Adventures at Dealer (SL Content)

im off my rocker, all here have my upmost respect. if you feel the difference in sound is worth it then that is all that matters at the end of the day, regardless of opinion. i'll confess I have never heard the sl cable but at that price point any cable should be challenged. im a little sceptical of high end audio cables and speaker cable in particular. i very much doubt you will find such exotic cables in the internals of any power amp or speakers. 'speaker wire, a history' by roger russell is a good read.

i have active ATC SCM40A speakers and use Sommer EMC-QUAD (EGB1) xlr cable between speaker and dac/preamp and feel they are superb quality cables made in germany for a fair price (less than a couple of hundred quid for a 3m pair). in my passive naim days i used Chord Odyssey install which i also felt was superb.

Halloween Man posted:

im off my rocker, all here have my upmost respect. if you feel the difference in sound is worth it then that is all that matters at the end of the day, regardless of opinion. i'll confess I have never heard the sl cable but at that price point any cable should be challenged. im a little sceptical of high end audio cables and speaker cable in particular. i very much doubt you will find such exotic cables in the internals of any power amp or speakers. 'speaker wire, a history' by roger russell is a good read.

i have active ATC SCM40A speakers and use Sommer EMC-QUAD (EGB1) xlr cable between speaker and dac/preamp and feel they are superb quality cables made in germany for a fair price (less than a couple of hundred quid for a 3m pair). in my passive naim days i used Chord Odyssey install which i also felt was superb.

There are plenty of people who would think you were off your rocker for spending a couple of hundred. These off the cuff remarks are meaningless. 

Halloween Man posted:

i very much doubt you will find such exotic cables in the internals of any power amp or speakers. 'speaker wire,

 

 

Odyssey install which i also felt was superb.

Interesting point.  Talking to a speaker manufacturer at the Bristol show the other week it was clear that some quite exotic stuff was used in their speakers.

Agreed Odyssey is very good stuff - see my profile!!

ken c posted:

Chris Dolan posted:

wenger2015 posted:

Does the SL only work best if you have the full loom, or is it still very good on its own?

So far I have only heard SL speaker cable in a system with no other SL cables - and I thought it was very good. 

just as well, i am warming up to the idea of starting with speaker cables. in my case, unfortunately, that will be 4 lengths, or 2 pairs.

I recall, DB offering the same advice i.e. unless one is upgrading bother XLR and speaker wire -- then best to start with speaker leads.

Frightening numbers whichever way in my case!!!

enjoy

ken

I am pondering the XLR step.  For an active setup, where 6 cables are required, is the price for a pair, or individual like the interconnect?

I have read DB's review - which suggests a considerable amount of patience is required for one of the more marginal improvements...

For the straight XLR try TQ Diamond Black - very open and transparent.

I also use Chord Signature Tuned Aray for Supercap to Nap 250 - very good cable.

I can honestly say that the Hi-line cables never impressed me with either their quality of construction or their sound for the price being asked. I always thought the standard Naim-Chord interconnects sounded better.

When the Hi-Line was compared to other cables at the same price level, it amazed me that anyone would choose it over the other rivals, the Atlas cables and Chord alternatives just sounded better to me.

Not talking about MASSIVE differences like some members here describe, they must have golden ears or something to hear that much of a difference, just slight tonal differences that suited my taste.

So based on my experience with the Hi-line, I am sure the SL cable should probably sound better. The point is that when you are spending this kind of money you owe it to yourselves to audition at least a couple of other cables at the same price point. I mean when people with a lot of experience with high dollar cables states in no uncertain terms that other manufacturers cables EASILY outperform the SL cables it would actually have me concerned.

ChrisSU posted:

There are plenty of people who would think you were off your rocker for spending a couple of hundred. These off the cuff remarks are meaningless. 

Excuse me, but isn't that what these forums are for? Different points of views, and all that, I happen to think that Halloween Mans remarks are anything but "off the cuff"  and certainly not meaningless, as you put it!

Gavin L posted

I am pondering the XLR step.  For an active setup, where 6 cables are required, is the price for a pair, or individual like the interconnect?

It depends which price you are looking at - £3,000 is for a pair, but £1,500 is the individual price - at the moment 

Gavin L posted:

ken c posted:

Chris Dolan posted:

wenger2015 posted:

Does the SL only work best if you have the full loom, or is it still very good on its own?

So far I have only heard SL speaker cable in a system with no other SL cables - and I thought it was very good. 

just as well, i am warming up to the idea of starting with speaker cables. in my case, unfortunately, that will be 4 lengths, or 2 pairs.

I recall, DB offering the same advice i.e. unless one is upgrading bother XLR and speaker wire -- then best to start with speaker leads.

Frightening numbers whichever way in my case!!!

enjoy

ken

I am pondering the XLR step.  For an active setup, where 6 cables are required, is the price for a pair, or individual like the interconnect?

I have read DB's review - which suggests a considerable amount of patience is required for one of the more marginal improvements...

Check out Sommer emc quad xlr cable, neutrik xlr connectors factory terminated are the best you can get together with very high quality quad cable used in professional studios, made in Germany at reasonable price. Will sound as good as anything imo

Am I missing something - but in an active setup, each cable only runs one channel.  For 3 way, would you really need 6 cables priced at £1500 each .  Seems like a lot of waste...

The din to XLR made a very significant improvement in my little system, but then I only needed one. £9,000 for six little wires in an active system? Gulp. But then, if one can afford three 300s or 500s then £9,000 is a snip...

Gulp indeed .

The good thing about building up to those 3x 300 or 3x 500 is that you can do it in stages, over a number of years (and for me it is still wip).  Buying an XLR one at a time just isn't going to work!

Just put my order in for 2 x 5 meter lengths of Super Lumina speaker cables. Should have them mid to late next week. My dealer is giving me a great price and very fair credit/exchange for my current Naca5 and a Hi-Cap I have lying around collecting dust... so this takes the sting out of this unexpected purchase considerably.

From browsing the forum it does seem like more on here tend to go for the SL interconnects first and then the speaker cable... so I guess I'm going backwards... but the demo SL sounded so good that I just can't follow the forum common wisdom :-)

Mattnbarns posted:

Zipperheadbanjo posted:

I took them knowing full well that I really would need 5 M lengths to make it work in my room... But after tweaking my racks a little and temporarily repositioning my speakers to accommodate the shorter lengths had everything installed and powered 'er up.

I had no idea a cable could make such a difference.

Before you decide to part with your hard earned on the cable, are you sure that's what made the change?  You moved quite a bit around to accommodate the cables - are you sure this isn't the reason for the performance change?  I'm not saying the cables are good or bad and if you think they are worth the money then that's your choice.  Just something to think about.

The change was definitely due to the SL cables.... this was made abundantly clear when I put the Naca5 back in.

Zipperheadbanjo posted:

Just put my order in for 2 x 5 meter lengths of Super Lumina speaker cables. Should have them mid to late next week. My dealer is giving me a great price and very fair credit/exchange for my current Naca5 and a Hi-Cap I have lying around collecting dust... so this takes the sting out of this unexpected purchase considerably.

From browsing the forum it does seem like more on here tend to go for the SL interconnects first and then the speaker cable... so I guess I'm going backwards... but the demo SL sounded so good that I just can't follow the forum common wisdom :-)

Good! I did exactly the same - first some SL speaker cable. Very pleased with it.

I went for the SL speaker cables first but I already have a decent IC (Sarum TA). I do intend to demo the SL IC because I suspect some added synergy over the Chord IC. IMHO, the speaker cables are not a bad place to start, but the IC next and then the DIN to XLR if funds permit.

nigelb posted:

I went for the SL speaker cables first but I already have a decent IC (Sarum TA). I do intend to demo the SL IC because I suspect some added synergy over the Chord IC. IMHO, the speaker cables are not a bad place to start, but the IC next and then the DIN to XLR if funds permit.

My IC's are both Hi-Lines... so I don't really see them as a particularly weak link.

nigelb posted:

I went for the SL speaker cables first but I already have a decent IC (Sarum TA). I do intend to demo the SL IC because I suspect some added synergy over the Chord IC. IMHO, the speaker cables are not a bad place to start, but the IC next and then the DIN to XLR if funds permit.

You could also try Chord Super ARAY and if you like it then upgrade your existing IC ts a much lower cost 

Chris Dolan posted:

nigelb posted:

I went for the SL speaker cables first but I already have a decent IC (Sarum TA). I do intend to demo the SL IC because I suspect some added synergy over the Chord IC. IMHO, the speaker cables are not a bad place to start, but the IC next and then the DIN to XLR if funds permit.

You could also try Chord Super ARAY and if you like it then upgrade your existing IC ts a much lower cost 

Chris, it so happens that my dealer has a Sarum Super Aray IC as well as the SL IC of course and I intend to compare both of these.

Chris Dolan posted:

nigelb posted:

I went for the SL speaker cables first but I already have a decent IC (Sarum TA). I do intend to demo the SL IC because I suspect some added synergy over the Chord IC. IMHO, the speaker cables are not a bad place to start, but the IC next and then the DIN to XLR if funds permit.

You could also try Chord Super ARAY and if you like it then upgrade your existing IC ts a much lower cost 

Absolutely. I'll also have a look at the AR Lunar Equilateral DIN>XLR when the time comes to consider upgrading the stock cables that came with the 300 DR. I've heard great things about that cable also.

Gavin L posted:

Am I missing something - but in an active setup, each cable only runs one channel.  For 3 way, would you really need 6 cables priced at £1500 each .  Seems like a lot of waste...

---

 

my scm40a only have one xlr input each and they are three way so one cable per speaker.

badlands posted:

ChrisSU posted:

There are plenty of people who would think you were off your rocker for spending a couple of hundred. These off the cuff remarks are meaningless. 

Excuse me, but isn't that what these forums are for? Different points of views, and all that, I happen to think that Halloween Mans remarks are anything but "off the cuff"  and certainly not meaningless, as you put it!

Well in my books, claiming that "anyone who spends £1800 on speaker cables, (or indeed, any amount of money on any hifi component,) is off their rocker," especially when you've never heard them yourself, does not make a contribution of any value to the forum. 

Absolutely. I've spent the £1,800 (well, with un poco sconto) and I don't believe I'm off my rocker. 

Zipperhead - your finding is consistent with mine, and I've since gone on to buy the SL full loom.  I needed a 5m pair of speaker cables too but while at £3k that's more than I ever expected to spend on a pair of speaker cables the increase in performance justified it IMO.  Had I demo'ed a black-box upgrade costing £3k that gave me that improvement I would have thought it a bargain (in Naim terms, of course).

Enjoy your SL speaker cables.  

Mike 

Hungryhalibut posted:

Absolutely. I've spent the £1,800 (well, with un poco sconto) and I don't believe I'm off my rocker. 

I too have spent a similar amount on SL speaker cables but would never self-diagnose.