When NAIM lowers the price by 50% to WHP levels then maybe I’ll consider it.
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Lots of cables available on the second hand market, depending on where you live.
An edition of Cable Talk , Exposure and Linn K20 are very similar to Naim A4, which is excellent choice for the money.
Atlas or Chord cable do a number of great solutions too.
On the cheapskate, Van Damme, Mark Grant, Supra.
They will all work with your Atom Uniti until you have sourced the Spectre.
Yeah…I have to bring the cable through good few corners and given the stiffness of it, it might be problematic.
I would recommend True Signal Audio Cables - numerous flavours within to suit your tastes.
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Their website states that the current supplier of Phantom has kept increasing prices considerably. Rather than pass these on they have decided to source from the supplier that makes their Morgana I/C and the new Spectre speaker cable. This will take some time to replicate the Phantom sound and quality with the new supplier.
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Looking throughout the forum and I am trying to establish how close will Witch Hat N2 sounds in compare with NAC A5 as I am on the search for a new cable. Money wise K20 looks like a good option and will have to pull the trigger on one option shortly. My types are:
- WH N2 (as the Phantom is not available)
- Linn K20
- Kudos
One question about the Kudos as it looks quite sililat to Chord. Will this be the case like NAC A4 and Linn K20 that Kudos is essentially the same as some model from Chord
Peter from Cymbiosis stated recently that Kudos designed their own cable for their speakers internally, and now for purchase by customers.
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Hello HH.
I recently upgraded my amplifier to SN3 and my streamer to NDX2 (no I’m not stalking you) but as you know I use Tellurium black 2 speaker cable so was interested to know 1. what prompted you to try witchhat phantom ?2. What lengths you bought? And finally 3. Did you take a hit on the cable trade in.?
Hope you’re keeping well. Graham.
I could add to this even though not the same system.
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All feedback that should most or even all that tried Phantom going from TQ BII kept the Phantoms. In general high praise with any Naim system. I’m a lot for synergy so I eventually tried them and they indeed was a great synergy.
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I went from 2x4 Tellurium to 2x5m Phantom. Mostly due to that some claim longer lengths of speaker cable sounds better (at least Naca5 which I believe should have similar specs as Phantom per design).
Personally I found Phantoms to sound more correct. TQ was looking back bit too lush. Bit like comparing a tube amp with a solid state. Phantoms was like putting glasses on. More PRAT.
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Hello Graham. When I bought my Rega Aria I asked Tellurium to make me a phono to Din interconnect, but they said they wouldn’t. I was using Tellurium interconnects for the other sources and I wanted them to be all the same. So I put the original Naim interconnects back and bought a Naim phono to Din. It seemed better to me. This then got me thinking about the speaker leads and how well TQ speaker leads meshed with Naim interconnects. I dismissed NACA5 because it’s a bit of a pain and I was struggling to find someone who could reliably solder F connectors. So it was down to Kudos KS1 or Phantom. I have a thing against Kudos as a company and the wires are too white, so Phantom it was. Unlike Tellurium, Witch Hat don’t spout bollocks and make a lot about working well with Naim, which given their backstory sounds reasonable.
The leads are 4m and I have the jumpers too. Yes I lost money, having bought new and sold on eBay but it wasn’t a big deal and I’m happy with the result. The Phantoms are far more discreet, unlike the rather shiny black TQBII and the nasty silver writing all over it.
That probably doesn’t help, but you did ask!!
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Thanks HH. Your views always welcome.
Even if sometimes they are somewhat irrational!
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I received my Phantoms a week or so ago - it was exactly a nine week wait. Should add, very much worth the wait though.
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Buying hi fi hasn’t always been based on rational thought. For the life of me I couldn’t give you a good or sensible reason why I recently upgraded my amp or streamer but I’m so pleased I did.
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It’s always worth asking your friendly local dealer to borrow a set of cables as well to at least get a feel of what they’ll do for you in your system. You’ll also likely find they’ll have sets they’ve acquired from customers when they’ve done upgrades or installs and you can usually come to an agreement to get a set of used ones either as is or re-terminated, I’ve done similar as well as repurposing longer lengths in to multiple shorter lengths.
If you’re doing any sort of meaningful comparison take your time and borrow or buy used ones to cover the cost more sensibly.
The main gripe with NAC A5, whilst it’s a known quantity and is assured to work well on any Naim system, is very stiff and can be challenging to tame with longer lengths. The other options highlighted here tend to be a lot easier to position and tidy up essentially.
I’ve got a fair bit of Linn K20 on various setups as well, mainly as it’s easy to run and very cost effective. The other options will almost certainly perform better, experiment as your time and budget permits.
Factor in for termination cost as well if buying new, the banana/spade plugs can be a few £ to probably £100’s each depending on how extravagant you’re feeling.
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Had a brief chat with lovely guy from Witch Hat today. According to what he said, Phantoms wont be available for next 2-3 months. By all means Im not trying to say that this gentleman is not trustworthy but when supplier says 2-3 months I hear 5-6 months. Hopefully I am wrong. Anyway will be ordering N2 as per what he said they are close to NACA5. Have to get something 
hopefully they will keep me entertained better than TQB2
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Quote from WH blog. TG Black II is a great cable. A friend just compared it to Chord Epic XL and find the benefits with XL minor if anything at all and stays with TQ.
“Four years ago we launched what was to become our most popular and well-loved cable, the Phantom. Since then our suppliers have been consistently increasing their costs but with recent events, they have doubled within a year despite us ordering in much higher quantities. We had been absorbing this cost so far as we are wary of using a new manufacturer due to the potential change in sound.
This left us in a difficult situation: should we increase our prices at a time when the cost of living is already impacting many of our loyal customers or seek out an alternative supplier, causing a delay and potentially change in sound. Whilst it has introduced more work for us, we felt more comfortable as a company opting for the latter and choosing a new supplier.
Fortunately, we already have a good alternative as they have been making our Morgana and various other prototype cables over the last two years. We know they can produce a high fidelity cable and so we asked them to duplicate the Phantom’s technology to ensure it sounds as consistent as the last. This has however given us the opportunity to make some improvements based on our research of the Morgana and Spectre cables, both cosmetic and sonically so we can produce a significantly better cable without increasing the price.
We are awaiting a sample run of this cable which we expect in the next six weeks for us to listen to and to approve, before we can place a meaningful order. This means that we now have around a three month wait until we can recommence shipping. However, we are excited that when we do start shipping again it will be a much higher quality cable than before.”
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I ordered a pair of the N2 cables with matching Jumpers on 9th June iirc; estimated turn around was 3-4 weeks.
Apparently Witch Hat were having difficulty procuring the spades for the Jumpers. I’ve emailed Josh @Witch Hat, and the most recent, last week, I received what looked like a stock email/response - difficulties with supply.
I’m not sure if it is the spades in reality, or more the actual cable, but I still don’t have even an estimated eta. I’m not overly concerned, there’s no rush to be honest. I just hope WH can get through their current supply issues.
I did get a survey invite yesterday, centred around the new Spectre cables, so they must doing ok.
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I would based on this forum estimate that Phantom cables are amongst their best selling products. Not being able to deliver that would for sure be a challenge for them. As I read it it is not supply of material that is their main concern, instead it is the price increase. I don’t see why they don’t just raise the price then like all others to keep shipments and margins floating. It’s performance/price ratio is still a very great if they would have to make a jump in price. Spectre won’t start shipments until end of Q4 or early Q1 so no revenue to back up Phantom there for a while.
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I was hoping to order 6m pair of N2 next week and was hoping for quick delivery to be honest. I would prefer to order Phantom and forget about the speaker cables for a long while but I am not prepared to wait few months. Thanks for this post as now I know that before placing the order I will ring them and ask how long will be the delivery time.
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