Tellurium Q-Black 2 alternatives... (speaker cables)

You can try heating it with a hair-dryer and gently bending it into shape.

I would be quite reluctant to do it. Is there any official recommendation from Naim that heating up would not damage the conductor and result in drop in sound quality. Copper can be sensitive for hot temperature.
Personally I think that Naim should design new standard cable which would be just easier to manage

Agreed. Some people it seems, for reasons that escape me, would prefer to think that they know better than Naim what works best with Naim amps. Indeed such people could be said to possess an evangelical zeal in their belief that they know better and have discovered a superior path to the truth. It’s not all their own fault though. They have been misguided by manufacturers who are keen to promote and sell their own cables and will gladly reassure them that all will be well.

I on the other hand have what seems to be a very unfashionable belief in following the manufacturer’s instructions and recommendations for how to achieve the best performance and how to ensure the safety of their products. As opposed to believing a bunch of users (most of whom are not engineers and therefore lack the required technical knowledge) of different cables who do not fully understand the design concepts behind Naim amps and have chosen to ignore Naim’s advice.

Talk to Naim on this. I believe it is an accepted thing to do and that a hair-dryer (as opposed to a heat gun) will not generate temperatures high enough to damage the copper conductors. Remember that soldering will be much hotter and yet is accepted as a means of attaching plugs.

I remember doing my loudspeaker cable experiments back in the mid-nineties with Naim amps, with Naim and non-Naim speakers, and i found out pretty quickly way back then that NAC A5 was just an extension of the amplifier’s design. I could immediately hear different things going on, whether bad or good. Based from those experiences, i have just stuck with good old NAC A5, regardless of my many upgrade paths throughout the years.

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I have them, they are super sounding and wonderfully built .

They are great value for money and inspire confidence .

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You have been warned…

Incidentally, when I bought my NAC22/NAP120, I don’t think Naim were making speaker cables… so what were they using? And it’s still working fine, after a recapping of course.

With no intention to enter any debate with this, but as far as I am aware the people you refer to from WH are no sales staff either, would you have believed them if they threw some fancy tech words in a very trustworthy sales manner? Since you rely and made final conclusions solely based on a single video as a source of truth and you have never heard their products, my guess is you would have done so.

As far as being all Naim from source to amp, I am that kind of person too, not because I follow their instructions, but for keeping the sound signature as much as possible, if that makes sense. The only non Naim pieces in my chain are a WH Morgana Interconnect, which replaced a std Naim lead and sounds way superior than the latter and I replaced also the SA8s with alpha grade copper banana plugs from Furutech, not because I wanted to, but because I got tired of re-soldering them, I did this maybe 3 or 4 times, as no dealer in my part of the world is offering this service to its customers and my soldering skills are pretty bad. The end of the cable near the soldering point finally had turned black because of the heat, which I had to cut prior to installing the Furutech plugs, which shortened the lengths with maybe 5 cm each. As much as I like and respect Naim, this definitely is one of the pieces of equipment they should have offered an alternative for, this has been discussed so many times that it sound almost boring now, and is one of the (main) reasons people replace those with different options from other manufacturers. Same goes for NACA5 with its stiffness for and instance.

All the best.

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From what I can recall Naim recommended two lengths of wire, ie. for pos and neg conductors, (the guage etc. of which I can’t remember) lightly twisted at so many turns per metre - again I can’t remember how many, to achieve the correct electrical characteristics. This is what my dealer supplied when I first bought my 42/110 which must have been just before NACA4 came out.

Good old (lightly twisted) RS 56 strand was the recommended cable before NAC A4 was introduced.

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My reason for doubting them is nothing to do with their ‘lack of tech’ words. As I explained it is because the person carrying out the work seemed to be unsure as to whether a number of key constructionla bolts had an official torque setting or not. You may think this is a small matter and dismiss it - as indeed did the person in the video. I on the other hand believe that it very significant and is indicative of a lack of knowledge and understanding of the products they are seeking to improve.

I would not trust a company like that to fit a mains plug to my Naim kit let alone make a suitable and safe speaker cable for it - however good it sounded.

If you want to trust them then it’s entirely up to you.

Thanks James. Yes that was it. I remember it being black and red and looking quite nice actually!

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It’s the same cable that’s used inside Naim’s speakers. It also works very nicely to bridge bi-wire terminals on speakers that are so equipped.

That seems an unnecessarily nasty comment. Following the manufacturer’s instructions and recomendations is not displaying evangelical zeal at all and neither does it make one in need of a cold bath. It is simply sound common sense.

Since Naim maintain that A5 or SL is the only correct way then presumably your view is that they are all in need of a cold bath to rid them of their delusions!

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With my first Naim system I used NAC A5 for several years. Price wise I would consider it to be excellent value for money. In terms of cable dressing it is on the stiff side but workable with a little thought. The sound is engaging with an almost ‘analogue’ signature, warmth with texture and that lovely feeling of ‘coziness’. After upgrading to a 500 Series system, I home auditioned a much more expensive OCC 6N (99.9999%) pure silver cable (from a ‘reputable’ company) and I preferred the sonic characteristics (more micro clarity/detail with faster transients). We each know what we like to hear but NAC A5 will always have a special place in my heart (I still have mine boxed up in storage for those candle lit dinners) :relaxed:

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Most car companies insist that you should use only their parts (if they still make them). Many specify one make of lubricant that must be used for safety - though I did own an Italian car and a motorcycle where the required products hadn’t existed for about a decade. If their insistence were really a vital safety issue, using it might have been an MOT requirement - it wasn’t. Selling my Ducati because the early manuals of the time insisted on a bizarre oil (which the later ones did not) would not have been ‘common sense’ to me.

When Naim recommended only the sensible-budget A5, perhaps because it was the best they made, you presumably were happy with their recommendation. Have you now disposed of it all as second-rate (and a bad recommendation) because the manufacturer now recommends SL instead?

Please note that I regard A5 as excellent cable and good VFM and entirely suitable for Naim kit.

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Naim amps need a certain level of inductance for stability.
The recommended length range of A5 and its published inductance allows for the calculation of this so all that’s needed are the specs for the possible alternatives to work out whether it’s suitable at at what lengths from the point of view of damaging the amp. The inductance can be measured via a suitable LCR meter so if in doubt take it to the bridge.

Really it puzzles me somewhat why people seem to get so defensive and agitated about the whole Naim speaker cables vs other cables issue.

Let me be crystal clear about my position. I believe that Naim speaker cable (NACA5 or SL depending on budget/preference) is the best option for Naim amps from both a performance and safety perspective. Why do I believe that? Because Naim have said so and because they advise that any other cable may result in either damage or reduced performance or both.

Nobody will change my mind on this. Why? Because I choose to believe the manufacturer of the amps as opposed to any other unauthorised source.

Clearly this upsets or offends some people who choose to believe, for some reason that escapes me, other sources who advise them otherwise. This is what puzzles me. I am not saying that anyone else has to use Naim speaker cables. You can of course use whatever cable takes your fancy. No problem and I don’t care at all.

But you seem to want some sort of agreement from me (or from Naim) that you are right and that it’s OK to use non-Naim cables.

Well as I said I prefer to put my belief and faith in what the manufacturer tells me as opposed to what anyone else tries to tell me. Sorry if this upsets you, but as I said, I don’t care what you use - it’s up to you. But I won’t be joining you.

Moto Guzzi and Ferrari would have been happy to hear you say that! As for using OEM brakepads or indicator bulbs…

As long as the manufacturer is wholly unbiased, and knew when making the recommendation all of the products that we know of today, then I can at least see the force of your argument. Is that how you see things?

In any I certainly am not demanding your agreement, and I can’t see that anyone else here is either. No-one that I can see has declared that there is anything terribly wrong with using A5 cable either. Which comments did you think of as trying to force you to change?

I am of course completely content for you to continue with your views in favour of A5 (not sure where you stand on Naim’s recommendation of SL as superior?), and that all other cables are a genuine (not marketing) risk to kit, and therefore not an option.

I appreciate that this must make it hard to address the question that was asked (alternatives to TQB2), as presumably you would never do as @elevensheep as done and actually listened to to TQB2 and compared it to the other cables being asked about here.

In any event, you are clearly happy with your cables, which is surely the main thing.

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