Speaker cable under carpet advice needed

I dont know the structure of this cable, however the following points are likely to be relevant:

1) unless the cable has an outer shield, laying side by side could affect the capacitance in particular, how much depending on the design. It is possible that that in turn could have an effect on the sound.

2)Many cables have a minimum bend radius, again depending on their construction. Bending sharper than that could damage the cable and/or affect its performance (a true sharp right angle bend is often inadvisable)

3) IMHO it is unlikely to be necessary to clip the cables to the surface - if the underlay channel is cut mith minimum width there'd be no movement.

however, i would suggest that these queries be directed to Chord, in particular asking re 1) what the effects might me, including numerical assessment for capacitance, and then chek against Naim's max capacitance.

What about the sharp bends of wires inside Naim products?

I used Naca5 in this way for years with no ill effects. I would run the cables a few inches in from the edge, to avoid risks of the fitters damaging them when they stretch the carpet over the grippers. As to bending ground the corners, cut a more gently curved channel to avoid the tight 90 degree bend. There's no need to fix them down - the heavy carpet will keep them in place. 

WTCRP posted:

What about the sharp bends of wires inside Naim products?

The issue with bends in wires is a combination of factors, including:

• stresses on the conductor(s) itself - the outside of the bend is stretched, and with thick conductors can result in cracking or other defects (permanent damage)
• stresses to any insulation, in particular the outside of the bend stretched and accordingly made thinner or can crack, reducing insulation effectiveness.
• with multiple insulated conductors their distance from each other can be affected, in particular it can force them closer together, altering their interaction.

I dont know what wires you are  particularly thinking of, being unfamiliar with the inside of Naim amps, but usually manufacturers are careful not to bend more than the acceptable radius, and im sure That would apply to Naim. Often wires are single conductor, and not in contact with others, so some of the effects of tight bends dont apply.

I do this with my Nac A5 & a cable from my Blu-ray player to the Naim pre, with no problems, the cables do not need fixing down & if done with care can’t be seen.

As HH says, avoid the grippers & tight bends.

It is not a once only thing either, I have spoken to my carpet fitter & if I needed to change a cable he assures me that he could lift the carpet & replace without spoiling the look.

Innocent Bystander posted:

WTCRP posted:

What about the sharp bends of wires inside Naim products?

The issue with bends in wires is a combination of factors, including:

• stresses on the conductor(s) itself - the outside of the bend is stretched, and with thick conductors can result in cracking or other defects (permanent damage)
• stresses to any insulation, in particular the outside of the bend stretched and accordingly made thinner or can crack, reducing insulation effectiveness.
• with multiple insulated conductors their distance from each other can be affected, in particular it can force them closer together, altering their interaction.

I dont know what wires you are  particularly thinking of, being unfamiliar with the inside of Naim amps, but usually manufacturers are careful not to bend more than the acceptable radius, and im sure That would apply to Naim. Often wires are single conductor, and not in contact with others, so some of the effects of tight bends dont apply.

Its actually easy to refit carpets yorself - you can buy 'kickers' and the tool to push doen the edge by the skirting from DIY shops, though possibly  best done one edge at a time - and if you cant make it work you can still call in a fitter. An

theres a benefit of this, whether or not DIY, in that your carpets can be restreiched at the same time. An advantage of DIY tool is you can redo any time, and other rooms.

Try looking at the Install version of the Chord Odyssey2 it is much more flexible and is intended for just the task you have here. I have used the Rumour install but ran the cable between the gripper and the skirting board to avoid mutilating the underlay.

I had a new house built six years ago and the carpet fitters cut a channel in the underlay about one foot from the edge and gripper rails and went round a right angle with a very gentle curve to fit my NACA5 between my 500 amp and NBLs. I clearly labelled each end of the cables Amp End and Speaker End to ensure the correct directionality. You could not see any sign of the leads once the carpet was down and it did not seem to impact on the sound quality having the cables side by side (but not touching)  and under the carpet. A few months ago my dealer and I  were able to lift that edge of the carpet and extract the A5 and replace it with Super Lumina Speaker cable using the same channel. The carpet went back down as good as new after I used a tool to push the edges down against the skirting board. Hope that helps.

When I had my listening room upstairs I did the same as Michael with no problems. In the past, in another house, I actually tacked down the NACA4 to the floor but subsequently found this wasn't necessary. I too found no real change in SQ but this was with lower spec systems compared to what I now have. I'm not sure I would use this method now as I do notice a difference in SQ when the cable lies on the carpet instead of being suspended on foam rings. 

I would think it inadvisable for the speaker cable to be "near" any ferro-magnetic metal.  So, if you were to fasten it at any point, use stainless, copper or brass.  And don't go too close to the gripper.

IMO the length and amount of metal in each pin of a gripper or the tacks holding it, or in the nails of cable clips if those are used, is unlikely to have any detectable inductive interference whatsoever with the signal in the speaker cable, nor will the current in the cable induce any signal of any consequence whatsoever in the said pins etc, even if the cable lies alongside the gripper (this based on grippers being wooden with individual protruding spikes).

Low level interconnects shouldnt be routed alongside the speaker cables, though i dont think that was anticipated by the OP.