What speaker cable are you using?

John Willmott posted:

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.

Hi John

i  noticed in your profile that you are using the Shiit Yggdrasil DAC,probably the first guy I have seen here using one with Naim gear.How do you like it in your setup,and did you compare it to any Chord DACs,or Naim DAC?

NQ:

I was running an NDX into a NAC 282 and started experimenting with outboard DACs for no other reason than the fact I'm retired and this would be an interesting project .. what I thought would be a couple of weeks distraction turned into a rather intense evaluation that lasted a number of months.  Though I have to admit I rather enjoyed every moment of it .. 

The DAC in the V1 I had was no improvement, and the nDAC I borrowed from my dealer (no external PS) was no better either .. both kind of the same presentation .. that exhausted NAIM so I moved on ..

Over the next couple of months I tried MyTech, Marantz, Chord Hugo, Wyred and a number of others before auditioning the Yggdrasil.  I have to admit that when I read the doc set that said "leave it on" I thought this is a perfect synergy with the rest of the NAIM kit.  

I won't go into the reasons why the others I tried didn't fit my ears but the Yggdrasil hit my sweet spot .. the sound is just superb.  In the interim I replaced the 282 with a 252 and to say I'm pleased is an understatement .. 

There's a depth and texture and emotion to the music that I didn't get with any of the other kit I auditioned .. the Yggdrasil was a superb buy.

John.

Thanks John,very good to hear...I owned the original Hugo,sold it to a friend in anticipation of the Hugo 2.Tried it,liked the sound a lot,but hated the connections,next came the Dave,connections were great,sound was superb...but the price,too much.The Yggdrasil has been on my Radar for a while,but I still have not heard one,and most of the reviews I read are stellar,but with non Naim gear,so this is reassuring to hear.Their Vidar amps are supposed to be really good too.

Would Super Lumina be overkill, or not suitable,  on a Nova? I'm currently using NACA5, with Totem speakers.

Thx
Tony

I went from 5m of Nac a5 to 3.5 m of TQB and then back again to Nac a5. I cannot comment on SL I'm sure it is fantastic but it is wildly overpriced IMO. 

Guess I'm an outlier: 5 meters of Auditorium 23 in my LR system, 3 meters in my bedroom system.

Chord Music after using Chord Sarum for a couple of years. Last stop cable and ridiculously good. Before that Naca5 (for 20 years) which is hard to bet performance wise and impossible to beat in a price vs performance test to these ears. 

//Jonas

SL clearly made for Naim

Atlas Hyper 2.0 between a 250dr and PMC Twenty5.23. And Atlas Equator 2.0 between a UQ2 and Qacoustics 3010.

Atlas cables and interconnects don't find much favor on the forum despite Atlas using Naim electronics to test some of their stuff.

Richard,

I'm very sorry for the gaffe: I thought that the vetoing manufacturer was another one, whom I never mention; and that the one I actually mentioned had no relational issue with Naim – otherwise, I would not have made his name. On the other hand, his past and current design are, as can be seen from the post following mine, quoted without problems.

Another veto I must keep count of. What does Naim to these guys to harm their egos to such a degree, other than giving them stuff to build a reputation and a living on..?

M.

Another NAC A5 veteran here too - I listen for the music and NAC A5 for me in a Naim provides just that. Great cable.

Max_B posted:

Richard,

I'm very sorry for the gaffe: I thought that the vetoing manufacturer was another one, whom I never mention; and that the one I actually mentioned had no relational issue with Naim – otherwise, I would not have made his name. On the other hand, his past and current design are, as can be seen from the post following mine, quoted without problems.

Another veto I must keep count of. What does Naim to these guys to harm their egos to such a degree, other than giving them stuff to build a reputation and a living on..?

M.

At the risk of this being a “don’t tell him Pike” moment is there anyway someone could discretely let me and any other members know who this forbidden manufacturer is? 

Richard - perhaps just give a clue....

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.

I recently upgraded from Kimber Monocle-XL to SL. There is definitely a synergy that's hard to explain. On paper the Kimber should perform better (better materials & geometry) but I have been very pleasantly surprised. I have since upgraded a Kimber Select interconnect to SL and haven't looked back.

Kimber does not have superior geometry, just different geometry: in fact with Naim amps the electrical characteristics arising from its geometry are positively detrimental.

S3 posted:

At the risk of this being a “don’t tell him Pike” moment is there anyway someone could discretely let me and any other members know who this forbidden manufacturer is? 

Richard - perhaps just give a clue....

Not fair to ask that of Richard.

However on here you'll occasionally find mention of things like Cuddly Toy power supplies.

Furthermore in this day of digital communication, then in respect of continuous wave ('CW') radio, one does have to ask "What For?".

And after that post, I think my name will also go in the book!  

S3, obviously I can't say, and I don't really wish to add any embarrassment to the party who don't wish to be discussed or mentioned on here.  Furthermore, I don't wish Naim to suddenly find themselves in some escalating dispute over something so silly.

You'll know when your post goes to moderation. 

Huge, that's sailing mighty close to the reef...

The Strat (Fender) posted:

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

 

+1 as The Strat

Cord Oydessy

Nac A5 - 60 metres, Linn k20 - 20 metres, Audioquest Flix 4/14 - 6 metres or so.

TonyR posted:

Would Super Lumina be overkill, or not suitable,  on a Nova? I'm currently using NACA5, with Totem speakers.

Thx
Tony

Well it wouldn't be unsuitable, but whether or not it would be overkill in terms of cost, I guess you would have to decide for yourself. Given that the cost of a Nova + SL cables is going to be similar to the cost of, say, NDX/Supernait or 272/250, I would go for the box upgrade instead. Of course, if you want to stick to a single box system, the only upgrade option you have (other than speakers) is to max out the cables!

antony d posted:

The Strat (Fender) posted:

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

 

+1 as The Strat

Cord Oydessy

+ 2 as The Strat. Chord Odyssey2.

For me, better (more refined, smoother) than NACA05 - especially with regards Classical music, which makes up the majority of my music collection.

However, NACA05 has more excitement (PRaT) which is great for rock music.

S3 posted:

At the risk of this being a “don’t tell him Pike” moment is there anyway someone could discretely let me and any other members know who this forbidden manufacturer is? 

Richard - perhaps just give a clue....

I think you’ll have to compile an alphabetical list of all manufacturers and post here, with a count of how many with each starting letter. Then the moderated post will reveal the starting letter and brands with that letter that it isn’t.

It does seem bizarre not being told the name of he-who-can’t-be-discussed, as how do we know until we happen to name them or one of their products and then get moderated - however I do understand that the reason is because the said party doesn’t want their name mentioned at all.

OK, enough of the speculation please, otherwise this thread is headed for the chop.

Huge posted:

S3 posted:

At the risk of this being a “don’t tell him Pike” moment is there anyway someone could discretely let me and any other members know who this forbidden manufacturer is? 

Richard - perhaps just give a clue....

Not fair to ask that of Richard.

However on here you'll occasionally find mention of things like Cuddly Toy power supplies.

Furthermore in this day of digital communication, then in respect of continuous wave ('CW') radio, one does have to ask "What For?".

And after that post, I think my name will also go in the book!  

Naughty boy. You need to ask for a pardon.

I had Nac A5 for 14 years then moved to Chord after reading on the forum. Currently using Epic Reference. I like this cable because it's fairly neutral and open with good resolution and you can easily hear the difference when comparing or trying new interconnects and mains cables.

That said, Nac A5 is hard to beat, always!

My last post above got temporarily pulled for checking. Can't think why.