I’m new to the forum and new to the Naim products. I will shortly be buying an Naim Unity Atom together with a pair of KEF LS50s speakers for my living room.
I just wondering what would be the best speaker cables for this setup? Originally I looked at Chord Shawline X cable, then I was told to use the Naim AC5 speaker cable. I’m budgeting for around £30 per metre, the max length of the cable will be around 1.5 metre max from the Naim to the speakers.
Don’t want to skimp on the speaker cable as it seems this can make a big difference in sound quality.
I use Chord Odyssey with my Atom and Neat Iotas, sounds fantastic! The updated Odyssey 2 is available for £27.50 per metre. I would suggest you won’t go far wrong with this cable.
Hi Nick, that seems a short run of cable, most on the forum would suggest over 3 metres to each speaker and then coil in a figure of eight. That may affect your costing per metre though.
I ran my Atom with some non-Naim speaker cable for a while. Then I picked up some NACA5 on ebay and soldered some Naim plugs onto it. There was a BIG improvement.
I need 5m lengths, so I can’t comment on the issue of performance with short cables. For Naim’s separate power amps, the recommendation is 3.5m minimum, 5 to 10m optimum, but I suspect the Atom is more tolerant.
Thanks Chris, that’s interesting. The helpul people at Richersounds said I would be okay with RumourX, said it would reduce some of the ‘warmth’ of the Atom, although I liked the sound as it was. Will check out the NACA5.
Nick, check with the dealer as Chris mentioned the classic series definitely like 3+ metres. Naca5 takes some beating from a sound quality perspective, but not easy to work with around bends etc, though not impossible. The Atom would have been designed using Naca5.
Thanks for the info Chris, yes I will now keep to the NACA5 cable, routing not really a problem as it will be looped at the back of a cabinet. Will check with dealer and NAIM support also on min lengths.
Just to echo the recommendation for NacA5 and 3.5m lengths. I’ve used both Chord Rumour and Odyssey on the main system in the past and they made the music really boring. That said I use Chord Clearway to connect my UnitiQute 2 and Neat Iotas and it seems fine. I wanted something really small and discreet as the speakers are on the wall.
Since the Atom is not subject to the same restrictions as the Classic range amplifiers, my recommendation would be QED Signature Revelation, a fantastic cable across the entire frequency range, balanced and with a high resolution; I personally have it with Wadia 151 Powerdac Mini and Dali Menuet, and, IMHO, significantly improves the Tellurium Q Ultra Blue, among others, and at a much better price.