Now that the other threads been completely hijacked starting a new one. If you want to talk about cables not making a difference please use that thread (linked below).
@Martinzero - love to hear more about your journeys to Nordost Chord etc and back to Naca5 and Naim Interconnext and snaics. What does your system look like now?
Hi MangoMonkey,
I detect a sense of frustration in your starting this new thread. For your information I am fully in the camp of cables make a difference. The issue I have is the amounts of money being charged.
As a result I have decided to undertake a personal project to find the optimum loudspeaker cable for my system. There is a specific thread for this project, perhaps you have seen the thread?
I include a link below that shows I am assembling information on a set of candidate loudspeaker cable to evaluate. Nordost brand is represented in the table - but showing only the ‘Odin’.
What (one or two) Nordost loudspeaker cables would you recommend for inclusion in the World Cup of International Loudspeaker Cables (e.g. that are comparable in cost to others such as Chord Sarum T or Chord Music).
PS: Included in the competition there will be some super cheap DIY cables.
@Edmund-of-Essex - I’m just trying out power cables. They make a huge difference - just not necessarily a good one in the context of a Naim system.
This is where I am currently with my experiments.
The Nordost cables add a lot more detail but it seems the energy shifts from the midrange to upper registers, and Naim’s propulsive and addictive sound becomes something else - it’s not a naim system anymore…
But maybe it’s just a matter of definition - if I’m defining a naim system to be what it sounds like with Naca5, power lines, snaics and lavender/hilines - then by definition, adding something else is not Naim sounding. I guess I was just trying to reduce the noise floor and get more of what makes naim naim, rather than going off on a different direction altogether.
Apparently, the issue is with the Naca5 now.. I guess I can wait around to see if there will be a Frey2 available on the second hand market … The Tellurim Q Black II that I have sounds horrible again with the nordost cables..
So I don’t know.. I think I’ll give it a rest…
The valhalla2 on preamp+amp with Freys elsewhere, did not work.
The best ‘sounding’ combo was valhalla2 on the powerstrip, Frey2s on the 2x555, 552, 500, and now I don’t remember anymore, but perhaps just the Freys on 2x555 552, and power line on the 500 or maybe frey2s everywhere…
But still - coming back to a Hiline/Snaics/Naca5 feels like coming back home..
OTOH - Just by changing some cabling I can have a totally different system - now just to figure out how to make a second ‘enjoyable’ system…
Hi MM,
Have you ever tried Shunyata brand Power Cable and Power Conditioning products?
PS: Any suggestions of Nordost loudspeaker cable types to go in my competition?
I was thinking maybe Nordost Heimdall 2 and perhaps Frey 2?
Would that be a fair competition with the other brands and types in the table?
Yeah - Frey2 is what I would do - seems middle of the range, and about the same price as the super lumina. However - here’s an issue with the test you’re proposing - it’s only valid in the context of the rest of the system - and if anything changes in the rest of the system, not sure how valid it is anymore.
What are you planning for cables for interconnects, snaics and power? Someone using Frey2 speaker cable would probably want to do ‘full loom’ Nordost.
So maybe what you really want to do is full loom competitions? 
OTOH, it would be useful for someone wanting to keep everything in place - and just make that one change…
It can be tricky with Naim and cables. It is easy to hear a difference but it’s also easy to loose the Naim DNA moving into something else. I still haven’t found a power cable that sound more and better Naim than Powerline.
All in all - heavy velvet curtains in the room did more for the sound than the Nordost cabling.
But funny story - Given that I had a lot of glass in the old house, I suspect my ears/brain got used to that sound/ringing of the glass. With the heavy curtains that ringing or whatever is gone. But now within a few minutes of turning music on some tinnitus kicks in - asked chatgpt and this is the brain compensating for what it thinks is missing. This happens more with Nordost cabling in place than without.
So now I’ll have to rewire my brain for this better sound.
Another story - visited an old friend recently - he’s got tonnes of glass in his room too. He’s a naim fanatic going back at least 30 years. He likes to tell stories about how he went to other people’s places, including sterophile’s editors, contributors etc. His stories are mostly about how they’ve all got so much going on with tweaks cabling and such and the punchline inevitably is that it sounds horrible - and how his system is so much better sounding.
Well, at his place I thought his system sounded terrible - well terrible is hyperbole - but it clearly had some serious issue that I’ve also fought with - and overcome.
Best way to describe it is that several songs that I love - and sound awesome on my car stereo - sound no good at all.
Anyway, he loves the sound, so who am I to say anything… he’ll probably read this and not invite me again. 
And now thinking about it more, he’s probably trained his brain to like it - so his perception is truth to him and what I hear is truth to me too - and no point arguing…
Luckily, paid well below 50% of retail prices for these cables s/h so should be able to move them on fairly quickly. And even s/h - all these cables together cost about USD 11K - and put into that perspective, I’ve burnt enough time trying to like them…
I’ve had superb luck (and results) with Shunyata PC’s so far. Across my SN3, HCDR, and NDX 2. Equal or better to Naim PC’s for each unit. Mostly better, though.
Without trying to waste the fun here, my experience with Nordost Frey power cable , on my Ear 912 and also my ex Nap 300 dr was not enjoyable, for my taste of course.
I found the sound lean and analytical.
The Chord Sarum T was a little uplift on one of my 555 ps. Costing 3 times more vs my Kharma Matrix ( powering all my components).
I decided to go for Audioquest Hurricane X 2 , for my tubes combo.
I have an Audioquest diamond Ethernet and Pegasus XLR. I like them a lot.
I also procured a Nordost Qb8 II for a good price - using that now with all naim cables. Noise floor down, a little brighter than I like. but its brand new so will breakin I guess, but yeah, noise floor is lower without destroying the prat.. maybe this is as Nordost as I will go - or maybe Frey 2/Valhalla 2 instead of Powerline into the Powerstrip.. lets see..
I’ll restrain myself and just make one change every week or so..
Hi MM,
Thanks for confirming my thoughts re Frey2 to be included in my ‘World Cup of LS cables’ competition. Thanks also for raising your valid obseravtion re the competition:
For those with both practical and theoretical knowledge of engineering, one has to periodically make judgement calls about where to focus ones efforts. It is fairly well established that the Interfaces which are worth exploring in depth in a system are typically those involving the connected Transducers. The amplifier - cable - loudspeaker Interface is the primary example. This is because of the variability in amplifier architectures and implementation, loudspeaker cable designs and of course the loudspeakers themselves.
It would make this reply too long and tedious to go into detail here, but it is probably worth acknowledging that the pre-amplifier to the power amplifier Interface (inc interconnect cable) can also be significant. This aspect can be summarised when considering the amount of global negative feedback that is incorporated into the power amplifier (not all do).
Unnecessarily stimulating the input circuit of power amplifiers with excessively high bandwidth transients (by means of better interconnect cables) can produce more distortion at the loudspeaker outputs than if the input signal had been better conditioned in the first place.
For my experiments, I have already established (via various means - including listening tests) that the unknown brand interconnect RCA cable that I already had is acoustically indistinguishable from the Chord Sarum T XLR - but just very marginally inferior to Chord Music XLR.
Furthermore, from a systems integration point of view, it is more important to sort out the primary difficulty first and then address the second order interface effects next.
Given what I have already said above and on my main threads - I think not.
However, following your serious suggestion for full loom competitions, I might consider creating a ‘World Cup Competition of Cable Marketing BS’ - but I am struggling to come up with reasonable assessment metrics - any suggestions?
Wasn’t really serious since it’s probably going to be exorbitantly expensive…
But since you ask -
Full loom Naim I - lavender, snaics, naca5, standard cables
full loom Naim II - hiline, powerlines, naca 5
Full loom Naim iii - superlumina everywhere
Hydra power strip, or maybe a little better / whatever works in England.
Nordost - red dawn level, Frey 2 level, Nordost power strip.
I see your point though - you’re essentially saying that speaker cables make the biggest difference- so you’ll keep everything else constant, and change that one variable. Fair enough - but then the synergy police will come at you hard. That X would have won if only…
you can also go crazier like my friend Adam. He bought some expensive recording gear - and when he does bake offs records stuff so he can analyze the recordings on his PC via graphs … not sure what the point of that is …
one decision you need to make though - the other stuff that is going to be kept constant - how up the chain it’s going to be. And I don’t recall the equipment you’re using but I can check that…
The groove still wasn’t there even after putting the Naim powerlines back on. Still a good clean start and enabled me to debug the issue.
Traced it back to a switch and mesh endpoint backhauled via Ethernet in a different room. Turned that mesh endpoint, and the connected switch off and boogie was back.
always comes back to source - or in this case Ethernet. The fancy Bonn NX was also hiding thus issue and moving back to the EE8 helped me find the cause of the issue. Shouldn’t have sold off the Forester FX. Doh!
I also have a Nordost Qb8 II with a Nordost power cable (forget which one) that I plug my Powerlines into. Works well for me.
@patk - Frey/Tyr/Valhalla would potentially be better than the powerline into the powerstrip from the wall.
I tend to refer to the analogy that you could connect your kit with bits of wet string. Cables designed for the job will probably work better.
Once you accept that, then it does not seem unreasonable to assume different cables may work differently.
My own experience over the last 40 odd years is that some cables with some kit make more difference than others.
For example, I have become a fan of Atlas cables, which imo make more of a difference than some others (and I sat in a room only recently when they went through different cables of their own to demonstrate this, it was often not subtle).
I prefer a DNM interconect to a Naim snaic from Qutest to Nait 50, however a DNM from anything to my Michi does not sound very good at all!
The vdh optical cable ansolutely makes a difference from other opticals from TEAC CDT to Qutest, go figure!
Naim Powerlines make a difference on most kit I’ve tried, amps and sources. Atlas power cables too. A pricey vdh one, not much…Put any on my T+A turntable however and I can’t really notice any diference at all! I leave a Naim lite on it because it’s well built and does the job.
Hi cb01,
Great to hear about your success with Shunyata power cables in your Naim system.
If the particular Shunyata Power Cable models have the ‘QR-BB’ trademarked technology (which is also covered by USPatent Number: US 10,031,536), then they will work great with the mains transformer based PSs in the Naim equipment you have listed in your profile.
If my understanding is correct, the patent is only relevant for mains AC transformer based rectifier circuits and for reducing self generated current spike noise at the ‘peak’ recharge part of the rectifying cycle onto the unregulated DC feed to the subsequent regulating circuits.
But looking at your system profile, I guess you already know most (if not all) of the above technical benefits of Shunyata power cables.
You are correct, sir. However my Shunyata’s are all lower-tier cables. I’m running a Delta NR V1 to my HCDR, Venom HC V2 to my SN3, & Venom V12 NR to the NDX 2. They are in these positions because this was the most optimal arrangement for my setup. They all plug into a Wiremold power strip, fed by a 10kVa (not a typo) Topaz .0005pf iso-transformer. Best sound I have yet heard from these components.
Yeah - the whole thread invalid at this point. Looks like the issue was a dislodged rear ball of the Naim Fraim.. powering the Nac552.
With that back on, timing of the system seems to be back, and high end brightness is gone! Will let it settle in now…
