Trying out new speaker cables. Have Naca5 and now trying Neotech Nemos 3080. To my ears they sound good, but the inductance is 0,187 mH and capacitance of 156pF. Not very close to Naca5 1mH and 16pF. Can my 250DR brake?
Is my hearing broken since it sounds fine even though it’s completely wrong electrical properties for a Naim amp?
You’ve answered yourself, specs are wrong, and it’s designed that way specifically for high C low L, but it sounds OK.
The 250 might tell you if it’s OK or not if it over heats and/or trips out.
Almost as if speaker cables don’t make a difference…
Uh…why? My Nova sounded OK too…until it overheated and shut off.
The 250DR doesn´t feel warm at all.
Don´t understand?
The requirements are for the stability of the amp as well as SQ.
Lucifer,
NAC A5’s low capacitance is a direct product of its design’s intended high-ish inductance, required by the lack of inductors on the signal path in NAPs, especially older (better) ones. High capacitance effects are not audible unless you are a dog and your cable is 20 mt. or so long, but inductance is a parameter not to be overlooked.
If you are somehow unhappy with the NAC A5, just look for similarly designed wires (‘wide’ spacing between conductors, large cross section (2.5 to 4mm2), not too many braids of too thin threads) to keep the few electrical parameters as desired. Avoid Litz designs, complex geometries and absurdly costly ones. I’ve heard Naim amps with NAC A5, TelluriumQ black, Nordost and Van Damme regularly, there being a difference in cost from €6,50/mt to about €2,000/mt., the amp never got broken but the wires’ geometry was more or less the same in each case.
Vertere speaker cables are also very good and they satisfy the irrational but perfectly understandable desire on the buyer’s part to spend more to have more; and their use is not discouraged by Naim.
I add, a a personal note and opinion, that I have directly compared Tellurium Q black (€70/mt.) and Van Damme HiFi OFC cables (€6,50/mt.) on the same high quality Naim system and there was not a single parameter where the VD did not outperform the Tellurium. But I also acknowledge - and understand - the urge for buying boutique products.
M.
I only tried this on a whim and thought it sounded good. It’s not that the Naca sound bad it’s just an interest. I find it intriguing to test cables and didn’t know the parameters when I asked my dealer to try this Neotech cable. When I looked the parameters up I saw it had quite different parameters from Naca giving me incentive to start this thread.
Don’t really think I am going to spend on these even though I find them sweeter sounding and with extended bass response compared to Naca. Both sound fine though.
Really…? Is it switched on… 
Looks remarkably similar to Naim NACA4 or A5, in its basic construction.
About £7 per metre in the UK. Bargain…!
PS. But - Linn K20 is still cheaper… possibly…
Are you suggesting that one set of cables to attenuating certain frequencies relative to another…?
Well I’m really not the best person to explain why different cables make different end results. So I’m sorry to say, I just can’t answer your question.
The job of a speaker cable is to take the signal from the amplifier and deliver it to the speakers. If some kind of change in the audio is happening along the way, they the cable must be altering the EQ in some way. As as it cannot add anything (it’s passive), then it must be attenuating frequencies relative to others to change the sound. And if the cable is doing that, then it is not a good cable…
Are you suggesting Naim Naca5 to be the end-all-speaker cable? If so, do you consider Naim SuperLumina to be a bad cable? Or do you in fact consider Naca5 to be bad?
Controversial opinion incoming but…so long as the cable in question acceptable capacitance, resistance and inductance, then it should not make any difference. A cable cannot ‘sound’ like anything unless it literally alters the signal. With the exception of networked ‘MIT’ cables, speaker cables are just bits of wire, so how they are meant to magically change the sound of a system reeks of marketing hype.
That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t get decently put together cables. Poor connections, plugs that fall off, stuff that is brittle etc won’t last. But the idea that one bit of OFC should have properties that another bit of OFC doesn’t is not supported by either evidence or theory.
You sure about that? Seems like the different electrical properties, that is measurable, actually makes a difference regarding the outcome, i.e. Sound through speakers. Amplifier, cable and speaker makes for a seemingly complicated chain when it comes to impedance, inductance and capacitance. But as I said I am not the right person to talk to regarding this matter.
Well…we’re on an audio forum and there will be people who swear blind that the little blocks they put under their £5k speaker cables released more ‘fluidity’ or they can hear more ‘clarity’ or some such.
The speaker cable is the most simple part of the signal chain. It is literally a piece of wire. The physics of signal transfer along a bit of wire is well understood. My honest opinion is that there are myriad places in your system to spend money to get a better sound. Cable - beyond a very basic lower limit - is not one of them.
Sure, the cable I’m trying equals naca5 pricewise. Anyho, off to send NDS for displaychange, olive Hicap and Nac 82 for service. Probably a good way to spend my money.
Hi,
it’s a similar design as far as relative distance of the conductors is concerned, they both keep parasite capacitance low; NAC A5 uses lesser threads of thicker, unbraided copper which probably makes it more close to solid core and offers a solution to the alleged issue of ‘skin effect’.
The main difference between Linn K20 (basically NAC A4 without Naim’s permission…) and NAC A5 is in the number of threads and the outer sheath: the NAC A5 uses a rigid, light polyethylene one (or so I think) to have good dielectric proprieties. All in all NAC A5 may not be perfect but when one learns how the three main electrical characteristics of a conducting wire are somehow mutually exclusive of each other, it becomes clear how Naim cable is a very clever, no-frills compromise and the ideal complement to Naim amps.
That said, there are options around; yet, the mere fact that Naim has manufactured the same and only speaker cable for decades, that it originally was cheap, that VD’s own domestic cable is similar in design and cheap, that many other speaker cables are similar and not absurdly expensive and that differently sounding ones are often fancy designs that cost a lot more - well, it should say something.
Best,
M.