Nordost speaker cable

I tried Valhalla, albeit when I had Shahinian Obelisks rather than PMC PB1i speakers and it was against NACA5. The result was just like whacking a tone control up waaay into the treble end - lots of hidden detail revealed but tonal balance was way off, as was musicality. The net result was horrid.

Also not sure it matches the impedance criteria for Naim amps.

You can't just shoe horn Nordost cables into a system willy nilly. The speaker cable is probably the least effective contributor, but still needs the signal and power cables from Nordost that all share similar technology to sound right. That's if your listening ears feel that the Nordost sound is right to begin with..

As a full set, unless you need really long lengths, superlumina is very good value for money compared to some of the others. Plus you know it's been made from the ground up to go with Naim gear. It's really a no brainer.   

I did hear a Naim (172/250.2) system with Nordost power, interconnects and speaker cables, with Chord Dave as a source.

It sounded great to me, I don't get that 3 dimensional sound at home with my Chord Dave, and better Naim amplifier (282/HCDR/250DR)

But yes the speakers in that demo were Dynaudio Confidence C20,  I have Dynaudio Focus 260.

The sound is sticking to the speakers in my home, in that demo, all the instruments were floating out of the speakers, amazing demo. Putting the Hugo TT, collapsed the soundstage, there were never any going back to Hugo after hearing Dave in that way.

I know of a guy that used Heimdell2(sp?) speaker cable and power cable along with qbase 8 with his 272/xps dr/250 dr. He seemed to think it was a nice match. Think he's moved on the Aavik instead of Naim for what that's worth. 

It seems to me that Chord Company cables are far more likely to be synergistic with Naim performance values than Nordost.    I would seek out dealers in your area who work with Chord Company to see if you like their approach to cables as many other Naim fans do.    

Julian (Vereker) was not comfortable with the earlier generations of Nordost cables, and expressed concerns to me that they were potentially problematic with Naim amps.    The cables could create a scenario where Naim amps would not be able to remain stable.     In the late 90's we worked with Nordost cables and found many of our customers were attracted to their flat architecture, so we played them for Julian on a visit he had made to NYC.     He acknowledged they were very different than Naim speaker cables, which in that era meant Naca 5.    Today Naim fans have a wider range of choices.

Good luck,

Bruce

analogmusic posted:

I did hear a Naim (172/250.2) system with Nordost power, interconnects and speaker cables, with Chord Dave as a source.

It sounded great to me, I don't get that 3 dimensional sound at home with my Chord Dave, and better Naim amplifier (282/HCDR/250DR)

But yes the speakers in that demo were Dynaudio Confidence C20,  I have Dynaudio Focus 260.

The sound is sticking to the speakers in my home, in that demo, all the instruments were floating out of the speakers, amazing demo. Putting the Hugo TT, collapsed the soundstage, there were never any going back to Hugo after hearing Dave in that way.

With the Chord Dave being a constant and your 282/HCDR/250DR a superior amp to the 172/250.2, it's either the speakers or setup (room and positioning), and the cables, in that order. I've owned the Nordost SPM Reference during my pre-Naim days more than 10 years ago after having some Blue Heavens for a while. It's the 2nd from the top (Valhalla) at that time and the cost is perhaps in the range of the Super Lumina. The Nordost higher-range cables are good but the newer range seems to be very costly the last time I looked. Like Bruce, I would be more inclined to look elsewhere as there are many other great and proven alternatives for Naim amps such as Chord, Naim's own Super Lumina, Tellurium and its offspring (which cannot be mentioned here) etc.

The Confidence C20 is a bookshelf and a higher range speaker than the Focus 260 which is a floorstander. Perhaps the C20 is the key to the 3-dimensional sound that is missing with your setup, just a guess. A home demo will give you an answer to your question. In an attempt to attain the 3-dimensional sound that is missing with your system, I would be more inclined to look at the speakers (Confidence C20) rather than the Nordost wires. IF it's easier to get the Nordost cables into your system you can try them and find out yourself.

Nordost requires a light touch to work with Naim.  I have a Valhalla2 power cord, a Nordost power strip and a pair of Nordost jumpers.  My system sounds great.  Rule is as follows:  Basically Naim with Naim and Nordost with Nordost.   Do not mix and match.    Nordost does serve to brighten the flavor of the sound, but too much salt or lemon is dangerous.  Same with Nordost.   Think of Nordost as seasoning.   It is more about you and what you like, than about the music.   I would never use it except as an accent for power cords and speaker jumpers.  

I do not like he Nordost power cables, the IEC plug Nordost is using doesn t fit well in the IEC socket that Naim uses. It is loose and can fall out due to its own weight....

I have seen NAP500 shuting down at high SPL volume just because the connection was not tight... dangerous.  Swaping the Nordost cable for a Tibia or Powerline corrected the problem each time.

We have experienced serious issues with long runs of Odin2. Wallaha seems to be more Naim friendly. SQ is your own decision...

Try them before spending big money on these cables.

Completely agree.  Naim with Naim.   Here it is Nordost PC, into Nordost Strip, and Powerline out.  Light Nordost downstream.  Here jumpers only.   Sounds beneficial here. 

Thanks for all responses, the speaker in the demo was actually Confidence C2 platinum.

Gary, as you own Dave, do you get this effect, the 3D soundstage with instruments floating out of the speakers at home? 

I use similar to SKIP,Nordost Heimdall 2 power chord into Q base 8,and power lines come out of the Q base to my Xpsdr/250dr.I am also using a QKORE  ground unit on the Q base right now...demo.Sounding really good at the moment,in a few weeks time,I will remove the QKORE,and decide if I miss it,or is it snake oil.

analogmusic posted:

Thanks for all responses, the speaker in the demo was actually Confidence C2 platinum.

Gary, as you own Dave, do you get this effect, the 3D soundstage with instruments floating out of the speakers at home? 

 

When things sound shut in and not filling out, it's probably down to set up issues with the speakers.   Try tightening up the drive unit bolts a little.  Tighten the spikes on the bottom. Make sure your level on the face front side and maybe put some pitch on the driver line - as in pitched back a little so the tweeters fire up above the ears when seated, or pitched forward so the tweeters fire just below the ears. Play with your angles a little. Make sure they both have the exact distance from the hot seat spot and same mirrored aspects.

Check they are in phase. Or try putting both of them out of phase. Give the contacts a clean. Try a different support system.   If using spikes you can swap them out for all sorts of things that don't have to cost big money that can solve issues with vibrations interfering with imaging.

Tobyjug made a good point, with the assumption that the setup of the speakers is not optimised. Assuming the positioning of speakers hasn't been looked at and the placement is compromised, I would surely recommend to look at this area before doing anything else. Apart from the points mentioned above, try experimenting with the distance between speakers and distance of speakers from the front wall. When everything clicks in place, music will just sound right and you may just get the 3-dimensional sound that's missing with the setup.

One of the biggest things I noticed from changing to SL leads was the way the music became much more free of the speakers, so that it inhabits the room and the speakers become invisible. The system did this with NacA5, but not quite to the same extent. I'm sure all the comments above about setup are spot on - getting them the right distance apart, the right distance from the wall and correctly toed in will very likely provide 90% of the out-of-the-speakers effect, and of course, this costs nothing. Only once position is optimised is it worth thinking of spending hard cash on wires.