Don't fold your Super Lumina speaker leads!

Just looked in the booklet that came with my latest SL cables, a pair of XLRs.  Yes, the advice is clear.  I've taken a quick photo of the page, reproduced below. The bit about the speaker cables is in the bottom bullet on the left. Hope it's legible.

Mike

I also found running the Left and Right SL cables close and parallel to each other to not be good.
Separate them a bit and try not to run them parallel and you should find they sound clearer.

DB.

Thanks MDS, the text is legible and refers to coiling, not looping. Will give it a try later nonetheless.

Apologies for being a wee bit thick here but when it says “…is best run initially away from the speaker to use the spare length” does that mean that the result is that the ‘spare’ length, whilst not being ‘coiled’, is close to the speaker or close to the amp?

Even though I am not a SL owner I am intrigued.

Richard

Ah - I've now done exactly what Naim recommend. Because my cables were ex dem I still don't have the box or instructions. My amp is to the right of the right speaker, so I need more wire to reach the left speaker. The cable for the right speaker initially goes to the right and then turns back towards the speaker. That means there is no coiling or looping, just one 180 degree bend. 

Coiling was never a good idea with NACA5, or other speaker cable AFAIK because it creates an induction loop. I ran mine the way suggested. I heard the effect of having the SL cables over the Powerlines and against Burndies the other week when the cleaner disrupted my cable arrangement with the Hoover so I can imagine the effect HH describes.

I think rather than coiling, spare cable has been gathered together into a series of loops in a figure-of-eight, secured with a nylon tie. That avoids the creation of an induction loop but I suppose Naim's advice on the SL pamphlet would imply that completely free is still sonically better.  Will try that myself when I get a free moment.

Mike 

While mine was never coiled, it was certainly looped, and is now not looped. One great thing about having 'just' a Superuniti was that it was not tweaky, unlike when I had a 552 based system, where every little adjustment was audible. I guess the 272/250 sits between the two so is therefore semi tweaky, and the high resolution cables seem to add another level of variability. It does sound very good though, and as the latest improvement was free I really mustn't complain. 

FangfossFlyer posted:

I am just intrigued and slightly amused as it may be that with NACA5 the 'wisdom' is that concertina is the way to go but with SL it may not be?

Funny old game this Hi-Fi.

As for me, I am still running with NACA5 and I don't think it will be in Santa's sack.

Richard

i found that the same advice as for SL also applies to the NACA5 that i am still sulmming with... so i run the right speaker cables towwards the left speaker and then turn them back 180 degrees to connect to the right speaker. this made a positive difference when i did it sometime ago when i decided i didnt like the concertina method...

enjoy, and yes, funny old game...

ken

No doubt the best way is to snake speaker cables randomly across the floor of the listening room, supported on polystyrene blocks or suspended from miniature gantries.

But if you have a wife or a cleaner involved in your life, consideration to some sort of compromise might be required..............?

ken c posted:

FangfossFlyer posted:

I am just intrigued and slightly amused as it may be that with NACA5 the 'wisdom' is that concertina is the way to go but with SL it may not be?

Funny old game this Hi-Fi.

As for me, I am still running with NACA5 and I don't think it will be in Santa's sack.

Richard

i found that the same advice as for SL also applies to the NACA5 that i am still sulmming with... so i run the right speaker cables towwards the left speaker and then turn them back 180 degrees to connect to the right speaker. this made a positive difference when i did it sometime ago when i decided i didnt like the concertina method...

enjoy, and yes, funny old game...

ken

Yep, that's what I do.

Don Atkinson posted:

Yep, that's what I do.

removing the concertina made the NACA5 sound like the  SL -- so potentially saving myself a LOT of money... 

Yeah, right...

enjoy

ken

Just freed up the SL cable to my left hand speaker.  The cable wasn't coiled as such but looped and loosely tied into figure-of-eights.  I've cut the ties and spread out the cable under the brawn and brain racks.  I'm only on Day Six of running in my new 300DR so my ears are still getting used to that upgrade which means I'm not as sensitive to picking up differences as normal. Nonetheless, I'm hearing an improvement. Not massive but it's there.  Placement of vocalists more accurately centred in the sound-stage, sound seems more relaxed and airy, and the bass rolls along with more 'bounce', if that makes any sense at all.

Thanks, to HH for the tip.

Mike

Excellent - a little Christmas present for a fellow Pompey supporter. 

My birthday today got a Pompey shirt :-)

Dan43 posted:

My birthday today got a Pompey shirt :-)

Well, goodness me, Dan43. My birthday today too!  Here's hoping for 3 points at Orient on Boxing day.

Mike

Hungryhalibut posted:

Excellent - a little Christmas present for a fellow Pompey supporter. 

Blimey back MDS, there are more Xmas Eve birthdays than you think....

Had a bit of a Birthday boozy lunch so enjoying afternoon now, must keep going. Probably purchase some more hifi while a little tipsy just before midnight, probably some SL cables..... ;-)

Nigel's thread having whetted my cable tweaking juices, I just spend a few minutes easing one of my runs of my SL speaker cable a few mm away from the skirting board. Flippin' 'eck!

The other run is inboard of the one adjacent to the wall, and as DB has commented; getting at least a cm or two of separation between the two runs seems to be beneficial.

My cables lie on carpet and I'm inclined to think that for those of you who have SL cable laying on a hard-wood floor, some sort of decoupling might pay sonic dividends.

John.

I saw HHs thread and thought how great that HH has got such a nice free upgrade.

Didnt think anything more of it at the time.

Then I got thinking yesterday 'could that be why I've been thinking my right speaker (speaker nearest the system) has been sounding a bit light this last few weeks?'.

I have some bookshelves to the right of the right speaker under which I had concertina'd the right speaker cable, maybe a little too tightly, not sure, but I didnt really read the instructions that came in the box properly (thanks for posting them MDS!).

So I set about following the instructions properly this time.

Bingo! Same album, right speaker now with similar detail to the left speaker. Very surprised it made this difference, but thanks HH for posting some food for thought this Christmas time!

Maybe it is psychological, but im pretty sure this change wasn't. I'm amazed to find it so sensitive to how it is laid out (unlike my previous NAC A5 which never changed the sound however I seemed to lay it), but reading JN's and others posts, I'm now going to have a try at some other cable tweakery to see if I can make any more gains.

As they sometimes say on football punditry, 'it's a funny old game'!

Hi Chris. How funny - your right hand cable was bunched up too! I'm so pleased it's worked for you, and isn't it great to get even more from something that has already made a huge difference. 

Couldn't quite believe it HH, didn't even think it could possibly be anything I'd done....until I unconcertina'd the cable, led it past the right speaker and fed it back to the speaker in a big loop underneath the DVD/video cabinet that is positioned between the speakers 

Happy Boxing Day!

And all this with our simple systems, which clearly are sufficiently good to reveal the impact. Who would have thought it? Milt Jackson and John Coltrane are playing, and the sound is indescribably good. These Super Lumina cables are amazing things. 

Thanks HH. This works for left handed coiled up SL as well! My left hand speaker SL cable was loosely coiled up under the rack. On the bottom shelf is the 555ps for the CD player. So this was possibly impacting the sound as well as the placement of the cable. Moved the cable out and pulled the plugs out of the amp a fraction. Wow. It's as you say clearer. It's good to see that Naim now have a manual for the cables. 

A peaceful and musical New Year to everyone.

Excellent - now we know there is no right or left bias!!