Steve Sells did clarify that “nearly” any cable can be used on anything except the early Chrome Bumper stuff and any speaker cable at all from the Classic DR era. This was buried in the first New Classic thread over two or three posts amongst 6k.
I don’t think any manuals from the Olive era until quite recently accurately reflect that though.
Still, you need a reason to not use A5. Personally I just prefer others and think A5 is bettered by less expensive options. But if I was starting from zero with no experience, I’d absolutely start with A5 is the reference baseline.
The legendary Jimmy Hughes got some great results from replacing his expensive speaker cable with bog standard solid core mains cable. Available from all DIY hardware stores for a few pounds/dollars a metre.
There is a story that the Quad team (modern one, not Peter Walker) turned up for a hifi show (possibly Bristol, but I’ve heard it told about other venues) forgetting to bring speaker cable. All they could find to buy was the twin core orange covered cable sold for electric garden tools and nobody noticed.
I’ve auditioned some of the chunky Transparent cables and much prefer Naim’s SL cabling. The Transparent didn’t offer anything of note over the SL, and reduced some ‘life’ from events.
Looking at the thin wiring looms in the kit, and the often thin cabling inside 'speakers, I’m confused as to why a large sausage-sized cable is needed across a relatively short run?
