I started with NACA4, moved on to NACA5 however, I found this overly bright/ harsh in my listening room. The room itself is not ideal, being square which I am told creates various problems for the soundwaves. I replaced the NACA5 with Chord Signature which in my room was a vast improvement, conscious that at the time, many on this forum felt Signature sucked the PRAT out of the music. This was used with a NAP300 (non dr). Since then I have replaced the Signature with Chord Sarum which works really well with my system and the 300 was swapped out for a 500dr.
If contemplating Super Lumina, which seems to produce fab results for many on here, I would suggest borrowing a set of Sarum T cables to compare at home. One thing is certain about speaker cables - they seem to provide a fine tuning to the sound of your system and their impact varies with the acoustics of the rooms in which they are used. Your preference will only become apparent if you try at home.
Don’t give a **** about inductance and resistance figures. You can study all the graphs you want, it’s what your ears hear and whether you like it…that’s the real measure!!!
Based on what you said here Richard, today I removed the banana plugs from the NAC A5, just on the speaker ends and used bare wire connections as a trial. I am amazed at the transformation! The soldering wasn’t the best but I also noticed that a few individual strands were not actually connected but frayed backwards. Really shoddy. But now, the brightness has calmed and the sound stage is focused and the bass taught and fast. Lovely.
Its made me rethink the speaker cable situation and I have ordered some new NAC A5, this time in black, and the correct lengths as my existing is too short.
Based on what I have heard today I may not need to buy anything else, I won’t for a while, anyway.
If I digress, ignore. I have a klimax 10yrs old, 552 500 non DR into B & W 802. All standard cables. I cannot afford more that £2k all in, pref less. Any thoughts on what to do? The previous comments are interesting, but many out of my budget. Second hand Hi line DIN to DIN? then the pair to the power amp, then speaker cable itself. I have quite a hard room, just a rug on floor
Thanks for that, Dave. First I have to service the 20 year old 500 and 15 year old 552. cannot afford the DR, but then perhaps the Katalyst. Is it that good?
I would guess that with brand new NACA5 and a fully serviced 500/552 you will not ‘need’ to spend anything more. You may decide to do the Hi Line or Power Lines but the difference will be far less than getting those old units back up to new standard!
It’s fabulous. Nevertheless, I’m assuming you will already have had your 552/500 serviced, as that should be your first priority.
Cables can do wonderful things and can really “get out of the way” (hiline and Naca5 don’t do that) but with a relatively restricted budget, I’d look at getting your existing gear up to their best.
One wants to upgrade something but can’t afford it and the other wants to do something else. Or maybe not. Maybe if they set Ross and Russ as their avatars. It really is all too much.
