Chord Odyssey Speaker Cable

Hi Laurie
I used to have a range of speaker cable - Kimber 8TC, Odyssey 2 and NACA5. First of all I found that the 8TC worked well between a Dynavector power amplifier and Shahinian speakers, both of whom recommend it. It, however, did not work so well with other equipment. Onto Odyssey 2 and NACA5. I have tried, at length, both cables between Naim power amps and Shahinian Arcs and Linn Kans. At all times I found that NACA 5 won at the end of the day. Odyssey 2 did have a different sound which sometimes seemed to indicate a cleaner more open sound but overall and particularly in terms of musicality, the NACA 5 wins.
My advice to you is therefore to leave well alone and look elsewhere for improvements etc.
I am beginning to be of a mind that improvements to the room acoustics might well yield better improvement per pound than various 'tweeks' and small alterations.
Just sit back and enjoy!
Raphael

laurie

Although Odyssey has much better resolution and a cleaner top end, it doesn't sound as natural as NACA5. I'd definitely stick with the Naim cable. It's rougher than Odyssey, but it makes more musical sense.

Paolo, I hope that's single wired!

Regards,
Frank.
All opinions are my own and do not reflect the opinion of any organisations I work for, except where this is stated explicitly.

I share your suspicion that there may well be a replacement for NACA5 in the wings. If so I wonder how it would work with "olive" amps

Perhaps someone from Naim might care to comment?

Laurie S

quote:

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Originally posted by Ross Blackman:
I agree with Frank. I have 16m of Odyssey sitting in a box somewhere. It's smooth, but has an exaggerated top end and is too bright. If you like an unnaturally bright sound, you might prefer it, but it is not better than A5.

Ross

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If you prefer Odyssey it must be better. I use Odyssey 4 in my system and I find it very neutral. Whats the betting that a new cable made by Naim sounds closer to Odyssey than NACA5.

Colin

quote:

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Originally posted by Ross Blackman:
You may be right, but on 17 October 2003 Richard Dane said: "There are no current plans to introduce a new speaker cable. It's a well known fact that we're always looking at alternatives but so far nothing we have tried outperforms A5 in what we consider the important areas." I'm inclined to take Richard at his word.

Ross

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Thanks for that bit of clarification Ross. And as to the rumours on this forum re. Replacement cable for NACA5 they seem to come from the same people who A: Dont like Naca5 or B: Can't beleive that such a cheap cable can be anygood anyway or C: Just like starting daft rumours.

Yours in Music

Syd

Odyssey does work in all-Naim systems and it sorts out the upper frequencies giving more detail to hi-hats and cymbals and tightening up image focus.

However, Naca5 still plays the tune better.

There is one cable that will beat Naca5 hands-down, though, in an all-Naim system and that's the Townsend Isolda. It'll tighten your bass, open up the mid, give the same levels of detail as the Odyssey at the top end, and it plays the tune even better.



Regards,

Steve.

I've tried both NACA 5 and Chord Odyssey 2 in my Naim system, and I fully a agree that, to my ears (probably used to high levels of trebles), I prefer Chord Odyssey, though the NACA 5 seems to have more "punch" and a tighter bass. But the overall sound of NACA 5 is too dark for me.

Could Paolo or anyone comment on how much tighter the bass is with Odyssey 4 vs. Odyssey 2 and vs. NACA 5, and is thete more "punch"? (PRaT?).

quote:

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In all honesty the Odyssey is over priced for the performance it gives. In the same way their Anthem/Signature interconnect cables are, at least when comparing Naim as the reference.

Are they better than Naim, I personally think so

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PR: do you mean Chord interconnects are also better than Naim ones? In what way?
(be prepared too strong forum reactions to this shoking question).

Regards

Some observations:

A lot has been said here about neutrality. I'm not sure that neutrality is necessarily what's lacking in either odyssey or NACA5. I don't find Odyssey to be bright. Yes, it has much better defined treble which Ross may interpret as bright, but I don't find it shouts at me, nor that it has a more upfront sound (as bright cables do). I do find it a little lean in the bass, but I wouldn't necessarily call it bass-light either, just that the Naim cable has better definition in the bass. It's not neutrality which is the problem I think. It's just a relative lack of life. Technically, the Odyssey wins hands down. It has better resolution, soundstage, definition (except perhaps in the bass) and has similar timing attributes to NACA5, but it doesn't have the musical connection that NACA5 brings to the equation. It's a bit like a BMW vs an Alfa Romeo - you admire the German but love the Italian, warts and all.

For those who asked, Odyssey 4 has massive gains over Odyssey 2 when it is used single wired. It has more life and of course you have extra benefits in terms of the technical aspects. I guess this brings it closer to the NACA5 ideal, but the mysterious X-factor remains missing IMO, and now of course the price has really exploded the vfm criteria.

I have tried Townshend Isolda (£50/m + £100 termination) with the Naim kit. Again, it's excellent technically, completely overshadowing Odyssey in that respect, but I feel it doesn't quite work still. The x-factor is missing once again, and I don't know which I would choose between Odyssey4 and Isolda to be honest. Either way, there is a rock solid palpability about NACA5 which is missing from the Townshend cable in Naim systems (it's the perfect cable for Chord Electronics amps for example, where NACA5 simply doesn't work in my view). It's frustrating of course, since the Odyssey and Townshend cables show that the Naim systems are capable of a lot more than is being let through by NACA5.

On Naim's research into cable: Naim are in the HiFi business and they make complete systems including racks and cable. Once in the marketplace, they'd be silly not to keep searching for better alternatives to both their interconnects and their speaker cable. However, Naim aren't the type of company to simply launch a product purely for the bottom line. They'd want it to be better than their current offering.

There are many many more expensive cables available on the market. None of these has gained any real traction in the Naim system market. The leader that is sold with Naim amps, and by a huge margin, is NACA5. This isn't because Naim dealers are forced to sell the stuff, but because they know it's the best overall compromise. Trust me - dealers want to sell you £50/m speaker cable instead of £7/m cable if possible, and I'm sure Naim would love to offer a £50/m cable too! It's just that there isn't anything out there which is a NACA10 at the moment. I'm sure that once Naim find a suitable cable which is better in every respect, they will happily offer it for sale.

Regards,
Frank.
All opinions are my own and do not reflect the opinion of any organisations I work for, except where this is stated explicitly.

Just out of intrest what cable would NACA5 fans use if Naim never made NACA5.
I feel that the choice of cable is down to speakers used. NACA5 was designed to be used with all Naim kit, other speaker makes like different things like bi-wiring IMO.

Colin

I have used Linn cable for mny years with my Nain gear and was quite happy until I tried Oddysey last year. Expense didn't come into the equation it just had had to be. The result is that anything to be better in the future just has to go some!

It tried NAIM and Odyssey 2, it's been a real dilemna for a month.
The Chord is cleaner, clearer and more open but the Naim makes more music to me.

I borowed some odyssey from my local dealer for a week and found it boring!

I would'nt be suprised if i prefered Nac A5 over anything Naim brought out in the future.

Mathew

Was this cable new. Odyssey takes a long while to burn in.

Colin

Colin,

Yes it was new, perhaps i did'nt give it a chance to burn in.

Mathew

I only found out Odyssey takes a long while to burn in when my dealer lent some new cable while mine was having new ends fitted.

Colin