The Evolution of the NAP 250

You mentioned cable faffing. Sorry to hi-jack this thread everyone.

My system was sub-optimal due to badly terminated NACA 5 at the speaker end. And when I got it re-terminated again at the amplifier end (some copper strands had failed off over the years) then everything just snapped into place (well, after some days of running in due to new soldering). 

Now I am quite happy with the performance of both 202 and 282 into NAP 200.

And surprise, although I can hear the Chord Hugo is better than DAC V1, my DAC V1 now sounds quite fine into the both 202 and 282/ 200.

When I heard the Uniti 1 at the dealer 6 years ago, it sounded fine to me, but then against Nait XS (more refined, less crude) and then SN, much more refined. SU sounds good to me also.

At no point did I think the SU lacked midband, so could be cabling issue.... The tiny details do matter, termination, soldering, etc. 

I bought some new (to me) A5 a few days ago. Despite being made up by a Naim dealer, the soldering of the Naim plugs at the amp end was awful, with hardly any of the strands actually soldered, and the Chord bananas at the speaker end were simply crimped on. Now properly soldered with Naim plugs at both ends, they work as they should. Details are important, it's not worth spoiling the ship etc.

Hello Analog, by cable faffing, I meant that I had to consciously audition, and acquire, cabling to remedy perceived defects in my system (to my ears). 

I changed lots of stuff at once, so my experience is unlikely to be scientific.  But the Uniti and the SuperUniti have markedly different modes of presentation. What I wanted, in buying the 'SU', was more of the 'U'.It took a while to get there, for which I do not at all blame Naim. In fact it was quite a jolly experience. I now have a great CB NAP250, and enjoy the bliss of heterdoxy in cabling. 

agreed and because the amplifier end of the termination is covered by the black plastic, it never occurred to me to check it. 

it is a day and night performance difference to me now that all the copper strands are soldered properly.

Now that you mention it HH, on the speaker end, it is simply crimped, not soldered.

OMG!

HH, Analog, this is no longer a prob with TQB. It's sinuously, astonishingly, bendy - like an oiled, door-to-door duster salesperson.

HH I guess you are saying it should be soldered at the speaker end too?

Indeed. 

why is crimping (done by dealer) into good banana plugs not ideal?

Simply because the connection is not as good. It's only popular because it requires little skill. To solder well is not so easy. 

good news, that means that even more performance is yet to come from my system when I get the speaker end soldered

did you resolder  yourself?

I have a friend who does electronics stuff, with one of those irons that connects to a box that provides variable power. I'm hopeless at soldering. 

I think that is a bit of a stretch. 

A lot has been written here and elsewhere on the topic of solder vs. crimp and there is far from any consensus. Both have pros and cons and neither is particularly easy to do well while both are a doddle to cock up. Both have also been looked at in depth from both short and long term benefits. A good quality crimp produces an excellent cold weld that locks out oxygen and provides a mechanical connection that should be far stronger than the wire if done correctly and the wire will break before the crimp does. A solder should provide the same results but crimps are generally more consistent in this test.

I don't profess to know the answer to this and am currently trying out crimps (despite being trained on the correct method of soldering Naim Fplugs at one time in the distant past). I would caution against saying one is definitively better than the other since so many have looked at this specifically from an audio perspective and also could not come to a final conclusion.

And of course not all solders sound the same... But I kind of lost the enthusiasm to experiment on my speaker leads, though I do use a silver alloy based solder for interconnects.

Simon

Hi Nigel. Thank you for your reply. The reason I am doing things in this order is because the speakers require it. I understand the concept of source first/avoid-mullets but in this case it simply boils down to a power requirement. I've been told left right and centre that a Nait XS is simply not enough to really move a pair ATC SCM40 as they're meant to be moved, even ATC argued this, in fact, I've been told by a couple of dealers that not even a NAP 200 might be enough... This is how I started my quest for the NAP 250.2. But yeah, I imagine that the 250 would have to be followed (in a few years) with matching pre amp and then with an NDX... but for now, I need the 'juice'

Hi Richard, I forgot to say thank you for taking the trouble of putting all this info together. It was extremely useful and clarifying. Thank you very much. Alonso