Speaker cable...

A5 or better Tellurium Black. 

Its not ideal & with your new 250 coming,  its a shame to spoil the ship etc.    QED spec shows Inductance is 0.46 uH/m & capacitance 76 pF/m compared to Naim NACA5 is 1uH/m & 16pF/m - & don't forget 3.5m minimum per side is recommended.            NACA5 is the obvious choice,   but TQ Black is the current forum favourite & the mid range Chords do a pretty good job  

Thanks to you both. I need a 5m run so thats ok, I have not long ago bought the QED  

I like the sound of the Chords...

A TQ black user here. Delighted with them. You can try any TQ product and if you don't like it just return it. 

Nice thing about the un-shielded Chords - compared to NACA5 & to a lesser extent TQ-B - is they are extremely well behaved & perform well for the house proud domestic goddess, they bend & stay bent & can be routed neatly around the edges of a room.   5m is perfect length as the inductance at 5m is more or less the same as 3.5m of NACA5.  I use Chord Odyssey,  & over the last 5 years I've tried a few others & decided the difference is not worth the cash.   

Sounds good, Chords it is then. Need to sell the QED's now. 

Thanks guys.

Nothing sounds good until you've listened to it! Given that you've just spent a stack of cash on new boxes, ask your dealer if you can borrow some cables to listen to at home, then decide what you like.

My dealer has recommended Chord Shawline, is that ok?

I emailed Chord asking them to recommend a speaker cable to replace the Naca5. The cable guru Nigel Finn was very cautious with his suggestion, consistently praising the Naca5 for its timing and rhythmic capabilities and saying that it is pretty hard to beat in the context of a Naim system. In the end, he recommended the Chord Epic Twin.

My system details which were made known to Chord - NAC 282 / HCDR / NAP 250 DR

ChrisSU posted:

Nothing sounds good until you've listened to it! Given that you've just spent a stack of cash on new boxes, ask your dealer if you can borrow some cables to listen to at home, then decide what you like.

Sensible approach - i'd do this rather base a reasonable expensive decision on forum recommendations. 

Oh blimey!

ChrisSU posted:

Nothing sounds good until you've listened to it! Given that you've just spent a stack of cash on new boxes, ask your dealer if you can borrow some cables to listen to at home, then decide what you like.

Yes I will give that a try.

Jukemark

I've tried TQ cables vs Naim own. Also tried Chord.

TQ Black is no match for NACA5. Only once you get to TQ Ultra Black does it start to sound like a Naim system. But by then you may as well get a Naim SuperLumina. 

Given you need 5 meter runs I would just go for NACA5. You will not find a better cable for the money.

Word of caution: use the Naim supplied amp plugs and get your dealer to terminate them properly. On the speaker side use simple banana plugs with a material closely matching your speaker posts. 

Adam

Well I have just ordered a pair of 6m Witch Hat N2 cables, with option to return after trying so easy choice really. Anyone have any thoughts...

Decent cables - they look a lot like the old DIY 56 strand cables (RS 56 strand cable in a loose twist) that used to be popular alternative to QED79 strand and Naim NAC-A4 (as it was at the time). They'll be fine. 

Ah, great stuff thanks 

When I had PMC speakers (twenty 23s) I used TQB and found it much better than NACA5. But with Naim speakers, A5 was better. I simply don't agree with Adam's comments about the the TQB, based on my own expperience. The only experience I have of Witch Hat is their Hatpin din to XLR lead, which I used between my 272 and 250 and which was a good improvement over the standard Naim lead, so their speaker cables will probably be good too, and they are certainly economical.

I have tried Chord Odyssey in the past and found it gave a very neat and tidy sound, but one that was ultimately boring. 

Odyssey user here - excellent no reason to change slightly warmer if less visceral than Naca 5.  It's all good!

Hungryhalibut posted:

When I had PMC speakers (twenty 23s) I used TQB and found it much better than NACA5. But with Naim speakers, A5 was better. I simply don't agree with Adam's comments about the the TQB, based on my own expperience.

Perhaps to elaborate a bit on my experience (it's good that Nigel disagrees with me - I think it helps OP to form a balanced opinion).

I recently tested the following cables in my two systems: Tellurium Q Black and Ultra Black vs my resident NACA5 and SuperLumina.
The test was more or less: SuperLumina > NACA5 > TQ Black > TQ Ultra Black > SuperLumina. All cables were well run in, and following TQs recommendation I bedded them into my systems running track 3 from their CD.

Started off on SuperLumina. Than swapped to NACA5. Clearly there was a difference, but oddly enough I found more difference using non-Naim speakers.

Next was a TQ Black - this is a good cable, but compared to SuperLumina and NACA5 I found that some of the resolution and details were now too veiled for my taste.

So TQ Ultra Black went it - now this was good. I really liked that cable. It's clearly a very good wire, better than NACA5 and very close to SuperLumina. But.... I noticed a slight compression in the upper frequencies where cymbals / high-hats typically reside. Most odd. I put this one down to my specific rooms / systems etc. In other systems and rooms I can imagine a scenario where this cable can sound better than SuperLumina.

I then went back to SuperLumina which I found to be most neutral given the circumstances.

Adam

Well I have just ordered a pair of 6m Witch Hat N2 cables, with option to return after trying so easy choice really. Anyone have any thoughts...

Well worth a try used them myself a while back very good value for money.

Hi Adam. I just wonder if the SuperLumina cables had better highs due to the silver in the cables? I realise that they are at a similar price level, just wondered if you've try any of TQ silver range also? Would be great to hear your thoughts! 

Pcd posted:

Well I have just ordered a pair of 6m Witch Hat N2 cables, with option to return after trying so easy choice really. Anyone have any thoughts...

Well worth a try used them myself a while back very good value for money.

Did you get an impression of them vs A5?  The Witch Hat chap basically seems to say they're exactly the same as A5, but I've only ever seen that taken at best with a pinch of salt on here.  But his DIN-XLR cables are good IME, and seem fairly well regarded.

No speaker cable out there is "exactly the same" as Naim NACA5.  Those who know the history behind its development will know why...

Went from a "good enough" qed79 to a5 than back to the "slightly better" qed79. Got rid of the stiffness nightmare too. 

ps. and the myth according to which using anything else but a5 gets your naim running hot is bullshit.

Naim components, Naim forum. Naim recommend NAC-A5 so it's an easy fit and forget choice.

If you want to tweak the system sound then have a play with cables. As long as they don't stray too far from the basic Naim cable electrical characteristics then you're good to go.