Listening undressed

Hi Richard.

You might want to check out the unofficial NAIM Cables FAQ for their view on this black art. This is what they had to say about cable dressing:

quote:

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You should take reasonable care keep leads with AC power - for example the mains supply leads away from signal cables such as interconnects and speaker cables. In particular you should avoid parallel runs of AC and signal cables.

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Cheers, J

Using shielded mains cables may help?

...is mainly for keeping RF out of the mains - not necessarily for reducing whatever effects the mains cable would have on signal-carrying cables (Yes?).

Besides, surely you wouldn't want to bear the burden of the whipping post for switching out the stock Naim leads

- GregB

Insert Witty Signature Line Here

[This message was edited by Greg Beatty on TUESDAY 08 July 2003 at 18:27.]

Greg
Keeping out or keeping in?
Am I going to go straight to hell for changing my mains leads?
Paul

"Keeping out or going in?"

Um...mains leads can pick up Radio Frequency (RF) signals and this can muck up the quality of the juice to your hi-fi, or so the story goes. Hence Ferrite Rings and other such things on leads to block RF.

I don't know what effect mains leads have on a signal passing in a nearby signal lead (say, from your CD player to your preamp) - this may not be RF-based. So...the shielding would protect the mains from RF, but NOT stop whatever it is that mucks up signal in a nearby cable.

BTW, I DON'T CLAIM TO KNOW THIS - just speculating.

"Am I going to go straight to hell for changing my mains leads?"

Oh yes, Son of Satan.

- GregB

Insert Witty Signature Line Here

I guess this can only be taken so seriously when you consider the snaic carries power and signal in the same cable all paralel and together like.

Hi Folks,

My two pence on the cable dressing thing:

The snaic from a Naim power supply carries regulated DC voltage - yes this is power but it is held pretty much constant. Interference won't occur under these conditions because to induce a current in another conductor you need to have a constantly varying voltage. Such variation causes an electromagnetic field around the conductor to grow and shrink. When this changing field passes through other wires, it wants to shift electrons in those wires i.e. induce a current to flow.

Mains cables carry 50Hz alternating current, so they *will* affect nearby wires. So its recommended to keep signal leads away from mains leads as far as is practical.

The advice about not running in parallel is sound, too. The field around a (straight) mains cable expands and collapses in a cylindrical shape. So if you have to go near it with a signal cable, it makes sense to reduce the amount of the cylinder the signal carrier passes through - i.e. cross at right angles.

Just because the huge mess of wires was getting me down I built some hinged arms which screw to my wall behind my system - I cable tied the mains to the arms which lie flat and horizontal against the wall, about 10 inches behind each piece of equipment. The signal cables run up and down and are tethered to the back of the rack. No part of the signal cable is closer than about 8 inches to any power and all crossing are at right angles.

If only to justify the time and slight cost of this arrangement(£18), I'm going to claim that the difference it makes is HUGE!!

Seriously, though, I think this did improve matters (to my ears) - and its certainly a huge amount tidier behind the system now.

Cheers!

Richard.

Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have. Be careful how you spend it lest others spend it for you.

Thanks for the advice
My cable tailor awaits.
Regards Richard

Cable Dressing

Richard, as so positively attested to by Naim That Tune (another Richard?) I would refer you to Peter Chappell's posts - he's since disappeared from the forum for some time(probably too busy cable dressing and tuning...), but I do regard him as a master tweaker : his posts on cable dressing make for an exceptionally informative read. More importantly, they work.

The differences are not exactly what I would deem profound, but it was more than enough to justify the effort. Set up is a key component to how our systems sound, as much as the quality of the individual components themselves.

Good listening; the music's groovin' frightfully more.

Regards

Philip

naimniac for life

quote:

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Originally posted by NAIMGAIM:


I've found that my system is far more in "tune" with my pants off

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Me too, you get closer to the music somehow, it gets under your skin....