Naim NAC A5 shielding

I was totally co-incidentally reading some of your posts on the purchase of the Nap 300 over the weekend. Anyhow ...

Maybe not the kind of reply you expect, but can't you route the Nac A5 under the floor - as much as possible away from the mains? To my understanding, the mains leads are most pollutive and should be avoided.

Shielding for the interconnects looks more important to me since the signal is much weaker.

 I'm not sure if it's as simple as that [@mention:52393371352348534]. You may end up increasing the capacitance of the cables. Just position them correctly and I'm sure all will be fine. 

Do you know you actually need this sort of shielding? I cannot possibly imagine the level of interference for such a measure to be needed.

My advice is: just set your system up and play some music. Don't 'obsess' too much about the equipment. It's just a mere tool to play back the most important thing - the music

Enjoy,

Adam

You may be trying to shield the cables for no gain, and likely appreciable loss.  It's better to go unshielded if you can.

There are thousands of sets of A5 in use around the world working very happily without the use of copper wire, and I'm sure you'll be fine without it. Just arrange your cables sensibly and all will be well. 

In addition to all the excellent advice in the previous posts:  Adding a shield to any cable adds capacitance,  probably more to loose than gain.    If the 'feared' RF & EM pollution is coming from mains power cables,  why not get screened mains cable,  it's much more effective.   That said the twisted cores of normal mains cable does a pretty good job,  & finally the emissions from the very low currents in your audio cables is not really a problem.  

Mike -B beat me too it.

Shielding does little good at LF.
The speaker cables are connected to high current / low impedance points in the amp and hence are less affected by induced currents than are interconnect cables.
The shielding will add capacitance which is counterproductive.
Shielding the mains cable will have no detrimental effect and will achieve more benefit than shielding the speaker cable - if you must shield something shield that!

Shielding of speaker cables would only be of use if RFI is finding its way into the amp via the speaker outputs to cause interference within the amp. Unless you reside very close to a powerful radio frequency transmitter -and I mean radio or TV station, not wifi - then I seriously doubt there would be any issue, for the reasons cited by Huge. Whether shielding would have an adverse effect on sound is harder to predict, but as MikeB points out it would change the capacitance.

Shielded signal (low level) cables is another matter entirely, ditto mains cables as others have said already.

NACA 5 is a wonderfully musical cable as is, as long as the soldering is really good at both ends, I would just hook up and leave well alone.

Thinking/trying of other cables for me was put to bed many years ago when I discovered the veteran NACA 5 speaker cable in my naim system combos. Everything else just falls into place (musically) when this legend of a cable is connected properly.

cheers

I can only acknowledge that. I recently replaced a Linn K20 cable on my AV setup by Nac A5 and it seems the balance is better now. Since my speakers are not fully run in, I'm going to switch back in some weeks and validate.

I hesitate to replace the cables on my Living Room setup, I would need 2x12 meters which is quite costly these days.

Thanks guys. The overwhelming consensus is too leave be then. I agree the NAC A5 cable is very good as is. I'll put my dense mind at rest now. Lol. 

On another note  I do remember my previous equipment picking up a hum, perhaps a good mains cable might shield that. I'm not exactly going to break tha bank but a moderately priced, well shielded cable might remedy that small problem.  

Khan

Khan posted:

On another note  I do remember my previous equipment picking up a hum, perhaps a good mains cable might shield that.

Why not just get the new kit, set it up and take care with cable dressing (mains away from signal / speaker cables) and then if you have problems consider this route. 

Before I got the Nac A5, I was very much afraid for its stiffness. Once the cable was installed, the opposite became clear: its stiffness causes that the cable remains properly positioned from Amp to Speaker.

Bit off-topic, just to praise a unmentioned quality of the cable.

My 2 cents, proper cable dressing is all what you need. Try not to have any cable touching another especially mains with interconnects and speaker wires. Also if you can get your cables off the floor it also helps. I have been optimizing my cable dressing for over a year now and this is my main advice to you.

Ardbeg10y posted:

Before I got the Nac A5, I was very much afraid for its stiffness. Once the cable was installed, the opposite became clear: its stiffness causes that the cable remains properly positioned from Amp to Speaker.

Bit off-topic, just to praise a unmentioned quality of the cable.

When I moved my speakers recently the NAC-A5 stayed in place looking to all intent and purposes like a skinny snake rearing to strike with its two metal fangs out.

Phil

Khan posted:

On another note  I do remember my previous equipment picking up a hum, perhaps a good mains cable might shield that. I'm not exactly going to break tha bank but a moderately priced, well shielded cable might remedy that small problem. 

Please let us know how you get on. I'm personally also interested in mains cables in the price range 100 - 200 USD / GBP / EUR.

I have had mains cables experience before with creek amplification. Although I suspect the difference now will be more apparent as my new setup will be far more revealing. Interesting to read about the cables not touching one another although I can completely understand the reasoning. I remember watching George Cardas do a demo on the effects of cables touching surfaces while conducting a signal. I will report back when I have it all set up. I'm probably looking at a couple weeks for everything to arrive. 

Khan