Is there any good reason you folks seem to just use the same old stuff? It’s Naca5, or Super Lumina, or this Kudos stuff or Witchhat? It can’t be the money too many of you chaps have these 500 series systems… I’ll make a few suggestions that you’all may at least want to try:
AudioQuest try anything from the “Tree” series Aspen, Oak, Redwood… I used the Oak for a number of years.
Audience-AV The AU24SX is amazing (my current choice) there’s a new top of the line called Front Row, and there’s very reasonable stuff like the OHNO line.
Kimber Kable: Numerous models 12TC, 8TC, Select Series… I’ve used Select Bi-Focal XL in the past.
Synergistic Research: Many Cables many prices.
Cardas Audio: Clear , Clear Beyond, Clear Reflection. I used Clear for several years. Closest cable I’ve ever used that truly sounded “Clear”
DH Labs: Great bargain cables. I used long runs of Q-10 for many years as a " Custom Install Cable"
Nordost: From mild to wild $$$
WireWorld: Eclipse 8, and Silver Eclipse 8. (great wire for ProAc)
And others… You might be very surprised at what you hear. Then again I could be wrong
Some of the cables you mention, certainly the Cardas with their Litz construction, and the Kimber and possibly others, are more or less guaranteed to be an extremely bad match for a Naim amp. The inductance and capacitance of the cable have to be right in order for the amp to perform peoperly. I guess people stick with cable manufactureres who understand this, and design their cables accordingly, and in addition to Naim, the likes of Chord and Witch Hat are a safe bet here.
The problem is that all cables don’t work properly with Naim amps. People don’t want to take the risk to damage something.
But very probably some cables you cited will work perfectly.
Back in the “Old Days”, Naim made NACA5. We all used it because that was best. Despite lots of other cables becoming available (and the differences between them, I suspect, is somewhat less than some would have you believe), the NACA5 does an excellent job, and personally I’m content to stick with it through thick and thin.
Besides, my cable’s irretrievably and immovably incorporated into an underfloor conduit. Which is quite liberating because I don’t have to torture myself over wondering if it could be improved upon.
At least one of those cables you mention (8TC) I used to have, and it worked very nicely on my tube amp. However, when I tried it on a NAP250.2 the amp got very hot very fast and didn’t sound great at all. I quickly removed it. Of course, it was far too low in inductance and much too high in capacitance for the Naim amp.
I use Linn K600 on my Isobariks as I found I preferred it a way back in 1988 when I bought the speakers, however, I still had Bill at Audio Projects provide me with 2off 3.5mtr lengths as per Naim’s recommendation. I have never ‘needed’ this length and frankly it is a PITA as there is no easy way to deal with the ‘excess’ but it is what it is.
I have had issues recently with ‘hot’ NAP250’s and have gone around unplugging the ‘banana’ plugs and ‘spreading’ the pins so as they make a better contact with the sockets (at both the speaker and amplifier ends).
For myself I would much rather see 4mm terminal posts on the speakers and then I’d solder ring terminals on to the cables for a much more ‘secure’ connection.
Evening Elfer, you could just be spot on, it dawned on me this morning that the pair of cables I have are not the same as Peters demo pair. There is a subtle difference and it could be the reason for the difference…
I am going to get them back to Peter and I am sure that when he has done a back to back comparison he will confirm what I am thinks.
Sorry Gaza, it’s not a matter of inconsistent batches, it’s something more simple.
My KS-1 work splendidly, had Peter fit naim plugs on
If you had naim plugs fitted i wonder if you have a polarity issue with the plugs, the NAP’s left and right sockets mirror image the + and - so an easy mishap waiting to happen.
Having said that i find it hard to believe you’d fall for that cunning old out of phase trick?
I have chord connectors on my pair and I think thats what the issue is.
Don’t laugh re the out of phase, I checked, double checked and even treble checked. I had the manual out and I know its + - - + on the back of the NAP but listening to the system yesterday I realised its a timing issue, which is what I couldn’t get my head round, the detail was there but it didn’t sound right, it was sluggish so I have obviously done something wrong.
As I said, I will get them to Peter next week at some time, and I am sure he will point out what I have done wrong, I know they can sound good, I was really impressed with the demo pair
As PB had indicated above in his post of Aug 9th…
We sound tested his pair against ours and there was a difference! PB’s pair did not sound as good.
We re-terminated not using the original plugs and bingo the sound was better and exactly the same as out demo set that we had originally lent to PB.
So, it was the plugs and the cables were not at fault. Surprising but true and thanks to PB for bringing this to our attention and getting to the root of the issue.
