A flexible NACA5 ?

Have a look at Tellurium Q Black. It's thin and bendy but unfortunately does not sound exactly like NACA5. That is because it sounds much better.

Linn K20 is a floppy NACA5 look-alike - & at £5/m its an absolute bargain !!!!

Yes indeed, I use K4 and A5. On my systems the differences are in the hf, A4 sounds 'softer' and is better for modern pop and lower level listening, my 'night-time' cable. A5 is for my 'excitement' system. Not exactly the same sound but if I told you it did, you wouldn't believe me anyway, this being a hifi forum 

+1 for the TQ, well worth a try.

+1 - I previously suggested Linn K20 as an A5 look-alike,  but I use Odyssey & can confirm its very well behaved, it has a strange inert feel with no spring or stiffness, but yes it really does bend easily & it really does stay bent.

SQ is pretty good as well

I used Van den Hul d352 for a long time.

I later found that seperating the conductors improved on their performance considerably.

Very neutral and dynamic with great performance across the board

Regards

Chord Odyssey is good, but distinctly different from NACA5 to my ears. A softer and more refined presentation, but without the visceral connection of NACA5. Bottom line is that you're not going to find a flexible cable substitute that sounds exactly like NACA5. If one existed, you'd be reading about it on this forum. Your choices are to go with NACA5 and work with its stiffness, or find a more flexible cable with a similar, yet ultimately different sound.

I agree.  Odyssey initially comes across as a little more sophisticated than fresh NACA5.  It's softer, a bit sweeter, superficially more refined.  However, as Joe says, it loses a fair chunk of the visceral impact you get with NACA5, and it's here that just about all the alternatives suffer in comparison.  

Hi, just a couple of questions. If replacing a NACA% with the Tellurium Q Black, did you find any amount of increase in bass depth and extension?

Also there is one online retailer for Tellurium Q Black offering 'Nordost Vidar' machine cable burn-in. Has anyone had this done for their cable deliveries and how can you tell if its worth the bother?

Is there anything that can be done to make A5 a bit more pliable?  A couple of years ago I replaced a 20 year old set of A5 cables with a brand new one.  (Because I needed a longer run.)  I noticed at the time that the new pair seemed much stiffer than the old pair.  Had the old pair got more flexible in use over time?  (I don't know the answer because I can't remember exactly what they were like when they were new.  They've always been a stiffish cable.)

Your 20 year old Naim cables probably weren't NACA5, more like their much more flexible forerunner NACA4.  This was a BICC made cable.  It was mean't be a Naim exclusive but a whole raft of others also used it (and some still do, such as Linn's K20).  Naim's founder, Julian Vereker, is on record stating that the resulting damages award helped pay for Naim to develop something rather better (albeit stiffer), and that turned out to be NACA5

From memory, A5 was introduced around 1985. 

I have a really old pair of NACA5 cables that came with a NAP140 I bought.  If anything they were just as stiff, if not even stiffer than a new set.  Then again, different coloured jacket, so....

p.s. Nigel, it was 1989 although some dealers were still supplying A4 for some years afterwards if they had reels of it in stock.

I too liked Odyssey2 at first, but then realized that something was missing.

I bought that SuperLumina stuff . . . which made a considerable impact on my credit card statement.  But hey, it's nice and flexible!

I'm sure one of the credit cards here in the UK used to be marketed as, 'Your flexible friend'.   :-)

What was the outcome of the long-awaited S400 home dem, Bart?

Chris

Hi, I found the bass did not sound louder/go lower but was tighter and more controlled. My cable was 2nd hand but the jumpers were new and had the burn in process. They did still take a few days to give their best. I thought when I bought them if I didn't like them I'd go back to the A5 which I still have. I am happy.

Hi Chris -- and thanks for asking.  I demo'ed the S400's at the dealers shop on a SuperUniti.  I didn't hear anything compelling enough to bring them home for a home dem.  I have listened to quite a bit in that room, including my own speakers, so I know the room well. 

I thought that they did vocals/midrange exceedingly well, and imaged really well . . . but not better than my Devore Fidelity The Nines.  Probably 'as good,' but not significantly better.  And I thought that the bass was missing a bit of something.  I listened to material I know very well, and on a couple of tracks thought a little too much was missing.  Given the cost that would be involved, I just didn't feel that further audition, in my own room, was warranted.   My room is very different than the very controlled room at the dealer, but again, I just wasn't motivated to contemplate spending the money when the initial listen didn't 'blow me away' so to speak.

You need to try some SL2s, they'll show those young whippersnapper upstart Ovators a thing or two. Any company that makes speakers called Gibbons has got to be good. 

I use Linn K20 and have done for years.  Finally had a kind loan of some NACA5 over the weekend on the end of my 135s.  I thought that the new cable robbed much of the excitement.  So I'm happy to be using the old Linn.

Interesting.. I had K20 and Naca5 at the same time - don't remember system context - and I thought the Linn cable sounded wooly as wet socks by comparison.

 I rate the Naca very highly for all the important musical attributes it brings but hate the construction. Taut is a good way to describe how it sounds IMO. Taut as in absence of flab..

thanks for all responses but I'm no further forward

Yeah you are. You're not going to find some heralded more 'bendy' substitute cable possessing the sound qualities of NACA5.

Yeah Joe, guess I'm stuck in unbendy land for rest of my natural..

its a BITCH if you're dragging Shahnians around the room though 

first world problem