What speaker cable are you using?

Bog standard NACA5.  No desire to change.

The concensus will be Naca 5 or Superlumina but I use Chord Oydessy.

Recently had to go with a longer run due to living room remodel. Speakers (Rega RX3) went from being 3 feet apart to 11 - much better soundstage! Anyway, my 3.5 meters of NACA5 with my NAP 110 wasn’t going to cut it. My local dealer had 7m of used Chord Rumor 2 for $160 - wouldn’t have been my first choice but for the price and immediate availability. One side just makes it (around a set of French doors and behind a large painting) and the other is all coiled up as the speaker is right next to the rack. Anyway, long story short I’m more than happy with the sound (though not quite as “forceful” as the NACA) and the NACA5 went to the office system. I think the longer length really makes a difference no matter the cable, so something you may want to consider, though not sure on more modern gear like the Uniti if that still applies. 

Townsend Isolda is a good example of what not to use with Naim.     Naim amps need a high'ish inductance cable to give stability to the output stages,  thats why they recommend a minimum length of 3.5m per channel.   What this is really saying is they need 3.5uH per channel & with NACA5 at 1uH/m, the math is simple.

Townsend Isolda has an inductance of 0.002uH/m.  

The amp output stage inductance load is to counter the adverse effects of capacitive reactance,  so ideally the cable should also have a low capacitance.  NACA5 with a capacitance of 16pF/m is very low.

Townsend Isolda has a capacitance of 3100pF/m

DNM Resolution - very similar electrical characteristic to Naim's own cable.

An interesting oddity in the whole of the Cable Discussion: when some 'fancy' cable is mentioned, there's always someone who knows, and is ready to specify, the needs of a Naim amp (BTW, I am sure that these needs were mandatory in the 80/90s, but slowly became restricted to some power amps and then to the costlier ones starting from when the SN and the first Unitis appeared, and now type and length are not strict requisites anymore – I would even go so far as to say that if a Naim amp does no more 'bump' on turning on, it doesn't pose any particular restriction about cables) and to quote the exact parameters of the NAC A as opposed to those of the competitor; but when it's about Chord, anything goes – when it should be a fact for anyone with elementary knowledge of electronics that the NAC A5 works as it works in large part due to its geometry and section – and that no Chord has a similar geometry and nobody knows about its electrical values.

So, nobody has ever questioned Chord or SuperLumina, whose electrical parameters are not only much less known and taken into consideration, but which have a very different geometry from the NAC A5. The Van den Hul Clearwater has almost identical electrical specs to the NAC A5, but is never mentioned; any Chord is electrically unknown and is frequently recommended. I am sure that the OP's Townsend Isolda might make his Uniti2 sound mildly different from what Naim had in mind, but will never blow it. In turn, NAC A5 has an evident touch of roughness in the upper treble and not the deepest soundstage available, yet is considered the best possible choice, basing on amp's parameters that were valid 40 years ago.

Moderated Post:  Max, I've had to edit and remove reference to a particular manufacturer who has told Naim that they want neither their name nor their products mentioned on this forum.

The consensus apart from Naim's own cable is:

Chord Co. Various

Tellurium Q Black

Linn K20/Cable Talk eqvivalents

Witch hat Phantom

Van Damme

Atlas Hyper

Vertere perhaps

amo.

TQB for me. I found it instantly better (more ‘open’) than the naca5 I’d used without question for years.

G

Chord Epic Reference is what I now use - replacing NACA5 that was in use for about 7 years. I changed to it when I purchased my KEF Reference 1 speakers about 18 months ago. I was able to demo the Chord against my actual cables. I felt the Chord was better in terms of making instruments (eg acoustic guitar) sound more realistic - but the A5 was an exciting listen and I could have happily remained with them. The Chord is not ridiculously priced and is well manufactured.

SL.

The Strat (Fender) posted:

The concensus will be Naca 5 or Superlumina but I use Chord Oydessy.

+1

Dave

SL

A5 right now. Got some WH Phantom on order to try. 14m of SL would break the bank!

Rob. 

Has anyone ever tried something like kimber cable? Or some of the other "well respected" cables in the U.S.,I've always stuck with naca 5 and don't really want more options on spending money.

Bell wire - DNM - XLO Signiture -  4 systems 

SL

benjy posted:

Has anyone ever tried something like kimber cable? Or some of the other "well respected" cables in the U.S.,I've always stuck with naca 5 and don't really want more options on spending money.

Do not use Kimber cable on Classic series power amps as the electrical characteristics are completely wrong for Naim amps and it will present an unfair load to the amp.

It's even a bit unwise to use this type of cable on the integrateds and Unitis, even thought they are a lot more tolerant than the Classic power amps Kimber cable is still a step too far.

When I got my Atom last year I was reasonably happy with it at the price point, but it had a display fault and was RMA'd.  At the time all my old Naim gear (Nac 72, Hi-Caps, active SBLs, NAXO 2-4, 2 x NAP 250, oh and that CD player I never really used!)  was in storage along with several runs of NAC A5.  I wanted a cheapish cable until I found the Naim cable and got some Audioquest Type 4 (slightly short runs of 2.5m), and it worked very well with some cheap banana plugs from Amazon.

I then got a demo of Nova vs Atom, and while the latter gave bags more detail I found it overall more shouty and in your face, frankly fatiguing, and this was using my old speakers (Epos ES14s), store's Nova and A5.

We wondered how another cable would sound and they swapped in the Audioquest Type 4 and it convinced me to buy the Nova - suddenly all those female vocals were just sublime, piano notes improved in timbre and clarity.  Overblown bass was suddenly easier to follow.

Now admittedly I've swapped back and forth between A5 and Audioquest Type 4 on the lowly Nova and it's surprising how often it's dependent on the music being played - some stuff is overblown and crass with NAC A5 but sublime with the Audioquest, whereas other material is anaemic in the extreme and needs the NAC A5 to work well.

All this brings home to me is how seemingly small changes in cabling etc can dramatically affect the overall sound, and having been indoctrinated in the 80's by the source first, amplification second, speakers last mantra it now seems like gobbledegook.

Synergy is so important - not only individual components but also source material and cabling dependent.

Hardly practical to swap speaker cables for every album, but not impossible!

As the Nova is limited upgrade wise I'm seriously tempted to do the unconventioanl and try Super Uniti cabling with it as expensive as it is, so are different Naim boxes!

I’m using Crystal Cable Reference speaker cables.  I’ve had no problems with them.  I have a 272 and use Burmester B10 speakers.

Recently switched from NACA5 to Chord Epic. I learned how good NACA5 is, but Epic suits my tastes better.  With “more refined”, you get “more reserved”, however.

7 meter runs of NACA5 currently...3 meter Superlumina ordered.

After 10 years of shotgunned Odyssey 4 I took a punt on 7m NACA5 on eBay and can’t say i’m sorry I did. Less refined, less reserved but I’m not changing back. Supernait1 PMC Gb1

SL on two systems and NACA5 on the Olive system

I've been happily using NACA5 for years however I recently came across a few varieties of Inakustik cable (German) in Akihabara and found myself curious. Construction is similar to Naim but I don't know the specifications. Has anyone tried it?

Replaced 7 meters of NAC A5 with 5 Meters of TQB about 4 years ago .. not looked back, great move.  Though I have to admit that the change was brought about by a house move and there was no way I could work with 7 meters of the "non bendy" stuff in the new room.