Super Lumina vs Chord Sarum Super Aray Interconnect. Which is Best? Only One Way to Find Out - Fight!
Posted by: nigelb on 07 April 2016
Actually this was a three-way fight because these two were up against my trusty Chord Sarum Tuned Aray interconnect but that would make the title too long. To make life easy (and because I can't type) my Chord Sarum Tuned Aray interconnect I will refer to as TA, the Chord Sarum Super Aray we'll call SA and the Super Lumina will be known as SL. My dealer assured me the SL and SA were both run in, important as I know the TA and SA take hundreds of hours to sound their best.
I replaced my Hiline with the TA some time before the SL range of cables were released and I have been using the SL speaker cables with the TA for about a year now and have meaning to demo the SL interconnect at home. As I have enjoyed the TA, I was also keen to hear the more recent upgrade to the Chord Sarum cables - the Super Aray. Luckily my wonderful dealer has both the SL and SA cables available for home demo so I took my chance.
I used my trusty 21-track playlist of music I know well as my demo material, although I am getting a bit tired of it, but my familiarity of this material I feel is important when conducting a bake-off like this as subtle difference will be more apparent. The rest of my system is detailed in my profile.
I properly warmed my system up and and a lengthy listen to my TA to get a baseline clear in my head. Next up was the SL which I warmed up with a few tracks. I always like to be out of the room during a warm up as I don't want my initial impressions affected by a cable which might not be at its best - (more of this later with the SA that needed a long, long warm up). As it happens the SL didn't appear to need much of a warm up and it's character didn't change much as I listened. I have this afternoon listened the the SL for the second extended demo so my comments are from both listening sessions.
The SL is quite simply a revelation. Where the Chords are possibly (and I emphasis the word possibly) a little more accurate/neutral/natural, they (the Chords) have a slight 'bloom' which can affect transients, particularly softening the leading edges of notes. This is a very subtle phenomenon that I only noticed when listening to the slightly 'faster' SL which really attacks leading edges. Actually I am not entirely sure which is the more 'accurate' but I preferred the SL on this particular aspect as it added some excitement to music. The SL's speed and 'attack' definitely help in the timing department too, which in turn adds to the traditional PRaT, such a cornerstone of the Naim signature. I hesitate to use PRaT as a descriptor because I have never been sure that my understanding of PRaT aligns with others'. But IMO the SL has PRaT in spades. The SL has a 'purity' to the sound of instruments and voices (which occasionally is warts 'n' all) that the SA can't quite match. There is absolutely no gloss or smoothing with the SL, you are hearing it as it is. Compared to the SL, the TA and the SA sound a little more 'beautiful' but this beauty is at the expense of the added excitement offered by the SL. Right, I will let you into a bit of a secret. I have one track that I love and gets me going every time. Not really a secret as I spilled the beans on this in the Music Room on the thread about What Music Makes You Cry. I thought I ought to try the SL out on this track to see if it was the 'beauty' of the TA and SA that got to me. Well the SL indeed got me going on this track as usual. What an old fool I am. But I had to check because the emotional connection with music is to me the most important aspect of replay in the home. No problem in this department with the SL.
After a good listen to the SL, next up SA. Due to its stiffness the SA was trickier to install and I was being very carful - didn't want to damage any pins on this expensive bit of wire. Once installed, the usual warm up with me out of the room. When I sat down to listen, I realised I was very impressed by the SL and heard me thinking that the SA would need to be very special to compete. This is not an entirely neutral frame of mind and I reminded myself that the SA was likely to sound different which could either be a positive or a negative. But the first listen to the SA was a real disappointment. It was thin, compressed and splashy in comparison to the SL. I thought this will be an easy contest and maybe the SA didn't suit my system. But then I thought, hang on the SA sounds worse than my TA, the SAs predecessor. I then though something is clearly wrong here so I let the system play for a couple of hours or, and I came back to it. I detected some improvement, but still no comparison to the SL. This at least told me that there was more to come from the SA and it really needed some more time. I left the system playing overnight with the SA and had another listen the next day. Much, much better than the previous day's experience. A far better tonal balance with a little more deep bass than the SL in fact. But although this bottom octave was more apparent, it was not particularly well controlled. It is possible of course that the rest of my system, particularly my speakers, may not be capable of handling the extra very deep stuff the SA was apparently letting through. The SA never got stressed and tracks that used to be hard/edgy in places were now much easier on the ear.
In conclusion, The SA was a more exciting listen than my trusty TA but not as exciting and enthralling to listen to as the SL. Very occasionally the SL's excitement would tip over into edginess but never to the point where I had to reach for the volume control. At times you really need that rawness and edginess to appreciate the full expression of instruments, musicians and vocalists, as long as that doesn't tip over into hardness, which it never does with the SL. So I am left with the beauty of the SA and the excitement of the SL. That of course is too simplistic a comparison and I suspect there might be a bit more to come from the SA. I am currently leaning towards the SL but want to hear more from both and see if the SA has any more to offer. Watch this space.
I would be interested to hear others' experiences of comparing the SL to the SA.
Excellent write-up, Nigel. I can't add any experience of the SL against any Chord interconnects. I was using Hi-line when I tried the SL and I barely needed a whole song to know the SL was very much better.
I suspect you're also benefitting from some synergy with the SL speaker cables, which I also needed minimal time from demoing to decide I had to have a pair, but what I'm not sure about from your profile is what you're using between SuperCap and power amp. You know where I going with this.....
Mike
My conclusions are at odds with yours Nigel (and having just read Tony's contribution, in line with what he found).
I've just completed a three week comparison of Super Lumia with Super Array (no tuned array in the mix) interconnect. I was using SL between my NDS and 552, so was well used to how this sounds. I borrowed an almost new SA and replaced the SL with it, turned the NDS onto Repeat and played music for a whole ten days, 24 hours a day. I figured that should run it in !
There followed four whole days over the Easter weekend of serious comparison, again, like you, with my 'test' play list (of which I too am becomming a little tired). An hour or so of listening and cable swapping, followed by cups of tea, email checking etc etc, then back to listening duty!
To cut a four day write-up short, since your write up is comprehensive, Nigel, I've ended up keeping the Super Array in preference to the Super Lumia. The differences to my aging ears were small, but measuring overall 'excitement' of listening, the SA won out with a very slightly brighter sound that seemed to open the window just a little bit wider for me (don't you just hate trying to describe sound experiences in words?).
I didn't find this so surprising because a few weeks ago, I was doing the same comparison with the interlink between 552 and NAP500, only in this case, the difference was so marked as to become unbelievable. The din to XLR SL's were just so flat compared to the SA version of the cable. Having read what other folks thought about these particular interconnects, I figured I maybe had a duff pair of din-XLR SLs. In fact my dealer wondered the same, but the outcome was that I do now have Super Array linking pre to power amps in place. So the preference for SA over SL in a 5-pin interconnect wasn't such a surprise for me. There will be some folks who advocate that the SA interconnect is enhanced by the presence of SA din-XLRs, and they may very well be right. But I know what I heard was better with the SA interconnect.
Putting things in a little more context - I have B&W 802 diamonds connected with..... Super Lumia. And I have, also, a Urika connected with.... Super Lumia, so Naim wires are by no means shunned in this house, it's just that I prefer those Chord wires in the source / amplifier audio route.
So what's next? My dealer will be tempting me with this MUSIC wire, I suspect, when it starts hitting the streets in Chester. But at £3,800 a go, it'll have to be more than a little bit tasty (£3,800 a metre ???... I suppose that price includes the plugs at each end, so it's not so bad.) 
Roger
"... because the emotional connection with music is to me the most important aspect of replay in the home."
i broadly agree with this but i have often challenged myself whether this aso applies to music that doesnt have any emotional content -- if that makes any sense at all...
but great write up Nigel... I assume you made sure all LAN cables were properly 'dressed' during the test...
enjoy
ken
ken c posted:"... because the emotional connection with music is to me the most important aspect of replay in the home."
i broadly agree with this but i have often challenged myself whether this aso applies to music that doesnt have any emotional content -- if that makes any sense at all...
but great write up Nigel... I assume you made sure all LAN cables were properly 'dressed' during the test...
enjoy
ken
Music without emotion, surely an oxymoron, Ken?
(I think that's the right word - it's a long time since I done English at school)
rjstaines posted:Music without emotion, surely an oxymoron, Ken?
(I think that's the right word - it's a long time since I done English at school)
hey, dont call me a 'moron' Roger! ...
enjoy...
ken
It's amazing how we hear things differently - as I would have said virtually the opposite, in that the SL is a little softer and less incisive. Strange 
Chris Dolan posted:It's amazing how we hear things differently - as I would have said virtually the opposite, in that the SL is a little softer and less incisive. Strange
Chris, I suspect it is not really a case of hearing things differently but hearing in entirely different situations. Different systems, different speakers, different rooms, different music and yes, of course, different ears. Pretty sure also that the SL IC was displaying some degree of synergistic advantage over the SA as I use SL speaker cables. Additionally SL was developed with Statemant and the Classic range power amps' DR developments borrow from the Statement design (009 transistors for example). Hence, I also believe that there is some synergy between SL and my 250 DR. If true this would all put the SA at an immediate disadvantage. I also make the point that the SA might suit other systems better.
I do stand by my observation though that the SL is more incisive than the example of the SA that I demoed in my system. I say 'the example of the SA' because I still have a nagging doubt about the degree to which it was fully run in (I believe they need 600 hrs to fully run in) but I must accept my dealers assertion here.
Lastly we may have different definitions of the word 'incisive' when applied to describe in-home music reproduction. 
nigelb posted:I also believe that there is some synergy between SL and my 250 DR. If true this would all put the SA at an immediate disadvantage. I also make the point that the SA might suit other systems better.
I don't doubt it Nigel - which is partly why I want to get my power amp DR'd first and will then only reach a final decision after a longer home trial - and the decision might of course be to go for neither
At the more expensive end of the scale - and I am denying it exists