Newbie advice on Speaker Cable

Posted by: Paulp on 03 February 2004

Hi everyone

Over the past 6 months I have replaced an old system with a Naim based one consisting of a secondhand CD5, a new Nait 5i and a pair of Linn Kans MkII. This has been to a great extent influenced by this discussion board and the pink fish media one, supplemented by some auditions (but limited as the CD and speakers were secondhand and the items were purchased separately). The result is sometimes impressive, but very dependent on the quality of mastering, some CDs are amazing, but many are not. I suppose that is characteristic of this type of system.

I also notice with the Kans they tend to distort quite easily depending on the track being played, this happens if there are certain low frequencies present and the volume is only moderate. (By moderate I mean 11 o'clock on the dial, actually could be quite loud by some people's standards)

However I am as yet still using inexpensive speaker cable from my old system. I have read that the Nait 5i is meant to be less fussy (than other Naim amps) but should I go for NACA5 cable? Is there a minimum recommended cable length for this amplifier?

Thanks for any thoughts/words of wisdom...

Posted on: 03 February 2004 by joe90

Hi there

What a great-sounding system you have.
The new Nait5i I'm told can tolerate speaker cable other than Naim NACA5, which other Naim amps can't do.
Why bother mucking round though? NACA5 is cheap and great-sounding.

However if you really want to make it hard on yourself and your wallet, experiment!

Joe90

Posted on: 03 February 2004 by Paulp

Joe

Thanks I will get NACA5, maybe it will improve the weaknesses. Any suggestion on a minimum cable length (I need about 2 metres is that to short)?

Posted on: 03 February 2004 by seagull

The usual recommended minimum is 3.5 metres each side.

I'm sure a quick email to Naim wil get you the definitive answer

Posted on: 03 February 2004 by Carl Leermakers

In my recollection it is 3.5 meters minimum and 20 meters max (better check the manual on the main web site to be sure though...)

Posted on: 03 February 2004 by syd

It used to be 3.5 mtrs minimum with the old amps but does anybody know if this now applies to the Nait5i?

Yours in Music

Syd

Posted on: 04 February 2004 by Paulp

Thanks,

Naim have advised me the ideal for the Nait 5i is NACA5, length 5m.

They also suggest the Linn Kans cannot always cope as small loudspeakers when fed with full bandwidth signals, hence the 'distortion' on certain music.