Hi……
A woman posted the below opinion and statement in a writing to me…
In general,.there is an opinion that you should not bend cables at 90 degrees, this is because of soundquality etc.
BUT,.Naim (which can be seen in the picture below, as the above woman posted) has always done this according to what can be seen in the picture.
AND,.Naim has always performed at the top when it comes to quality and soundquality…
SO,.my simple thinking is:
Is it only certain cables that you shouldn't bend at 90 degrees or..??
Perhaps someone from Naim can sort this out for us…?
BUT,.we can also share our own experience about this.
• Below the woman’s writing:
When we are looking at every detail that affect the sound. Consider this…
This is what I mean. This is a very typical industry practice. Crimping multiple wires into one terminal without pre twisting nor post solder. All the air gap in the middle doesn’t conduct. As a result, a rather small contact surface area.
What does it mean? It means what is the point of cleaner all the outside contacts. Making sure speaker cable spades are well connect to the binding posts. Using all the high grade expensive RCA and XLR plug. Gold and rhodium plated ac plug, etc. When the internal joints are like that.
I also don’t like the way those
wires being bended at 90 degrees.
Peder, you’re probably best off asking Naim directly here if you want their answer, unless someone like Steve @110dB was able to comment.
A personal observation is that the very angled cable dressing of the earlier kit, such as the '80s version of the NAP250 shown in your picture (Pic had to be removed though as seemed to be modified) has lessened somewhat in more recent kit. Cable dressing and even positioning of cable ties etc… is a key part of R&Ds development and I’ve witnessed Roy spending ages head bent over products with tweezers carefully manipulating the cabling trying to get this aspect just right, both prior to launch and also during early production.
I can’t see a picture - is there meant to be a picture of wires to comment on?
…Ultra high frequencies do not like sharp corners (sharp PCB track corners do have technically more capacitance because of increased surface area). e.g. for clock/RF signals. >GHz or THz
Some of our wire looms have tight corners but still have a fair radius. Not a problem at all for the signals. We also use loops to mechanically de-couple. E.g. a sprung PCB to a fix socket.
Richard,.I didn’t know the picture the woman sent was of a modified Naim product.
BUT,.it’s good that it came out.
I reacted a bit to the photo,.but didn’t know it was a modification.
She never posted that the picture was of a Naim product,.but many people commented that it was Naim.
I wanted to raise this here before I answered the woman,.so that I could give her and the others a hundred percent correct answer.
I know from experience that Naim is incredibly Attention To Detail,.so what was said and seen in the woman’s post did not feel right.
Do you Richard,.or Steve @110dB have any good original internal footage as information that I can take with me and counter the woman’s bit of “fake” information.
What Steve has already written is also good information.
As you understand,.I don’t like false information being spread about Naim or any other high-end product.
If electrons were troubled by sharp bends, surely chips and circuit boards would both look very different?
Big contact patches and big cross-sectional area can make a difference if the smaller version was creating a problem. However, I don’t think that that is a closely connected point.
Is it possible that the sharp bend concern comes from remembering/ hearing about a (wholly sensible) wish to avoid coiling up the spare length in a cable?
When you have a sharp 90 degree angle on a wire, the little high frequencies can turn on a hair pin - although the larger lower frequencies have difficulties and can often tumble over out of the wire.
Don’t forget the electrons traveling on the inside of the bend will get ahead of the electrons traveling on the outside of the bend, therefore getting out of sync with each other.
Of course ensuring there is a bend in the opposite direction will bring the electrons back in sync.
When I did my electronics degree we were taught that a sharp bend weakened the cable fibres, leading to possible breakage under stress or over time (due to vibration etc.)
So rounded bends were always preferable to sharp 90 degree bends, which would have been a no-no even on hobbyist builds. One tutor recommended a pencil as the perfect bend radius for small diameter wires within a module we were building (which later survived a flight on the Space Shuttle, so he must have been right).
There is no problem. A hand wired chrome bumper NAP 250 is not affect by this at all.
The original post showed a photo of a 3rd party modified NAP 250. The photo was moderated as it did not represent how it left the Naim factory. If not moderated the photo would float around the internet for years giving misinformation.
Sharp signal corners are not really a consideration until mid GHz or Terahertz or higher voltage.
Using wires instead of PCB traces is great for sound quality (audio domain) - another topic!
Technically a PCB corner has more surface area than a curve. This extra surface area increases stray capacitance. This changes the RF characteristic impedance >>GHz. 45 degree corners are to shorten traces or for aesthetics. Anecdotally curved traces sound better
Mechanically sharp corners are not good for strength e.g. making a car part. A filleted corner distributes stress and is much stronger. This again is a completely different subject.
Optical fibre sharp corners affect transmission, fibres have a minimum bend radius.
Light bounces and gives multi-path delays. Graded index optical cables help the multi-path problem.
Another subject.
…
I also don’t like the way those
