat dissipation from the cable… kind of unlikely for Hi-Fi, but a consideration for mains extension leads.
I use those same plugs at my speaker end. Those Chord Company pins are quite robust and you would have to apply some extreme silly force to bend them. As for the crooked pin? I would not worry at all, it maybe where the heat from the iron has caused the insulation to expand a bit. I have it on mine and they work a treat.
Enjoy your new cables!
Yes I know, maybe I worry too much. But I want to be sure that everything is OK .
People worry about such tings like LAN cable touching the wall, avoid surge protections, avoid leds., experiment with different cord arrangements in mains extension blocks, turn off fridge and computer when listening to music (for cleaner electricity), place their equipment on different surfaces and experience different sound quality, etc…
So this curved plug seems also a big problem compared to such worries .
I agree with James. Most of the things people worry about in tweaking their HiFi systems have no basis in science and may be inaudible to anyone but themselves. (This is a provocative statement but it’s what I believe all the same). Your solder joints look fine, as far as one can tell without taking the heatshrunk insulation off.
I say just enjoy the music and if you want to suspend your cables from hooks in the ceiling wrapped in blue cotton wool, or spend a month’s salary on a couple of metres of “special” ethernet cable because you think it sounds better, then do it!
It’s better than collecting assault weapons for a hobby (to mention something contentious at random).
Best
Those kinks look to me like they have been crimped rather than soldered. Only a guess, as obviously we can’t see inside unless you cut the heat shrink. Some dealers are rubbish at soldering, and if they have crimped them because it’s easier, I would want them redone if that was the case.
I hadn’t any experience with manually soldered joints before.
