Speaker Cables - Giant Killers Up To £3,000

Seeking experiences from folks who have compared modestly priced cables to some costly high end cables.

I often read about the great performance of these speaker cables on this forum;

Kudos KS-1
WitchHat Phantom or Spectre

No doubt these cables may sound great and punch above their weight or price point. Nevertheless, has anyone compared these cables to say

Naim Super Lumina
Chord Music
Wireworld Platinum or Gold Eclipse 8
Other options

The NAC A5 was left out as I find the sound quality to be wanting (I actually have a pair somewhere in the house). I am curious to know if the costly cables sound noticeably or significantly better than the cheaper (still excellent) options, or the cheap cables are giving the costly alternatives a run for their money.

The cables must be able to fit in all systems and their performance shall not be limited to Naim only systems.

FWIW I currently own Chord Signature XL and find it to be excellent. Curious if things could be improved but I’m not willing to spend more than £3k. I could change my mind though, hence this thread. Or I could stay put.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

3k/meter or 3k total? If the latter, how long do they need to be ?

£3k for the whole length, pair.

I usually require minimum 4m pair as the components are on the side wall.

which of your two systems is this for though? The Naim or the Luxman?

Mainly for the Luxman.

Have you at all considered their own high end cable, the Luxman JPS-15000/2 ?

Cable synergy is more closely aligned to the amplification than speakers. While with Naim, that is more of a known quantity (despite the endless threads on the topic) with a fairly well known subset of cables that work well with Naim amplifiers.

With Luxman, there isn’t the technical compatibility problems you have with Naim, but the issue of synergy never really goes away and unsure whether anyone has tried those high end cables with a Luxman amp.

I was very comfortable with Atlas cables on my 250. But there is a known history there. Atlas use Naim in R&D and testing. The dealer vouched for them. Even Naim Support confirmed it was a compatible match. But when I got my Luxman system, not being familiar with the amp, the dealer or anything, I opted for “assured” performance (which isn’t necessarily the same as “best”). Therefore went with their entry level JPS-100 - obviously my amp is nowhere near the level of yours so that made sense.

I’d definitely be looking at what the JPS-15000/2 can do for you. Almost certainly, your amp was designed with it in mind.

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Good idea. Haven’t thought about it before, Luxman’s own speaker cable Jps-15000.

After checking on the specs, it appears that the JPS-15000 does not have silver content, no silver plating on copper conductors.

*generally higher level cables have some silver content

It’s not something I’d ever really consider one way or the other when choosing a cable. The JPS-15000/s is made for Luxman by Mitsubishi Electric with some fairly extreme conductors.

It is not fancy. It is well engineered though. Certainly it has had some decent reviews over here.

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Schnerzinger, by no way, far away from the rest.

Audience 24U SX . Wonderful. Miles away from what I had before ( Naca 5 then Apertura tiny).

Spending anything like £3,000 on a pair of loudspeaker cables is utter madness.

Get a well-terminated set of NACA5 (or hunt out some old NACA4, if you need more flexible cable), and spend what has been saved on LPs, CDs, some new Naim stuff, or escort(s).

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The OP has already mentioned:

  • They had A5 and it wasn’t their cup of tea.
  • This is for their non Naim system.

Not sure it’s up to us to pass judgement on what constitutes madness either. I’d never spend that. But others might call $100 on speaker cable madness.

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The complete opposite in my experience.

i went from Naca5 to chord signature xl, i am really pleased with the difference its made

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Cables are very system dependant and user preference as with amplification and speakers comes into play more than anything else.

Although we all have Naim components some of us vary the source and speakers are often from a different brand therefore for me it’s difficult to make a recommendation until @ryder can tell us a little more about what it was that he didn’t like about the NAC A5 or what sound he would like to achieve.

I have compared the NAC A5 to several other cables and for what I like ( bass definition and impact and an immediate exciting sound, the NAC A5 has not been bettered as of yet. But if you have a different preference of sound signature then I can perhaps name a few others.

When I did recent upgrades (202/200 > 282/250DR) and NEAT Petite 30’s wanted to lose the NACA5 as found it terrible to manage so went Super Lumina and for IC’s too, the logic being no matter what happens it’ll always be good enough i.e an “investment”. As for comparing one non-NAIM cable against another I wouldn’t be able to make a snap decision so I don’t bother with home demo’s of anything

It is (to say the least) very odd - some might call it quixotic - to venture on to the NAIM Forum to ask about loudspeaker cable BUT rule out NAIM loudspeaker cable. If the OP has a Luxman amplifier, he should ask on the Luxman Forum, or start his own if there is no such thing.

It’s rather like going onto an Arsenal fansite to ask about their favourite Tottenham player.

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Not really. The richness of the forum is the variety. Reduce it to just Naim and most members would leave. Even the moderator has a large collection of non Naim gear that often gets discussed.

Very few are interested in a forum that’s just a Naim echo chamber.

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If the moderator deleted all posts relating to (say) all Naim amplifiers, Members would stop posting and the Forum would be dead within a month.

(Not that I’m inviting him to do so, even to prove my theory correct.)

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