Speakers cable - Nac A5 polarity

Posted by: Naimark on 07 June 2018

Hello everyone,

I'm currently evaluating to upgrade my Nac A5 in order to get deeper sound.

Before changing them, I would like to ensure the right polarity since I'm not convinced about it.

The cables have banana connectors to the speakers and naim plugs to the power amp (nap 250).

Regarding naim plugs, they don’t have black and red colors so I’m not sure about positive and negative polarity.

As far as I know if the polarity is not respected the sound is flat and the bass less present…I have tried to change the versus but the sound is not different.

Any advice to find the right polarity?

Thanks in advance.

Mark

Posted on: 07 June 2018 by Richard Dane

The positive side of the cable sheathing should have a slightly ridged edge. The Naim Speaker plug will usually have tabs - two small doubles and a larger single tab (POS) on the other side, to help you differentiate and ID polarity.

Posted on: 07 June 2018 by Naimark

Hello Richard,

just to understand correctly: the larger tab for positive or negative?

Thank you

Marks

Posted on: 07 June 2018 by Richard Dane

Larger tab should be the indicator for Positive - it's marked "POS". But don't rely on it being right - check against the cable ridge, just to be sure, as it can easily be reversed.

Posted on: 07 June 2018 by Stephen Tate

Hi,

It maybe worth just purchasing some brand new plugs and doing the soldering all over again - I've done this before when I was having unacceptable sound quality with NACA5 even though I thought the soldering was passable on inspection = BINGO!