Great cables, they sound great!
They are Blacknote and they were the last cables I replaced with WitchHat ones, and only then because I knew I could send them back for a full refund up to 30 days later. So I was surprised that the Phantoms sounded better in my system almost straight away. After a few days I was certain I was going to keep them.
Best wishes Amer
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I can also say that Nordost Blue Heaven cables are very good as well, but of course Red Dawn cables are better generally speaking. I would say that it depends on the sound you prefer to get out of your speakers.
I agree that Nordost are very good cables Blacknote. I really liked the Nordost sound and had Blue Heaven before managing to get the Red Dawn at a good second hand price, I was very pleased with the improvement in SQ they bought. I have been using them for years never expected to change them, and then along came the Phantoms at a relatively low price and a 30 day returns offer. As I had found the WitchHat Morgana interconnects such an improvement over the standard Naim ones, it seemed silly not to try the Phantoms as well. Best wishes Amer
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I’ve tried only a small amount of cables from Audioquest or QED, they didn’t offer what I was looking for. Nordost cables are on another level for me, but one should start from the Blue Heaven series at least. The White Lightning and the Purple Flare series aren’t good enough (at least in my system). I wonder how the Heimdall 2 series sound like, even thought Red Dawns are a good place to end with. I’ve never tried the Phantoms or the WitchHat Morgana, but I’m glad you are happy with your end result.
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I myself can confirm that the Belden 12 awg from Blue Jeans sounds as good as my current $1,400 speaker cables (if not better), the design of the locking banana plugs from BlueJeans are the ones that every modern banana plugs should have copied from.
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I think there’s room for improvement. While the locking is really nice, the cable termination would have been better if it had been solder, crimp or compression screw. I’m personally partial to the latter.
Still, really good cable and a really nice feature for any plug. A wonder really not more have it.
In fact, the BJ speaker cables are ultrasonically-welded and it looks more solid to me than the traditional soldering.
I would say, do not under-estimate these non-expensive speaker cables, they are no snake-oil, and perform much better than I expected initially. Compared with ones of my old, highly-respected, more expensive cables, the bass goes quite lower/tighter, and high frequency is more sparkling, hi-hats and drums sound prominent, complex instruments are more easily picked-out.
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Anyone have experiences with Mogami W3103 or W3104? Thanks.
Those Banana plugs look a lot like copies of old WBT plugs from the 80’s.
This is very interesting regarding the BJC. Using 25 feet of Chord Rumor 2 myself (need all 25 feet on one end and about 3 on the other but of course need to keep balanced with a vintage Naim amp). Picked up the pair used for $175 from local dealer. The main requirement is it be white in order to blend in with some French door trim it needs to go around. Any idea how the BJC might compare to Rumor 2? And would it be in spec for a 160 (at 8m)? Local company so shipping would be cheap, and currently using their network cables. Just never crossed my mind that it would be any good.
Edit: capacitance appears to be 24/pf which is a bit higher than NACA but not sure how that plays out over length.
I stand corrected. I had read about their plugs, and the locking ones they sell for DIY termination use set-screw, whereas the regular ones use compression screw. I had missed the bit where they state they use a different version of the locking ones when terminating themselves.
Thanks for pointing that out!
The BJC looks to be twisted. I thought twisted cables was a no no with naim due to the specifications of such design?
Twisted is OK, specifically 2 conductor twisted. I suspect you may be getting confused with woven or plaited multi conductor cables.
Most all round section paired cables are twisted, the low to medium cost Chord’s for e.g…
Spaced pairs such as we have with NACA5 (& others) raise inductance & lower capacitance over close proximity pairs, this is what Nain work best with, but close spaced parallel or twisted pair cables will have lower inductance higher capacitance than NACA5, but in most situations are perfectly OK.
The woven, plaited & Litz type multi conductor cables have very low inductance & very high capacitance & this is what Naim amps do not like.
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Hi Mike quick question, how does the Van Damme 4mm Hi-Fi Speaker Cable UP-LCOFC Shotgun cable stack up I’m currently using 2x8mtr on a Nait 2 with great results.
There are no VD specs that I can find quickly, however going along the same generalisation based on cable construction form, then the UP-LCOFC should be perfectly OK with its wide conductor spacing thats very similar to NACA5. It will have plenty of Naim friendly inductance & with 8m your Nait-2 should be happy.
Thanks Mike. Appearance it looks similar to NACA5 but with the added bonus of flexibility.
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Been using this for about a year now and I have no intention of changing it.
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I use Mark Grant made Van Damme 6mm Hi-Fi Speaker Cable UP-LCOFC cables. Recommended!
Compared to NACA5 the Van Damme is so much cheaper 2x8mtr terminated was approximately £100.