Super Lumina for 'Classic' System?

Scratch my above reply, Gary has clearly tried it.

Kerr-ching!! I've just saved £2,400. 

No, you need to change your speakers so you can luxuriate in the wonderful SL speaker cable. Gonna cost you far more than £2400.

Gotta speculate to accumulate!

Sorry forgot the obligatory tongue in cheek !!

Just a final post to close out this thread now that ive had the SL IC and speaker cable for a couple of weeks.

Straight out of the box they were great, and so they should be at the price.

Ive had a couple of up and down days when I was questioning myself, but that all seems to be behind me now.

Listening this morning, no further questions your honour!

Top to bottom detail, clarity of vocals, crispness of percussion, etc, etc.

For sure, not cheap, but really glad I went for it.

Am going to enjoy my Sunday lunchtime with some great music and a glass or two of red - cheers!

That's great, especially the idea of great music and a glass or two of red. It certainly seems that the cost of the leads is fully justified In the context of your system. I bet that in time lots of people with more modest setups will be using them. 

I'm going to go against everyone here and explain why I'm not going for the SL interconnect.

I've had it in use for about 3 months and i used it every day. Yes the improvement is obvious, more of everything, lower bass more finely etched detail and all of that but just too explicit in an active DBL system. Moving back to a hiline just sounds more lifelike and there's a natural feel to the sound that seems more right. More real to life and organic with the hiline. Putting the SL interconnect back in between cds3 and 552 and the detail and extra info is right in  front of you but seems a bit artificial and hifi like. I blame the silver content of the cable, as it always had this effect in a naim system before. I can see the SL cables suiting the new BMR speakers but SL2's NBL's and DBL's seem to sound more right with a hiline to me. I've pondered over this one for months and seem to miss something when the hiline is out of the system so for now it's too expensive a cable when there is some doubt in my mind. This is highly unusual as naims upgrades are always absolute for me but I think tuning systems at the very top can be a little tricky.

Mario.

Mario - I assume that you are using other standard Naim interconnects and NACA5?

Hi Chris,

cds3 555-non DR, 552-non DR, snaxo supercapDR 300 250DR 250DR superline supercap DR LP12 ekos klyde

Z-foil lingo  into DBL's

All standard interconnects and naca5 except hiline between cds3 and 552 and a powerline on 552ps.

Also contrary to what others have said I think that a non DR 300 on the tweeter and 250DR's on the mid and bass works perfectly! naim are reported to have said that an old 300 is still streets ahead of a 250 DR even though I love what these new 250's have brought to the mix!

DBL's are a recent acquisition and the only reason I have not been on here raving about them is because any spare moment I have is spent in front of them. Best speakers ever!!!!!! So musical and so real and natural, quite the opposite of what the new cables do??? I really didn't want to be one of those people talking about the old naim versus the new naim but things have changed. I guess once things get this good, the balance can be easily lost. 

Mario

Excellent news, Chris. Delighted to learn that the SL cables are pleasing you.  I certainly wouldn't be without mine. 

Mike

That's a pretty stunning system you have there Mario 

I have yet to try SL but I can say that imo my Kudos speakers responded even better to Chord STA than my SBLs did.

I can't immediately recall whether other Forum DBL users have gone over to SL but we may hear from them. 

I think Mario may have got more out of the SL IC if he had the SL speaker cable as well, but that's megabucks with active DBLs. HH commented above that the concept of spending more on the speaker cables was a bit 'weird' but this is happening quite frequently on this forum for those with active Ovator 600s. I does beggar the question of whether it's vfm. I'm pleased I left the active roundabout.

interesting discussion. for me the cost of SL speaker cables (4 runs of 7m each) would be 8.4K. this seems like a lot of money to spend on just 'wire'. however, there is another way to look at it. supposing Naim bought out a box upgade that delivered the same improved more or less the same performance? for some odd reason, i would find the box upgrade easier to swallow. but i suspect this is because of some psychological wiring that somehow box upgrades are more real?

given the above, and that speaker wire is really an extention of the power amp (distributed power amp?) then it suddely doesnt sound as ridiculous.

i have a shopping list of SL wires and DR upgrades ahead for my active system when the time is right and funds allow... then after that, perhaps i should consider retiring...

enjoy

ken

Well Ken, I HAVE at least from the upwards spiralling upgrade path and actually it feels ok !  ATB Peter ( wish I could retire from work though)

Bugger... my B&W 802s stand a clear 20cm out from the wall, so that "can't get close to the wall" reason isn't valid.   £2,400... now, let's see,  which credit card is offering interest free this month?

Double bugger... 4m is tight, very tight.  It'll need to be 5m....

Do you ever wish you could go back to the days we bought 'speaker wire' from Woolworth electrical counter... at 6d a foot ?

(OK, no you don't)

Roger

If you had a smaller house you'd need shorter wires!

in some sense, i do... 

but i guess i shouldnt - the NACA5 is a good enough piece of wire, isnt it?

enjoy...

ken

Not when you've heard the SL speaker cable in your system and then swapped the NACA5 back in. 

Moral of this story is not to listen to SL speaker cables and live in ignorance, suits me.

I've much better things to spend my money than 2 X 9mts that's £10,800.

Several holidays, another car or 2 etc etc.

So not knowing, means not caring about that. A simple plan that many have ignored.

NACA5 stays.

+1 - sorry!

Agreed. I was lucky enough to be able to get away with 3m lenghts and also got these at an exdem price. I do sympathise with those that need long lengths (or worse have active systems).

For those I suggest firmly inserting fingers into lug 'oles is the best option.

of course it's wrong... would you spend 10k worth of tyres for a 5k worth of car?

yes, there will be an improvement, i understand, but you can do so much better with that amount instead of spending on tyres.

in my opinion, the ones who spend serious amount of cash on cables are - in general - lazy persons...

if patience and curiosity exists, there is always a cable solution at the same performance but for a LOT less money!!!

expensive cables exist because... there are people who buy them!

don't get me wrong , i'm not saying that cables have none or little importance or that they do have similar contribution to overall sound. they do, but you can maximise WAY easier the SQ with better speakers than with a better and more expensive speaker cable.

maybe for a big buck setup, where the last drop can be achieved with the right cable, and there is no reason or no real improvement in changing components, some expensive cables are justified... but even then, i think that, in the end, the owner just pays... actually... his own commodity! cheaper and quite similar effect cable can be found, with a bit of patience and luck. maybe spending 100k on a setup just doesn't makes sense for some to strive to get the right cabling when they can spend another 5 or 10k on the suggested cabling to go with their setup...

people are not the same... and that's the fun part.

i don't know about this owner you said, but the order seems wrong to me both from theory side and also from practical side...

let me explain... first, not all hifi components behave the same to a certain cable, and not all are sensitive to the same things... in general, signal sources (like cdps, dac's, streamers, TT's) and preamps, are WAY more influenced by mechanical noise, which in turn is changed as energy into electromagnetic energy that faults the musical signal, since those kind of components work with low or very low amplitude signals and even the smallest mechanical noises can affect that, especially for higher frecquency signals...

power amps are less prone (in theory) to those kind of noises, BUT, different architectures and implementations can render different behaviour, and the fact that are simply way too many variables to take account of, it is easier sometimes to just make a test, to see, a cable fits or not!

i think that a cable cannot render the SQ of a setup better that it was before, but a cable can disrupt the integrity and the quality if chosen wrong, and to maximise the effect a cable has, i think we must choose the one that affects as little as it can the potential of the setup. of course, a few experiments have to be performed, as i said, there are way too many variables and topologies for each component of the system to get it right from theory, so i actually recommend testing a few pairs of cables, be it for power, be it for signal, so we can rather get the direction of our own setup and see which tendency maximises the effect, or better put minimises the loss.

so, in theory, i would say that interconnect analog cables should have the most important effect... sometimes they actually do... most of the times, speaker cable was the one which contributed the most to affect the sound...it always depends on the setup itself... power cables are cometimes of crucial effect, but that, to me, translates sometimes into an issue or real problem somewhere else, like the electrical circuit in the house, the construction of the amp or source etc...

so, rather than spending double or more the amount on cables than on speakers, better try some other variants first! play for a while woth all categories, power cables, interconnects, digitals, and speaker cables, and actually see, in your particular setup, which ones have the most impact. if huge differences are perceived for a certain category, of course careful selection should be made for that category, but, it actually tells that the components round that cable are prone to some sesitiveness, and sometimes, it can be corrected with other measures... (for example, mechanical isolation).