I’ve just replaced my Witch Hat N2 speaker cables with Witch Hat Phantoms, my system is a Naim Nova with PMC Twenty 24 speakers.
I’m finding it has a much darker sound, I seem to have lost a lot of detail and top end sparkle, the bass seems better controlled and deeper but more dominant.
Has anyone else found this when using Phantoms?
I assumed it would be quite a significant improvement after reading reviews on here, I bought them pre-owned so they are ran in and stupidly I have sold my N2s so swapping back isn’t possible.
It is on the darker side of neutral IMO. If you want detail, air and timing then Phantom is not the best choice IMO.
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I have a Nova, N-Sats and a sub. I switched from NAC A5 to Phantom and am very happy. Not night and day but a worthwhile improvement and much easier to handle.
I certainly don’t find it dull and if anything there is more sparkle. Of course I haven’t heard N2 in my system so YMMV.
did you give it time to burn in? or were the cables already burned in enough? mine took something like 3 weeks to fully open up and deliver the sound, at the beginning I was scheptical, after one month I was very happy. I had your same sensations when they were pretty new
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They are pre owned so I assume they are burnt in, I will give them some time to settle, I’m surprised of the loss of detail.
I went from A5 to Phantom and had no problems at all, that said I have not got a Naim Nova. My system is Nac 52, 2x135s and Naim SL2 speakers and an LP12. All my other cables are WH.
try to ask how much they were utilized, some people buy things and don’t use them. I also bought mine second hand but the seller admitted he used them few days. My system is nds, nac 282, nap 250 and phantom brought lots of detail, stage and good sound, better than chord epic twins and a5 I had before, no doubt
He bought them from me and I had them in 18 months and they’ve been running 5-6 days a week while I am working so usage is not a problem!
Try connecting to the tweeters first @Dalmatian ?
Yeah I’ve tried them on the tweeters, no difference.
Just try them the other way round as in switch the amp and speakers around, as this may change the way they sound and maybe they got made wrong.
It might get worse once switched
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other cables that are well matching naims you could try are townshend isolda, tellurium q black/silver, many chord starting from epic x. should you want to look for detail and brighteness search something with some silver, silver increases both these qualities of the sound. keep in mind naim electronics prefer low impendance. best option would be to try before you buy
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if you do decide to try other speaker cables another one to look out for is the kudos ks1 cables
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Yeah that’s the one I was considering.
I didn’t have WH N2 but went from firstly A5 to Chord Epic to Phantoms. I found the Phantoms to be similar to A5 but more refined and a touch more dynamic which with my set up (250/282 + Spendor A7’s) suited my tastes but if I had my time again, I’d have stuck with the A5 as frankly I expected more for the outlay. When I moved house last year I needed longer runs and upon reading favourable reviews here, I ordered Kudos and that is a stunningly good cable at a very good price indeed which is inconspicuous and super-bendy. Highly recommended, akin to a minor component upgrade.
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Interesting we had quite a similar path, I went from A5 to epic and then phantom, that I am happy with now. I have also nac 282, nap 250, with nds and pmc twenty5 26. What do you appreciate in kudos that differs from phantom?
“What do you appreciate in kudos that differs from phantom”?
To my ears, the Kudos resulted in a more balanced, musical, detailed presentation. Don’t get me wrong, I liked Phantom and it was certainly a leg up from A5 and the Chord but not as dramatic as I had expected it to be. I first heard KS-1 at my Linn/Naim dealer who have it installed throughout as their house cable and for the money I really don’t believe it can be beaten.
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I’m wondering if this is speaker and or room dependent. I switched from NACA5 to Phantom 4 years ago not because I was expecting any sonic differences but the stiff Naim cable was hard to manage and I worried about the mechanical loading on my older units.
I wasn’t expecting Phantom to be audibly different (I was a cable sceptic) but it was, immediately, and most noticeable at the bottom end. It was a more mellow sound but today I don’t think I’m missing detail or openness however, with an active system using 82/SC/SNAXO/135s and other WH cabling for the Mk2 SBLs if anything I’m trying to dial back some of the overall brightness that’s present on CD (but less so on phono or streaming).
I’ve signed up for the Spectre but I like the Phantoms enough that this wasn’t an easy call. Really, the decision is a combination of WH delivering products that have always worked for me, the views expressed by the testers in this forum and the WH returns policy.
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It’s really confusing, I went form Naim A5 to Witch Hat N2 due to needing longer lengths, I was pleasantly surprised at the lift in sound quality although it’s meant to be on a par with A5. When some Phantoms came up for sale it seemed a great upgrade having read the feedback on here, there’s hardly and negatives however it seems to have changed the overall sound to a much darker presentation, I’ve lost the sparkle and detail, voices seem recessed in the middle, not what I was expecting 
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Are they both connected in the right direction?