NACA 5 terminations
Posted by: Loki on 22 October 2015
My ten week old NACA 5 is not sounding as good as the old stuff. Both have Naim connectors at the NAP end but the new stuff has gold Chord banana plugs at the speaker end as opposed to old single Naim connectors. Should I get the Chord plugs changed?
Loki, I think it is well worth trying. You may as well, as my new NACA 5 sounds just as good as my old 1990 A5 both of which have Naim standard speaker plugs. I think the extra coatings on the Chord do not do any favours with Naim gear.
If you believe the sound is not as as good then I would look at the quality of the solder termination first. I would doubt very much that another make of banana would make such a difference.
However it is a recognised as good practice to have the banana pins in the same material as the banana sockets. Naim plugs with the nickel plate at the amp and if your speakers have gold plated terminals, then gold plated banana pins are correct.
I have such a configuration using Naim at the amp & Deltron at the speakers - Chord pins are Deltron
Loki, I'm with Mike.
I realise you're the flashest resident of Valhalla and have to keep up appearances to keep us mortals in our place, but not everything has to be gold!
Indeed Huge, gold is a commodity I can afford! Looks good on the old helmet methinks! The late edition keilidhs did have gold plated sockets, so I guess the Chords are fine. It's just that the old (now too short) NACA 5 had plain and simple nickel terminations and a much smoother, fuller sound. Currently it's harsh and thin. When I first had the cable home I thought they'd somehow terminated the cables out of phase! I shall ask about which solder they use. I have a very high silver content solder at home, although I am not the best with an iron. I leave that sort of thing to Thor.
Loki, Good luck with the cables.
However it may be wise to lie low for a bit, if he's in a bit of a mood, Þor may want a word about how you spelt his name. But then with a bit of smoothing his ego about the quality of his work, he may do the cables for you and forgive you!
He's not heavy, he's my brother! Coukdn't confuse lesser mortals than yourself with an alternative alphabet. I'm sure he'll understand.