Quick cry for HELP! .. My Loaner SuperLumina Interconnect is not labelled for directionality....

I think the election is that gold coloured round thing. It looks kind of jossly.

Electrons need to be thoroughly warmed up by thermionic valves before being allowed to create musical signals for loudspeakers!

Then they get really fast! 

ATB from George

As George correctly implies, in the case of the thermionic valve, electrons are flowing, from the cathode to the anode :

Their momentary flight to their goal has been captured via electron micrography :

Musical procreation!

Hungryhalibut posted:

I think the election is that gold coloured round thing. It looks kind of jossly.

Mmmm, never knew democracy played a part as well...

That bloomin' autocorrect....

Hungryhalibut posted:

As a 272 owner I cannot use the interconnect, but have a din to xlr, with which the correct direction is easy to spot....

What still confuses me is that Naim has in its price list  the DIN to RCA SL interconnect but not an RCA to DIN one. 

Quick postscript for anyone interested in how my SL IC home trial turned out. The system is NDS/555DR, 52/SC(olive), 500(nonDR), Shahinian Obelisk2. Having read all the SL threads from this time last year I think the last thing this forum needs is another eulogy, so maybe just a few observations:

1. I would concur with others who've commented that the difference wrought to a system by introducing this IC is in a different realm to a 'normal' box upgrade. The characteristics of my system were changed to the point where it sounded like a different system. Simply, less like an electronic HiFi and more like just having the music connect clearly as the artistic expression intended by the musicians. This is a wondrous effect.

2. I've struggled with the acoustics of my listening room since moving house a few years ago with mid-bass boom and an overall slight imbalance favouring drums and bass over vocals and higher frequencies. With SL in the system I'd estimate this imbalance was 75% ameliorated.

3. Returning to HiLine somehow brought a sameness to every kind of music. Not unpleasant I'd hasten to add, but a rose-coloured filter which seems to greatly obfuscate or distort crucial aspects of musical communication when compared with SL.

4. Until now I've been equally happy to switch between NACA5 (Naim's choice) or Mogami (Shahinian's choice) finding the choice very much swings and roundabouts. Interestingly, with SL in the system, NACA5 suddenly sounded plain wrong bringing a proverbial veil or warm sheen over the music. Mogami seemed to match much , much better. No, I am not going to listen to SL speaker cable. Ever. Yet.

It was I who posted the bake-off between the SL IC and my trusty Chord Sarum Tuned Aray. I agree with pretty much all you have said about the SL IC and am running in my newly acquired bit of wire as we speak.

I was listening to it tonight after about 30 hours on the clock and I am just dumfounded by the difference it brings. I won't bore you here with the detail, please refer to my bake-off post (SuperLumina vs Chord Sarum Tuned Aray Interconnect, Which is Best? Only One way to Find Out - Fight!). The SuperLumina interconnect is one on the most significant upgrades I have made. Now that probably sounds like hyperbole and I would forgive you for doubting my assertion that a bit of wire could make such a difference. What I will not forgive however are those that dismiss such high praise without seeking the truth for themselves.

I would urge anyone with NDX/NDS/282/252/250DR (sorry don't do CD players) or above to demo the SL IC in your system at home.

And to the OP, you won't want to hear this but I also have SL speaker cables and heard a similar improvement to you over the NACA5 when you inserted the Mogami. A reduction in a midband thickness is how I believed I described the effect of the SL speaker cables IIRC. Now my SL speaker cables were acquired before the SL IC so much of what I am hearing now I believe is a synergy between both SL cables (OK the three SL cables).

Having visited the factory recently I have witnessed first hand the complexity of the SL IC's construction and the many hours of skilled labour it takes to produce these apparently innocuous bits of wire. It is counter-intuitive I know but the SL IC is the best value for money upgrade I have made in a long time, possibly ever!

Blimey, where's my tin hat I can here incoming.

Nigel B wrote: "The SuperLumina interconnect is one on the most significant upgrades I have made. Now that probably sounds like hyperbole and I would forgive you for doubting my assertion that a bit of wire could make such a difference"

I don't doubt you one bit Nigel as it tallies with my recent experience too. Worth adding that a week and a half ago I was fairly firmly in the agnostic camp whilst simultaneously trying to keep an open mind and only tried the cable because of the many hugely positive comments on this forum from contributors who seem to have fair and objective opinions together with the fact that my dealer had one available (funny that!).

Furthermore, my previous experience of buying/testing cables in a Naim system had convinced me too that it's really only a piece of wire and how much worthwhile difference could it make?

I've tried:

• Nordost speaker cable which bought some improvements, but lost a lot of the joy..
• Hiline: the casing on mine recently broke (!) and was away a month or so being fixed foc by Naim. I used the old stock cable in its absence quite happily and would say that returning the HL to my system afterwards saw an improvement in clarity and speed, but it certainly wasn't a step change in the musical experience to my ears.
• In 2009 I bought blind (on the recommendation of my dealer at the time) 3x powerlines for my system. I was returning from 5years overseas, so I didn't even bother digging out my old Graham's Hydra to do a comparison, but I have to say that to this day I'm not sure that the improvements were particularly obvious to me. I've recently found the hydra in the loft so perhaps one day I'll try an A/B out of curiosity, but it's a bit academic now anyway...

So, to cut a long story short, I was reasonably firmly in the agnostic camp re Super Lumina, with the cynical side of me suspicious that Naim (after many years of themselves saying that they didn't think expensive cables brought worthwhile improvements) had suddenly found the holy grail. It seemed to me to be too much of a coincidence that it came at the same time that they launched a £150k amplification system. Of course I can also believe that research for that project could foster the genesis of the cable too, but I was certainly wary.

But the proof was in the music presented to me. What I've heard from the SL and the way it has transformed my music has been a genuine shock. Agree with you that it's a change in the fundamentals of a system. Agree that with an outlay of £1750 I can't think of anything else that could remotely make such a change.

p.s. I've also just spoken to (a delighted!) Mike at Gullifords who informs me that what I thought was a well run in SL IC actually only had around 10 hours use in the shop before I got hold of it, so all this has been with an effectively brand new cable. If it improves further with age as many have observed it to do then all I can say is wow!

Agree very much with your thoughts on the SL. I demoed a run in SL IC but the new one I have bought sounded great out of the box and has improved a little over the first 30 hours. From memory I don't think it is now very far behind the demo example so not sure there will be a big swing in performance as it gets up to the 200 hours my dealer said it takes to run these in.

I am sure you will get great musical satisfaction from this mere bit of wire - weird isn't it?

Enjoy.

I would agree the SL IC is not just a really good upgrade but the best value of any recent investments in my system. Big shiny new box it may not be but just forget the physical nature of the thing and let your ears convince you.

I will go for the SL SNAXO cable at some point too

Bruce

I ordered the IC and speaker cables last about ten days ago and this thread is making me very excited and feeling slightly less guilty at my apparent extravagance. 

My demo experience was the same as the posts earlier today. The cables took my system to a different place. Most black box upgrades deliver improvements in the sound you already have, but the cables add something else. Yes, there's more detail and clarity, but there's insight too you can hear instruments and sounds in their own space without any loss of the bigger picture. Add in improved tonality and better more tuneful bass and you're looking at an astonishing upgrade. Not cheap , though!

Keith