No Brainer upgrade to my NACA 5
Posted by: Tarquin Maynard - Portly on 28 June 2003
Muchachos
Having been considering cables for a while, I phoned Sondek Meister Colin Macey of Martin Kleiser to discuss my speaker cables. He sold me my first Naim kit around 1990, and the NACA 5 that went with it. Cutting to the chase, he made a suggestion that I thought worth a try - so I hoofed over there lunchtime to pick up the cabling he suggested for a loaner.
To be truthful, I was a little sceptical - but I did get the chance to hear Marilyn Manson's mOBSCENE through Komris.....mmmmm.... but anyway.
Unplugged the old, plugged in the new....INSTANT improvement of pretty vast proportions. We are talking about BIG TIME changes here. So far since then I have been listening to Kate Bush in the main, more later, but wanted to post on this soonest; everything is clearer and more defined; instruments that where hinted at are now placed correctly, audibly,, and rythms ( how IS that spelt, Herm? ) that where down in the mix are now revealed. I was converted in a very few minutes.
The naim of this cable? NACA 5.
It is this simple. If you have old stuff, it will degrade, it has degraded, it is not at its best. I did not believe this; I thought that the oxidation spiel was a hi fi bluff. It is not.
This is an incredibly good VFM upgrade - I recently went 82/HiCap to 82/Super; the improvements from new cabling are probably 2/3rds the jump from Hi to Super. It really is that good.
Make me 5 meters Mr Macey- and are you ever wrong?
Regards
Mike
On the Yellow Brick Road and happy
Having been considering cables for a while, I phoned Sondek Meister Colin Macey of Martin Kleiser to discuss my speaker cables. He sold me my first Naim kit around 1990, and the NACA 5 that went with it. Cutting to the chase, he made a suggestion that I thought worth a try - so I hoofed over there lunchtime to pick up the cabling he suggested for a loaner.
To be truthful, I was a little sceptical - but I did get the chance to hear Marilyn Manson's mOBSCENE through Komris.....mmmmm.... but anyway.
Unplugged the old, plugged in the new....INSTANT improvement of pretty vast proportions. We are talking about BIG TIME changes here. So far since then I have been listening to Kate Bush in the main, more later, but wanted to post on this soonest; everything is clearer and more defined; instruments that where hinted at are now placed correctly, audibly,, and rythms ( how IS that spelt, Herm? ) that where down in the mix are now revealed. I was converted in a very few minutes.
The naim of this cable? NACA 5.
It is this simple. If you have old stuff, it will degrade, it has degraded, it is not at its best. I did not believe this; I thought that the oxidation spiel was a hi fi bluff. It is not.
This is an incredibly good VFM upgrade - I recently went 82/HiCap to 82/Super; the improvements from new cabling are probably 2/3rds the jump from Hi to Super. It really is that good.
Make me 5 meters Mr Macey- and are you ever wrong?
Regards
Mike
On the Yellow Brick Road and happy
Correct....I have an extreme soldering fetish! 
Paul.
Paul.
Mike, Cardinal sin, I forgot the smiley
Some time ago my Naim dealer related a story to me, ( a very well respected figure, held in high regard on this forum ). It was sugested that he replace the plugs ( on a six pack, alot of plugs! ) as after time oxidation occurs and degrades the sound, this he duly did. The result? Shorter speaker leads, a lot fewer plugs in stock and no difference whatsoever.
This is not to say you did'nt find otherwise, but why imply that the cable itself has oxidised? If this were the case why not replace the cable inside the speakers, or even the amplifier? While were at it, remove every single item from the PCB and re-solder them!
There was a thread recently regarding differances between NAC32's and NAC62's in which Naim themselves admitted these amps could sound differant to each other due to differing suppliers of PCB's. I dont know if Naim have more than one supply of cable, but even if they dont, the cable manufacturer most certainly have more than one source of raw materials.
Every item Naim make is built to a tollerance limit. It is quite concevable that you bought a 'Friday afternoon' set of cables all those years ago, perhaps a few impurities in the copper, contamination in the sheathing, slightly differant plating on one of the plugs and even a dry solder joint thrown in for good measure. The gods have now provided you with as near perfect a pair of speaker cables as modern production meathods allow.
I think it more likley this is what you heard given the huge leap in sound quality. If the cables had degraded that much in 10 years, what would your system have sounded like another decade from now? Or perhaps the've always sounded that bad and you've only just noticed. Note smiley this time please!!
Some time ago my Naim dealer related a story to me, ( a very well respected figure, held in high regard on this forum ). It was sugested that he replace the plugs ( on a six pack, alot of plugs! ) as after time oxidation occurs and degrades the sound, this he duly did. The result? Shorter speaker leads, a lot fewer plugs in stock and no difference whatsoever.
This is not to say you did'nt find otherwise, but why imply that the cable itself has oxidised? If this were the case why not replace the cable inside the speakers, or even the amplifier? While were at it, remove every single item from the PCB and re-solder them!
There was a thread recently regarding differances between NAC32's and NAC62's in which Naim themselves admitted these amps could sound differant to each other due to differing suppliers of PCB's. I dont know if Naim have more than one supply of cable, but even if they dont, the cable manufacturer most certainly have more than one source of raw materials.
Every item Naim make is built to a tollerance limit. It is quite concevable that you bought a 'Friday afternoon' set of cables all those years ago, perhaps a few impurities in the copper, contamination in the sheathing, slightly differant plating on one of the plugs and even a dry solder joint thrown in for good measure. The gods have now provided you with as near perfect a pair of speaker cables as modern production meathods allow.
I think it more likley this is what you heard given the huge leap in sound quality. If the cables had degraded that much in 10 years, what would your system have sounded like another decade from now? Or perhaps the've always sounded that bad and you've only just noticed.
Note smiley this time please!!Trickytree / Dave
You may well be right... but from what my ears tell me, the new stuff really does sound better.
Simplest thing to do is pop down to your trusty dealer and ask for a new pair on loan.
Regards
Mike
( PS my profile does state "curmudgeon", remember?
On the Yellow Brick Road and happy
You may well be right... but from what my ears tell me, the new stuff really does sound better.
Simplest thing to do is pop down to your trusty dealer and ask for a new pair on loan.
Regards
Mike
( PS my profile does state "curmudgeon", remember?
On the Yellow Brick Road and happy
Mike,
Of course there's always the (outside) possibility, that after the new cables are fully burned-in, in say 3 months time, they may sound just like your old ones
David
Of course there's always the (outside) possibility, that after the new cables are fully burned-in, in say 3 months time, they may sound just like your old ones
David