Having just become the proud owner of a Uniti Nova I thought I would look on here for speaker cable recommendations. My unit came with two NAC5 cables terminated at both ends with Naim plugs but they are about 4 metres long.
I was thinking I’d get some shorter cables as my speakers are only about 2.5 metres apart but read in an earlier post that Naim recommend a minimum of 3.5 metres per cable and that any excess should be coiled.
I can’t see anything on the website or paperwork about cable lengths and tbh I don’t really like the sound (or look) of about 7 metres of cable coiled behind my furniture.
I was always told that cables should be kept as short as possible but seems I may have been misguided. Any comments or suggestions?
Naim use the speaker cable to add an inductance load to the output stage that compliments the output stage Zobel circuit.
This is required on all amps, but is most important on the older ‘Classic’ amps. Other amp brands add the inductance with a wire coil inside the amp.
The Naim recommended minimum inductance is 3.5uH, so with NACA5 cable which has 1uH/m, the amps need at least 3.5m of NACA5 to get 3.5uH. Other cable brands will be different and may need longer to get the minimum 3.5uH.
However I understand the more modern amps are not so fussy.
You really don’t want to coil the cables. It’s better to use a Z fold to deal with the excess length. You can squeeze it tightly together and tie it with string or cable ties, and it will then sit neatly on the floor behind whatever your Nova sits on. You’ll get good sound and neatness, and it’s no cost too, which is always good.
I use 4 meters of Chord Epic Twin and because of the temporary solution after our house move, one of these is coiled … I don’t hear any difference however.
With Z-folding, people are pointing towards something like the below:
You’ll have seen an example in the picture below. You can easily squeeze it much more tightly together so that it fits neatly behind your rack or unit. If you do think of changing cables, I can second the recommendation for Kudos KS-1. It’s a fine sounding cable, and is very small and bendy, much easier to deal with than the ungainly Naim cable. Two 3m lengths would be absolutely fine. I wouldn’t go much shorter than that.
Thanks for the very useful photo which confirms what I had finally figured out last night after much pondering. Just needed a sanity check😊.
I think I’m going to experiment with the Naim cables and see how I get on but is interesting to hear about alternatives and how they worked for you. I’ve nearly always used Chord, just rarely at the lengths mentioned as suitable for Naim..
Again, thanks to everyone for the advice. I will update the thread with how I get on.
