NACA5 - Bending

You can bend it to a right angle - I have done so in my own system with no appreciable issues.

This is where the cable’s inherent stiffness becomes an advantage. You bend it into a right angle to fit in the corner or round a fireplace, and it stays put. 

Many thanks, now off to find a hair dryer 

???? Richard,...Interesting..Ehternet and other cables you should have a little rounder bending on,good to know about Naca5.
Thanks for the information ????????.

/Peder???? 

I don’t use A5 but am planning on getting some, is it the outer insulation or the copper that makes it so stiff? I’ve never actually seen it in the flesh 

A bit of both really.  Bell wire it aint!

I remember about 15 yrs ago resoldering mine, without a jig, the copper wire pretty much scratched and pricked my fingers and left them sore from all the holding, twisting.

Therafter always left it to a dealer, recall watching Laurie at Rayleigh HiFi soldering a set I bought, had a little jig which held left and right to ensure direct polarity, as easy to mess that up.

Bottom line is NACA5 is a beast and all I have ever used with Naim.

I bent mine a full 180 degrees with a radius of about 2 inches. Didn't need the hair dryer to do it. It works just as good as if it was straight. Its ability to bend is an advantage over other cables. 

I had no choice to bend it that way. My equipment rack is to the left. I had to extend it to the right, then bend it back over to plug the left speaker. I had no room to coil it up like suggested. 

It's a stiff adversary the old nac a5, but as said once it's 'persueded' into position it stays put pretty well.  It's hard to get it to sit flat on the floor if it's been bent our of shape so requires some tweaking to get it right.  You can use cable ties to keep it in position under your rack too if neccessary, using the concertina effect.

Richard Dane posted:

You can bend it to a right angle - I have done so in my own system with no appreciable issues.

Forgot to report back, but this worked a treat, I only remembered as I spotted earlier I left two small blocks to keep the NACA5 bent, removed them and perfect dressing now ????

Good to hear. 

If cryo treatment affects the SQ, as some believe, what does heating the cable (e.g. with the aforementioned hairdryer) do? (apart from make it easier to bend, of course!)

Well my naca5 goes under the fireplace along with Ethernet and Toslink.....no problems. And yes they are warm, even next day with the fire not lit.

And at a molecular level?

Does it make sense to try A5 with new unitis?

Naim standard cables are hard to beat wether speaker or interconnects without paying a small fortune.

Olek_K posted:

Does it make sense to try A5 with new unitis?

Yes - I use A5 with my Nova and it sounds fine.