Witch Hat Morgana

It’s a fair point, but it may not the end of the matter.

I’d like the music to sound as good as possible for a vaguely plausible price, with no brand loyalty at all. As it happens, that leads me to Naim on most of my kit in multiple locations, as it has for years. However my aim has never been for it to sound like Naim per se.

On cables, I was lucky enough to get my WH cables before this catastrophe. They make my hifi make the music sound better, and that was what I wanted. I don’t know whether a full set of Naim Super Lumina cables would have had the same effect, because I am too tight-fisted to spend that shocking total cost on cables even if they are made (and recommended as better) by Naim.

As I understand it, @anon77199223 showed the same disloyalty and ended up with Naim cables only because, in his system and room, they sounded best to his ears. He has got Naim cables despite not ‘just trusting Naim’, and in much the same way that I have got Naim boxes. YMMV, as they say, and there is nothing wrong with that.

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Yes, I have tried cables from Chord, Designacable, BJC - and twice from Witch Hat, among other suppliers.

Neither of the WH cables I bought improved the sound of my system, so I sent them back.

I felt bad sending them back because I didn’t like adding that burden to a small UK company.

WH cables did suit other people in their systems.

But I did sense in dealing WH that the business was not run with great discipline.

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The biggest factor with cables i found is your speakers, but obviously, so does the gear you use, or should i say, now transparent they are, will normally decide the outcome of what cables you like.
Dull sounding system will like brighter sounding cable, etc.

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Nothing wrong with Naim cables, I still run many of them but I feel at a point they can become a restriction, depending on what your looking for. I still run their SL speaker cables & have no desire to shop around, I use to use Hiline, never personally had any issues with them but I didn’t want to have to worry about them so I swapped to the WH Morgana, didn’t do an in depth comparison, basically swapped them & didn’t notice any reduction of SQ, so just for ease of use they stayed. When it comes to the XLR’s, I don’t believe the stock ones are shielded, seems in todays environment this may not be the best design choice.

Thanks for the info, good to hear their also using OCC copper, as said above I’ve had good luck with OCC copper/silver in a number of different cables I own. Though, maybe its just me but I’ve looked at a few items AVO sells, & it seems they have a very substantial profit margin. I understand while companies such as Naim or Chord, etc have the prices they do but as far as I’m aware AVO is basically a one man show, who works out of his home. His cost of operation should be significantly less then a large companies, also selling direct so doesn’t have multiple stages of markups, etc. His prices just seem hard to justify to me.

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They certainly aren’t for the 300DR. On old threads I believe they were compared (with photos) to B&Q three core mains cable, or perhaps from the same reel :laughing: Seem to sound OK.

With the demise of WH I’ve been looking for alternatives to SuperLumina for interconnects (we already have SL speaker cable). We liked what SL DIN/XLR did on our 272/250DR. Used prices for SL are up n up. Penny pinching I know.

Custom Hifi Cables do a nice budget priced range (Blue) which would fill the gap between nDAC/252 and SCDR/300 for us, preh DINs and OFC copper with shielding, a bit like SL construction but without the fancy vibration removal plugs. At the price I’m considering them.

Also noticed yesterday that last time I setup our system I put a GREY SNAIC between nDAC and 252 instead of on Stageline. Black SNAIC is on the StageLine. Oopsy!! Probably shows we can’t tell the difference and new cables are a waste of time pmsl

How did you connect the SNAIC between the DAC and the NAC252?

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Maybe I’m confused by all our interim setups. It’s obviously a 5 pin DIN/DIN cable or it wouldn’t fit.

Are source interconnects always grey, or can they be black? We have some spare cables which came with used kit (our SU came with some cables).

Or do we have an old grey SNAIC (which would fit between 252 and Stageline). I think that would be a really old cable. Or maybe (shudder) something isn’t a genuine cable.

The cables we have in current setup are correct as per the link you posted on cable identification, the spares are upstairs in the SU box so inaccessible.

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I don’t recall Naim ever making black interconnects. You can tell if it’s an old grey Snaic 5 because the pins would be in a 240° configuration, whereas the interconnects are 180°, ie all in half of the circle.

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The linked FAQ article shows what a grey SNAIC looks like as opposed to a grey/lavender grey interconnect.

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The writing on the wall

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Wow. No wonder. :pensive:

The killer looks like the £68k bad debt.

Wow?

Sorry i’m in tech not much in finance, of coarse they are linked I know. Whilst wishing all the best to all parties here, I ask, without reading 50 pages, whats the takehome here?

Overspending? Under-investment? Both? Lack of income?

Thanks @RogerGround @marksnaim

Martin

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Just been credited the amount outstanding by my CC company.

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I think that the take home is that a small business operating within a niche market in uncertain times is vulnerable. Just look at the number of boarded up shops in our town centres.

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There might be more information when the appointed insolvency practitioner posts the statement of affairs - that should show estimated asset and liability balances, but may not provide a full story. That might be a matter of days / weeks, and I don’t think there is any merit in speculation before that is available. There was a £68k bad debt but we don’t have any up to date financial info so anything else is speculation.

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Mostly down to ridiculous business rates, parking charges and out of town shopping centres.

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Someone (maybe Tim) mentioned some court case charges of £39,000 in the accounts, which may of had something to do with their previous cable supplier as Josh told me they’d had a lot of trouble with them.

Whatever the court case was for it wouldn’t of helped.

I would have thought they had insurance cover on things like that? Just like what i have.

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I’d assumed they would have had a bigger turnover given the popularity and cost. Not a sizeable enough business to support 4 staff for long for sure.