Speaker cable
Posted by: Juddson Plimpington on 18 October 2015
Getting back on the Naim wagon and just picked up a used Nait XS-2. Then looked at cost of naca5 - $25 a foot in the US!!!' Good god, that's $2 an inch!!! At 20 feet total, that's 1/3 of what I paid for the used Nait!!
Which got me to thinking about a theoretical question - Naim does not market the "hook-up" wire it runs between the circuit board and the speaker output sockets on the back of the Nait as speaker cable. Why not?? It's thin and flexible, too. Just asking.
Anyway, I'm sure the naca5 is great cable for Naim amps. But anything at about half that price readily available in the US that won't undo what the Nait does? That cable strikes me as big money.
Posted on: 18 October 2015 by Steve J
Have you seen the price of the Super Lumina cable?
I would suggest you look for a secondhand pair of NACA5 speaker cables. They can usually be found on the usual sites and would be the most economic solution given that it's best cable for your needs.
Good luck.
Steve
Posted on: 18 October 2015 by phosphocreatine
There are many threads in this forum about speaker cables for Naim amps: you can't find a better quality for the money than NAC A5 (at least in Europe). As suggested by Steve J there are many used NAC A5 runs to choose from. I bought myself a a nearly new NAC A5 3,5 meters (about 11 feet) white stereo run on a famous auction site for less than 50% of the list price.
Posted on: 18 October 2015 by Jason
Personally, I wouldn't stray from the NAC A5. You don't need to buy it new, as Steve has suggested. There are, of course, many other options out there but I have found over the years that if you like the Naim sound.....stick with Naim. If you are re-building a Naim system, the NAC A5 will be a constant which you won't need to worry about. Fit, forget and know you've got what the Nait was designed to work with.
Posted on: 18 October 2015 by ChrisSU
If you're not prepared to pay for NAC A5, you could look at Linn LK20, which used to be sold by Naim as NAC A4. It's not as good, but it'll still do a reasonable job. In the UK it's £5 a metre, as opposed to £30 for NAC A5.
Posted on: 18 October 2015 by Kiwi cat
Originally Posted by Jason:
Personally, I wouldn't stray from the NAC A5. You don't need to buy it new, as Steve has suggested. There are, of course, many other options out there but I have found over the years that if you like the Naim sound.....stick with Naim. If you are re-building a Naim system, the NAC A5 will be a constant which you won't need to worry about. Fit, forget and know you've got what the Nait was designed to work with.
+1. Don't buggerise round with anything else. It is well worth the investment to keep the classic Naim PRAT.
Posted on: 18 October 2015 by Checkthisout68
First of all, the NACA5 is not expensive given what it does. In Germany it is around 40,-€/meter. Right now that is at the lower end of high end speaker cable prices. However, one could think it is not that valuable just like the standard naim mains as looks maybe not too fancy. In fact, I find it very bad to handle but it sounds awesome, or whatever it does for my Naim setup, it is doing the right thing. And that is all that matters. Looking back on my times before naim I spent a lot more money on speaker cables than with this pair of pre-owner NACA5 and in comparison never achieved what I was looking for. So if you can find a pair on eBay or somewhere that is probably best value for the money.
Cheers,
Chris
Posted on: 18 October 2015 by Juddson Plimpington
Thanks,
No doubt it is not the most expensive stuff, I agree. But it is still plenty pricy, at least here in the US. I used to own naca-4 (when I bought my first piece of Naim gear 25 years ago, a used Nait 1). Great wire, flexible too. I may look for the Linn wire if it is, in fact, similar to naca-4.
Posted on: 18 October 2015 by Chris Dolan
There was a suggestion on a Super Lumina speaker cable thread that NACA5 has a limited life span.
I'm not sure if this is true and/or whether it is use dependent but is there any way of assessing its age when buying second hand?
Posted on: 18 October 2015 by FangfossFlyer
Interesting as my NACA5 must be 20 years old now and I have never thought of it having a life span.
Maybe it is time to replace it... 0nly issue being one of cost as 2 x 9m of SL is not cheap.
Richard
Posted on: 18 October 2015 by Bert Schurink
I thought the Naca 5 was quite ok from a pricing perspective. You will nothing serious which betters it at that price point. Just get some 2nd hand cables - should be available due to super lumina upgrades.
Posted on: 18 October 2015 by Williewonka
Should you want to look at options other than NAIM, I have tried and liked the following brands (in order of cost and Sound Quality)
Van den Hul C122 and d352
KLE Innovations gZero2 or gZero6 or zFLOW22
They all have worked very well with my NAIM 5i.
All cables were very neutral in their presentation and very dynamic, but perhaps the best "Value" or bang for the buck, are the gZero2 - a little more expensive, but they outperformed the Van den Hul cables by a significant margin.
I have also compared the KLE gZero2's to a very expensive ($4k) pair of Purist Audio and the gZero2's sounded a little more dynamic with a more clarity and control of top end.
Currently I own the gZero6, which are superb with the 5i, but I did try the zFLOW22 and found there was not enough of an improvement with my rig to warrant the additional expense.
Hope it helps
Regards...
Posted on: 19 October 2015 by Steve J
Originally Posted by Bert Schurink:
I thought the Naca 5 was quite ok from a pricing perspective. You will nothing serious which betters it at that price point. Just get some 2nd hand cables - should be available due to super lumina upgrades.
NACA 5 does seem to have increased disproportionately in price in recent years. Perhaps Naim were trying to soften us up for the price of the Super Lumina. 
Posted on: 19 October 2015 by Fueller
There's some profiteering going on for sure, I have the invoice from 2001 showing my brand new naca5 at £6.25 a metre, or £43.75 for 2 x 3.5m runs terminated.
Posted on: 19 October 2015 by Dave***t
I thought the price of A5 had become a bit steep compared to what it used to be too, so I tried to do a 'back of a fag packet' calculation.
It has been mentioned here before that the cost of copper has risen significantly in recent years, and that's what has pushed the price of A5 up. Notwithstanding the fact that the info on copper prices I could find showed a significant peak around 2011, and a subsequent fall to around 2006-2008 prices at the moment, copper is currently roughly 4-5 times as expensive as it was in late 2001.
£43.75 in 2001 money is equivalent to roughly £60 now, according to an online inflation calculator I just had a look at. While 7m of A5 would now set you back £210. Assuming that copper isn't the only bit of A5 subject to fluctuation, that seems fairly in tune with how things have changed in terms of cost of materials. In fact it looks like 4-5 years ago, A5 was probably making significantly less profit than it did in 2001.
I might be missing something, but despite seeming expensive now to some people - myself included, hence my A5 being second hand - it looks like there's probably not much price gouging going on. Unless perhaps you get into why commodity prices fluctuate, which is a whole different kettle of fish, and doesn't involve Naim.
Why e.g. K20 is still so cheap, on the other hand, I have no idea.
Posted on: 19 October 2015 by George F
Originally Posted by Dave***t:
....
Why e.g. K20 is still so cheap, on the other hand, I have no idea.
Loads of old New Old Stock K20 issued twenty years ago? However it does work well in the right system. I have ancient NACA 5 for all that.
ATB from George
