What 3rd Party Cables Do You Use With Your NAIM?

i currently use all Chord interconnects and speaker cables although I will need to change speaker cables soon to enable a move around and I intend having a listen to Tellurium Q Black as recommended by a certain fishy denizen of thse parts.  

Willywonka

Most Naim owners trust Naim to come up with the best cable.  These cables are not just rummaged up from thin air, they are the result of painstaking testing and experimentation and finally listening.

The joy of being a Naim owner is that you do not become one of those sad buggers with other makes who spend their life fretting and worrying about cables and testing etc.

You got a good system, now sit back and enjoy it and leave cable worrying to the old pipe and slipper brigade.

Regards

Mick

I agree with Mick P!

I'm also new to Naim and have a bunch of Transparent cabling I had before I moved to my XS2. For now I'm keeping my cabling but at some point I'll "try" to sell it off. 

£14! You little devil!!

+1. I use the Van Damme (just don't tell people the price....)

So that's why you sold that dodgy Tellurium......

I bought it as i needed some different lengths for a room move around (didn't want to get new TQ just in case it all moved back again). It sounded rather good so it's staying for the moment....

Mick - I'd heard NAIM has a bit of a cult following (bordering on religion) :-)

Alas I've seldom found one company does it all right - but the components are great !

Wat - that's not exactly true anymore - and science is beginning to prove it

Cable architecture is paramount to good sound

But I do agree with you about many of the esoteric cable companies out there.

If I hadn't had the opportunity to audition the KLE Innovations cables for up to a month I would not have given them a second look either.

Fact is - they work extremely well - especially with my 5i and other components

Regards...

I use a HiLine, two original SNAICs and NAC A5. My only 3rd party cables are the mains cord that I do myself, with silicone/copper cable and good, AND EARTHED, Schukos and IECs.

I have recently bought, per sfizio (as we use to say here), 12 mt of a German speaker cable called Atmos Air by In-Akustik, whose geometry is not dissimilar to the NAC A's and which claims that vacuum dielectric (a small empty chamber separating the two conductors) is good for its performance.

I paid €50 for it. If and when I'll want to try it, no matter how it sounds I'll start a thread called In-Akustik in da house (whatever it may mean) hoping to give life to a new movement, which might eventually end up in all its users gathering in a new political subject.

Or it will stay in a drawer and I'll go on using the NAC A5, or will buy some Vertere, or will reach cable-related nausea.

M

Do they really trust Naim to come up with the best cables Mick?  There are a load on here who use Chord and other options and a lot who swore by Naca5 have since jumped ship to the new Naim offering whilst complaining about how Naca5 was holding their systems back. Each to their own but I'd recommend listening to the alternatives rather than trusting a commercial supplier to choose for me. 

dayjay, Willie W, I'm with Mick. The stock wires sound great. I've got other stuff to do with my time other than fanny around with different ones. Please forgive my lack of curiosity, or the paucity of my audio ambition. Also my happiness.

Cheers, Chris

How can you possibly be happy without spending incredible amounts of money on cables Chris?  Sounds supicious to me 

Guess I think of it this way.  Naim is a well respected Sommelier, I'll pretty much go with their recommendations to compliment a meal as they are pretty much spot on. That being said I always taste the wine before the final purchase. If its not pleasing I'll ask for another bottle. :-)

Trouble is - your Sommelier only recommends one bottle of wine !

And there's so many other good bottles out there :-)

And so little time :-)

Hi wonka

thats a pretty exciting list of cables you have listed, if you have sampled these then you should be more educated than a lot more here.

with the sommelier reference to wine, I think cables are more like tea. In that to get the best out of it ,you have to do something. Maybe take it like the ceremony ritual of the Far East.

brewing up something for your palette - without milk or cream and sugar.

Tobyjug - educated? - no - just fortunate - but I do think sampling cables is akin to sampling single malt - each has a distinct "flavour" and as such we select the one that suites our individual palette (i.e. ears) - some straight up or maybe with a dash of water :-)

My intent of this thread was to find out what other NAIM owners had tried and hopefully get some indication as to what the cables brought to the table.

BOTTOMS UP !!! :-)

If you want to know about anything - ask an owner :-)

Can we shift this to the HiFi room?

My own contribution. Anyone who spends all that time testing all those cables (and I'm assuming other components too) has far, far more time on their hands than I do. My priority is listening to music not HiFi tweaking. My Naim set up gives me a fabulous listening experience. I'm not especially curious to see if I can make fractional differences to it at great expense of time.

I'm one of those people who buy some kit and then sits down and uses it for ages without twiddling.

Bruce

I'm not certain, but I think the discussion of third party options have been traditionally reserved for the Padded Cell.

Either way, I'm enjoying reading this post wherever it resides

Seriously - although I think more or less like Mick, I see nothing wrong in experimenting a little. One can decide to simply trust Naim to suggest a complete and reliable formula, or recipe, for the sound they have in mind, or try something out of curiosity. This is not yet to fall again back in the arms of audio anxiety and restlessness - it's just curiosity.

I am always curious about cables; I am not about connectors, cable lifters, and will never believe that rising a Burndy off the ground can bring audible improvements, but cables are a component, a passive component, and to toy a little around with those is not a sin, as long as safety rules are respected, for both the user and its electronics.

M

I cannot help but think that somebody who is testing out so many different elements is probably never going to be satisfied. Maybe that is how they like it, and hopefully they have good fun doing it.

I'm not incurious (especially about new music) but I am also able to sit back and enjoy what I've got. I think I'm lucky that way-I'd hate to be always looking for greener grass.

This is an observation not a criticism.

Bruce

I understand such an attitude well - in spite of my curiosity. If I am occasionally 'searching' for some greener grass is because I feel that not all my pieces are on the same level of quality. This is why I have a HiLine instead of a lavender, even if I like the lavender a lot. It's often more the 'idea' of balancing all elements than a real sonic necessity, but it's there, so..

Hi

Naim is not only a successful company, it has survived when others have fallen by the wayside.

The main difference between Naim and the others is that they have a continuous commitment to sound quality that borders on the obsessive. Most of their technicians fiddle with more stuff in a week than Mr Average does in his lifetime and the final test is always their ears. When they sign something off, it is good.

Therefore when I buy a Naim product, I buy a system that has been tested by experts. If you go to other fora, you will witness sad old gezzers threatening to kill each other over what cable to use etc.

The simple truth is that they will be still arguing in 5 years time and during that 5 years, whilst they are still obsessing, I and other Naim users will be getting on with enjoying the music.

Naim communicates music like no other brand and I for one intend to take advantage of that as I have done for the last 30 years.

Regards

Mick

Bruce - you are correct! - In that I do have time - retired a few years ago.

But the mind lives on - I've always had a propensity to delve into stuff. Once I got my 5i and upgraded a few other components I then wondered what all the fuss with cables was all about.

That brings me to the present day - wondering what cables other NAIM owners use.

Along the way I've tried a few components - a modest amount compared to some people.

The one thing that has come to light on this journey - cables are as important the components themselves. Even the RCA Plug has evolved to new levels of performance.

The new architectures now emerging are vastly superior to the established norms...

- the architectures of old, i.e. parallel wires inside a shield (or not) are now a dinosaur

- Double helix, and spiral architectures are less noisy and convey far more details

So I wondered if any NAIM owners had, like me,  had been curious enough to try something other than the well established NAIM brand.

Or perhaps, some members just might want to think outside the NAIM box - just for a change of pace :-)

But when I do "listen" to music (as opposed to a component or cable) - how sweet it is :-)

Regards...

Willy

This forum has been running for well over 20 years and it is littered with people who tried something and nearly always returned to the original Naim spec.

I think that you have got to decide what you want. Do you, like me, just want to relax, play the music and enjoy it.

Alternatively you can tinker as an extension of the hobby. That is fine if you enjoy it, but just remember that you will never be as proficient as Naim engineers who are constantly seeking new ways to enhance their product.

Also another point to remember is that once you start fiddling, you will rarely be happy as there is always something (in your mind) which is better than what you have got. Do you want a life of enjoyment or constant fiddling.

My advice is to relax, avoid fiddling and enjoy the music.

Regards

Mick