Tellurium Q Black Nait XS2

You have to give it time.... I installed it in May and was initially unsure about it.    Seemed particularlty Bass light to me at first. But two 10wks down the line it sounds marvellous to me :-)

And how 'old' is your NACA5? It takes absolute ages to settle down - several months. One of my systems came 'on song' after 6 months of so - new NACA5 and new Ovators S-400.

AlanJ posted:

You have to give it time.... I installed it in May and was initially unsure about it.    Seemed particularlty Bass light to me at first. But two 10wks down the line it sounds marvellous to me :-)

 

+1 give it time, it just gets better.

I probably will get some A5 at some point an give it a good run in. But I can't live with Rumour any longer so need a now-fix.

I only had A5 on trial but probably didn't give it long enough to run. A few have suggested that if I added a PSU to the XS the NAC would probably sound less scratchy in the highs. So maybe I will go back there at some point.

But definitely no more Chord for me.

I'm hoping the TQ Black will fill out and getting slightly heftier. If it does I won't be looking any further.

From my experience, it will.... And you wont..

Loving the confidence, Alan!

Will report back progress.

Cheers

Adam

TQ sell a burn in cd to help with the painful job of settling in their cables. If your cables are brand new then I'd suggest leaving it running whilst your out and in bed over the next few days avoiding any critical listening. Suddenly you'll find it switches on and understand why so many of us rate TQ cables so highly.

Knipester posted:

TQ sell a burn in cd to help with the painful job of settling in their cables.

Painful job of setting in cables? I suppose a fifth of Jack Daniels could serve the same purpose for a similar cost to the CD. Choose your snake oil.

Replace the speakers with 8Ω (or 6Ω or 4Ω as appropriate) 50W wire wound resistors, then play Wagner* through the system for a whole day.  The speaker cables will soon think "OK, OK I get it I'm burnt in now. Please stop this torture."

"Wagner has beautiful moments, but awful quarter hours." - Rossini

I've seen and skipped the TQ burn in CD. While I get it to certaim extent... I've also got Jeff Mills techno. (Street Exhibition CD).

Probably more crazy than the TQ CD. 

Huge posted:

Replace the speakers with 8Ω (or 6Ω or 4Ω as appropriate) 50W wire wound resistors, then play Wagner* through the system for a whole day.  The speaker cables will soon think "OK, OK I get it I'm burnt in now. Please stop this torture."

"Wagner has beautiful moments, but awful quarter hours." - Rossini

Rossini was obviously a very discerning listener! 

I must look out for those 'beautiful moments'. I can't recollect finding any so far.

Well, I've had the TQB cables on for 10 hours Sunday, 10 hours Monday and a couple of hours tonight. Would leave on all day but makes me nervous 8am-6pm even though I leave everything on anyway (Mute). And the neighbours wouldn't be that happy.

Anywho, the chap up there who said they 'just switch on' wasn't wrong. I don't know if it's all quite 'there yet', but the bass 'just' switched itself on. I'm very clear in that. Deep, textured. Drums started slap too. Although bass now a bit wide for my room (Need to invest in acoustic panelling next - bare walls!). Hoping for a little tightening up now. Night and day change though. Began tinny, flat and bassless. 

The voices and the highs have slightly 'sunk in' too. But in a good way. More cohesive. But still clear and open. Highs has become more playful.

There's also a clear calming down. Started out very edgy and jangly. Like a kid of crack.

Didn't expect a change so quickly (24 hours playback). Might give the snake oil CD a try next week. 

Hopefully this is just the beginning of very good things. I'm feeling positive now as it drives out Aztec Camera.

As my Rumour came with my system I didn't get to notice any particular components burn-in. Sold on burn-in whether it's good or bad.

The TQB is extremely good. I bought some last summer, and posted about the experience in a thread called 'Tellurium Q Black in da house'. You'll find the thread interesting. 

I found that they worked wonderfully with PMC speakers, but not so well with Naim speakers, where NACA5 gave a better result. I bought some used cables so there was only settling down rather than running in to do. 

Don't try to analyse things to much or count the hours; the cables will improve over a few weeks and months, irrespective of what it might say on the box. Just enjoy the music. 

Ha. I like the analyse a wee bit! Well, I don't actually like it. I just do.

Point taken though.

Any experience with Proac speakers?

I still think there is some grainy/harshness to the system. Pretty sure it's not the Qute or the Proacs from what others have said. Maybe it's just the iMac. But i am running WAVs and Audivarna. 

I'm going to try a TQ Black USB cable as the Chord Silver Plus made a huge difference in terms of brightness to the printer cable. Maybe TQs smoothing effect may help again. Perhaps even an RCA - DIN to replace the Chord Co Chameleon. 

TQ speaker cable is definitely helping so far.

I used a TQ graphite USB to great effect before recently acquiring  a TQ black diamond to match the rest of my cables. 

There's a TQ Graphite going on ebay for £275. Claimed only a week old. Packaging too.

Hmm... 

gary yeowell posted:

2 grand on cables for a NaitXS is bonkers! Box first, cables last...... if at all. I'd stick with NacA5 and a Powerline.

Do you have a powerline on an XS? If so what were the effects? Cheers

ThatsNotMyNaim posted:

Odyssey was tinny and lost all of the bass definition I get with Rumour. Almost lost the bass completely. 

 

 

Strange - very strange, should have been the opposite!!!!!

But in any event if you are seeking to improve your system I wouldn't start with cables I'd think about upgrading your XS for SN2.

The Strat (Fender) posted:

ThatsNotMyNaim posted:

Odyssey was tinny and lost all of the bass definition I get with Rumour. Almost lost the bass completely. 

 

 

Strange - very strange, should have been the opposite!!!!!

But in any event if you are seeking to improve your system I wouldn't start with cables I'd think about upgrading your XS for SN2.

You sound like just the person I need to talk to right now.

I knew the Rumour wasn't the best. But you are right, it's insane that the Odyssey sounded thinner. I gave it a great run in. But it did have cheaper plugs which wern't soldered. Anywho, TQ Black are much better than the Rumour.... BUT!! (Big but)...

I've always had this niggling feeling about harshness of voices, percussion. Etc. I'd hoped this was the Rumour (sometimes mentioned as bright). Well the TQ has smoothed the sound but percussion is horrid. Voices sound whiney and stringy. Lacking body. I'm 50 hours in and I don't see it improving. But the same was with the Rumour which I had for 6 months.

I think it's the Nait XS? People have said it's not the Chord 2Qute or the Proac 118 - bith nicely refined. So it must be the nait as mkre expensive cables are just emphasising the issue.

Would a Supernait change that? Completely?

How about just adding a Hi Cap DR (or other) to the XS? 

I'm nearly at dispair. I expected anything but tinny sound with the 4k I've spent thus far. The overall sound is great. But i can't live with the tin. Even when the room is lumbered with soft funishing the highs still niggle.

Cheers

Adam

Go back to basics, the NaitXS is anything but 'tinny'. Go get a demo of a SN2 if you feel you need to, it is by far the more logical step compared to all this cable nonsense. Try some Nac A5 again and live with it for a week, and also try a Naim source as opposed to your Chord one.

Xs2 is tinny?! There must be something wrong with the source, rack, position of speakers and/or quality of stands. 

I wouldn't go for SN2 as a remedy since it may exacerbate the issues.

Try A5 first as suggested above.

Right - this is nothing to do with cables.  Chord and Naca and TQ (I understand on good authority never tried myself) all work fine with Naim and will not in themselves be causing the problems articulated here.

Sorry back to square one and at the risk of stating the obvious - check all the connections in the system - all properly seated home, one of the speaker cables is not out of phase or not properly connected to the banana plug.

Finally speaker support and positioning is everything.

A very good friend of mine runs a CD5XS, Nait XS and Neats and it's certainly not tinny.

Hal posted:

Xs2 is tinny?! There must be something wrong with the source, rack, position of speakers and/or quality of stands. 

I wouldn't go for SN2 as a remedy since it may exacerbate the issues.

Try A5 first as suggested above.

Think how I feel! It's driving barmy.

I have Atacama Eris rack and Atacama Moseco 6 stands (filled with snake oil).

I do plan to buy partingtons. And in 50 years when I have enough cash maybe a Fraim.

Source is iMac (WAVs from CDs) > Chord Silver Plus USB > 2Qute with a Pardo supply (This calmed things down a lot) > Chamelon VEE 3 > TQ Black > Proac 118.

Makes no sense to me. Nothing I have is reported to be harsh or tinny. 

That said, since crying earlier (i joke)... things have gotten a little silkier! Day 3. Maybe I just need some patience and these cables will soften things as I have been told they would. Somethings changing anyway. 

A very good friend of mine runs a CD5XS, Nait XS and Neats and it's certainly not tinny.

I agree, it certainly isn't. CD5XS/NaitXS/FCXS is an extremely well-balanced combination - the NaitXS is definitely more forgiving than the SN2.

Frenchnaim posted:

A very good friend of mine runs a CD5XS, Nait XS and Neats and it's certainly not tinny.

I agree, it certainly isn't. CD5XS/NaitXS/FCXS is an extremely well-balanced combination - the NaitXS is definitely more forgiving than the SN2.

And yet everyone seems to quite the SN2 as being smoother.

I'm going to loan a Flat Cap. See if it helps with the 'tiss tiss tiss' percussion. 

Now the TQ Black has settled everything else is fabulous. Not prepared to give up on my choices yet. They are all nice components which stood out in months of auditions.