No problem, I think our opposite experiences were shared before on the forum.
It could be the NACA5 which I owned were not terminated properly, the short 3.5m length or something else such as match with speakers. Nevertheless, I got a more extended, airy and illuminated treble and deeper and more pronounced bass when switching from NACA5 to Chord Epic, an even bigger difference when going to Signature XL, cleaner and leaner everything from top to bottom apart from sounding more detailed.
Perhaps the Chord are just bright sounding cables with excessive bass response I’m not sure, but they do fit my system(s) or my ears better.
Jorma are very costly high end cables usually recommended for Marten speakers which I use since their internal cabling also use Jorma. However I’m too poor so have to settle with cheaper alternatives.
Yes i agree in terms of personal preferences, different ears, room etc…
Even so, alarm bells would start ringing with me if i’d upgraded my Naim amp and things started to sound harsh or out of kilter to what went before, so to speak. All things being equal though, and providing the source is up to snuff, I’d expect an instant uplift in performance straight off the bat. Maybe burn-in/warm up may help, who knows?
And that’s fair enough. Your system, your money etc. etc. But if you have some harshness it’s not coming from the 252/300 if anything it should be much smoother and more refined than your 282 was. I’m sure it will work out in the end, the electronics really does take some time to settle.
It turned out DIN-XLR sitting on hard floor was the reason for harshness. I rearranged racking order to have them hanging freely, and it sounds superb now!
Ahh yes, the surprising sensitivity of cables. I’m slightly shocked that I can hear when my Superlumina din/din is touching something behind the rack. The other cable that I find really sensitive is the Preamp to power supply SNAIC cable. Mine sounds best when it closely follows the burndy and crosses (and touches) just once in the middle of the burndy. The system can sound distinctly off (slightly dead and a bit phasey) if you get this one wrong.
If I remember correctly Naim (and my dealer) recommended that they touch just the once. However, I would play around and listen. The changes, whilst subtle, are noticeable. I always stop when things sound balanced and rhythmic.
Thats good news! System will still be settling too so would expect it to improve over next week or so. I’ve also arranged my rack and layout so I have all the cables hanging freely and not touching anything, and needless to say, all signal cables well away from mains cables and speaker cables. I actually found the most difference in my system was getting my Hi Line DIN-DIN interconnect right - I de-stressed and formed it in the way Richard Dane has described in his posts, and this made a remarkable difference. The Hi Line seems to be very temperamental, but great when it’s working right!
HiLine is a great cable. I really like HiLine DIN-DIN and Powerline. Have experimented many alternatives, but always have came back to HiLine and Powerline.
It has been a week since I brought 252/300DR home. They sound so good now I can’t stop smiling when listening. My cables are not here yet. It was just little time these monsters needed. Thank you everyone for sharing your wisdom.
I do wonder why the settling down takes so long for Naim equipment which is already ‘run in’. I understand that when the electronics are powered up it takes a while for temperatures to stabilise, but it doesn’t take a week or more. I can only assume that there is some self regulation going on which over a relatively long period optimisies the components leading to the highest level of performance that the equipment is capable of. Does anyone have a full technical explanation as to why it take so long for things to settle down?
Yes good point - it is mysterious to me as well. But it is definitely true. While it is very hard to scientifically or through listening determine the exact time needed I don’t think it is a week or more. In my system it seems to be about 4-5 days.
My view is it’s a bit of both. I do think our ears adjust and adapt to our systems sound. But I work away from home quite a bit and thus spend multiple days away from listening at a time. I have listened to my system shortly after power up, and then spent several days away leaving it all powered up, and it always sounds way better after being on a few days. I have not experienced such a marked difference with systems from other manufacturers.
