Sorry peeps but after a couple of months desperately wanting the Kudos to come on song, it simply hasn’t and the NACA 5 is back in my system. I am going to drop the Kudos cable into Pete’s to let him hear it but the cable I have had over the last few months wasn’t the same as the demo set I tried!
Be interested in his reaction ,perhaps its a batch problem of cables. My dealer said that Kudos started doing this cable due to other supplier quality issues, and others since me were not impressed?
It may well be the common thing where the new kid in town initially seems better, yet on better acquaintance is simply different, and often worse.
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…or maybe that NAC A5 is just simply hard to beat in the context of a Naim system and is probably a good reason as to why it’s still here even after 30 years of production. Some have tried SuperLumina and still they go back to good old NAC A5.
Hi, to be accurate your original post was March 1st… that is more than a couple of months? How long did you have the demo set?
Time passes slowly in Melton Mowbray.
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No I didn’t keep the demo set Geoff, I had the demo pair for a few weeks then I gave it a couple of months before ordering due to the virus. Not sure what happened, the set I have now sound different to what I remember. I put it down to the cable being new, but it had a dark shroud over it, I didn’t like the tone and hoped it would lift as the cable settled down. It’s hard to describe, the mid was glorious but something wasn’t right, it was bright, yet dull in patches. The original kudos and NACA are just more balanced!
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Witch Hat Phantom is well worth a try. Happily replaced my NACA5 with Phantom. Not only have I found Phantom to improve SQ but it doesn’t need Naim plugs on the amp end.
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Hello John,
I am going to take the attitude that if it isn’t broken then I am not going to fix it. There is nothing wrong with Naca 5, its a great cable. With the Kudos cable, I heard how good it was and for the price, it was a fair bet, I loved the demo cable but the second cable just didn’t do it for me, for what reasons, I don’t know why but I havent lost a lot.
If it was more exotic/expensive cable I would have been very dissapointed.
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I guess they will check them out thoroughly back at the shop but might it be a problem with a connector(s)…maybe just needs re-terminating ?
Or, is keeping the demo pair an option if they worked for you ?
It is a shame, but a little concerning is if the demo cables sent out are superior to the current reels of cable, what is going into their speakers? I know my dealer could hear the difference from switching from chord to their own cable.
Still happy with my early demo set.
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Polarbear,
Obviously as a retailer I can’t make party political points As otherwise I will get moderated but firstly you’ve had the cable 26 days as indicated by your posting history on this thread. Secondly I made both the demo cables and the cables you had.
If you’re sure the second set of cable are sufficiently run in obviously I can do a back-to-back assessment against my demonstration pair and see if I can spot any differences.
So far yours is the only negative comment I have received from anyone about this cable.
Peter
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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.
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Never mind 
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.
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Opus, have a read of the FAQ here;
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.
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Thank you.