Been reading up on interconnects here on the forum. This hasn't brought me any further however...
a whole bunch of people say the standard Naim Ic is just the way it should be, the way Naim intents their products to sound
then you have the hi line owners who say the hi line is just a lot better. They tend to back this by using the standard hifi gibberish (depth, darker blacks etc).
then there's some people asking about interconnects from other manufacturers such as Cardas or Chord. They are usually met with either of the above reactions. I find this strange because if Naim can make a cable that's apparently better than the Naim standard IC, why would another company not be able to do the same??
I have only a couple of questions;
-does the quality of the interconnect matter ?
-Is the Hiline better than the standard IC?
- are there IC's from other brands that perform better than the standard Naim IC?
- are there IC's from other brands that perform better than the Hi line?
I hope I can clear this thing about Interconnects up a bit...
thanks in advance,
T
Posted on: 08 April 2017 by Mike-B
VASELINE .... Oh no no no.
That's a hydrocarbon it'll invade the PVC then the PE insulation of the wires.
If you MUST use a lubricant use a tiny amount of a natural oil high in saturates such as coconut oil or a polar detergent such as SDS, in dilute solution in water.
Calm down calm down !!! We used vaseline extensively in marine electrics in the old days, then we moved to an electric/electronic specific synthetic anti-corrode water resistant stuff called Super Lube. I bought the same product type into my new life in the refrigeration industry where a lot of the equipment was marine or exposed to marine conditions. A tube somehow found its way into my bits box when I retired. The vaseline name stuck a bit much like all vacuum cleaners 'hoover'.
Posted on: 08 April 2017 by Huge
Mike, phew, you had me worried there! OK, that stuff doesn't have the volatiles and only contains specifically selected aromatics! Quite fortuitous someone leaving a tube of it in your bits box just as you retired. 
It's occurred to me that for the rest of us mere mortals (so Loki is excused), unless one is allergic to it, ovalbumin is probably an ideal lubricant (but not for damp environments 
).
Posted on: 08 April 2017 by Innocent Bystander
Undoubtedly there is a lot of hype in the cable arena, and huge amounts of money can be spent. Sometimes the claims imply that buying cable X gives such an amazing difference over cable Y (latter being a well regarded cable) that it is akin to upgrading an electronic component to the next level or two up. Clearly it is all relative, and depends on the listener's ears, training, and propensity to exaggeration - in the cable X vs Y example, where one person declares a 'night and day' difference someone else might listen to the same system and say they can only just detect a difference, and maybe can't even decide which sounds "better". It will also depend very much on the system itself (which includes the room), from sensitivities of different items to what is connected to them, to resolution etc.
At the end of the day I think it is best to get equipment up to a reasonable level just using decent quality cables - and in the case of using Naim gear, standard Naim ICs seem perfectly appropriate - and only then start thinking of playing with cables, but only if you can borrow and listen in your system to decide for yourself. and indeed if you're handy with a soldering iron the DIY approach can be well worth a try, with the advantage of flexibility in playing a bit at low cost.
Posted on: 08 April 2017 by Huge
Quite a few domestic detergents are SDS as I recommended earlier, particularly hair shampoo and "liquid soap". Washing up liquids can also be SDPS, which I think will probably be OK.
