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Flexible low cost speaker cable for Classic Naim Nait 2?

beammeup

beammeup

pfm Member
I have a classic shoebox Naim Nait 2 Olive that I like the sound of, but the NAC A5 cable that comes with it is not very flexible at all.

Can anyone recommend me a speaker cable - budget preferred - that has the same electrical properties as the NAC 5 (the Naim amps used the speakers cable as part of the amplifiers design) - yet still allow the little Naim to perform at its best? It must be more flexible of course.

It would be somewhat convenient if I could use the same cable for regular amps too (saves me swapping the speaker cables in and out).

I would need 2x 5 metre pair.
 
Naims own early advice is

"two conductors of 2.5 sqmm or 4.0 sqmm single core plain copper multistrand wire lightly twisted together (3 to 4 turns per foot).
They go on to say

12m max for the 2.5 sqmm and 20m max for the 4sqmm.

DO NOT USE ANY OF THE 'HIGH DEFINITION WIRE' FOR ANY REASON.
 
bruss said:
Naims own early advice is

"two conductors of 2.5 sqmm or 4.0 sqmm single core plain copper multistrand wire lightly twisted together (3 to 4 turns per foot).
They go on to say

12m max for the 2.5 sqmm and 20m max for the 4sqmm.

DO NOT USE ANY OF THE 'HIGH DEFINITION WIRE' FOR ANY REASON.
Click to expand...

What does high definition wire mean exactly ??
 
Linn K20 as above.

But A5 is slightly better for PRaT at a ridiculous price these days.
 
beammeup said:
What does high definition wire mean exactly ??
Click to expand...

Linz type cable.
Do a search on the net and you will find the impedance matches recommended by Naim. I won't post those I have as they have varied over the years and you need to find the current (no pun intended) figures. If it helps my Nait2 runs perfectly well for the last almost 40 years on 2.5mm 79 strand ofc. I have also used 4mm non naim ofc on my Nait5i. If you want pre owned nac4 (Nait 2 vintage) then that is available relatively cheap on the usual sites.
 
5 m of 2.5 mm2 is 80 mOhm total
5 m of 1.5 mm2 is 133 mOhm and even more flexible.
You just want a zip wire arrangement to keep the capacitance down.
This would be in series with the Naims own output resistance, giving a bit more of the Naim flavour.
 
beammeup said:
What does high definition wire mean exactly ??
Click to expand...
Back in the day, the description 'high definition speaker cable' generally referred to a woven 'Litz' type construction, where individual conductors were insulated, paralleled with others into small bundles, and then woven together with other such bundles within an outer sleeve. The intention being to reduce any increase in resistance of wire that takes place at high frequencies. The problem with these types is that measured capacitance is very high, causing some amplifiers to oscillate at very high frequencies. In the UK, Monitor Audio were famous (infamous) for selling a cable called 'High Definition Speaker Cable' which was a take on a product called Cobra Cable, available in both round and flat configurations.

BTW, Linn K20 is the most flexible of the electrical specification matching Naim compatible cables. K20 has the exact same spec, but for insulation flexibility, as Naim's earlier NACA4.

Beware the Cobra:
cobracable-close-up.jpg
 
I had a response from Atlas cables that recommend theirs for the vintage Naims - see below (but expensive - at least to me).

Hyper 1.5;

Capacitance/m 74.44pF

5m length: 372.2Pf

Hyper Achromatic Speaker Z 1.5, 5.0m - £320.00 inc vat


Hyper 2.0;

Capacitance/m 73.43pF

5m length: 367.15Pf

Hyper Achromatic Speaker Z 2.0, 5.0m - £430.00 inc vat


Hyper 3.5;

Capacitance/m 53.52pF

5m length: 267.6Pf

Hyper Achromatic Speaker Z 3.5, 5.0m - £560.00 inc vat
 
beammeup said:
I have a classic shoebox Naim Nait 2 Olive that I like the sound of, but the NAC A5 cable that comes with it is not very flexible at all.

Can anyone recommend me a speaker cable - budget preferred - that has the same electrical properties as the NAC 5 (the Naim amps used the speakers cable as part of the amplifiers design) - yet still allow the little Naim to perform at its best? It must be more flexible of course.

It would be somewhat convenient if I could use the same cable for regular amps too (saves me swapping the speaker cables in and out).

I would need 2x 5 metre pair.
Click to expand...
Long before they had their own cable Naim recommended RS 79 strand twisted once per metre.
QED must still make something very similar.
 
I'm using the same twisted copper cable I have used for all my speakers.
A friend, who is a respected amplifier designer, assures me it works perfectly well with my Nait 2.
No doubt some wag will post that we need some cryogenically treated, super-duper cable from the likes of Russ Andrews.
 
Bob McC said:
Nonsense
https://www.audioaffair.co.uk/qed-classic-79-strand-speaker-cable-per-metre
£2 a metre
Or a proprietary 79 strand for 65 p a metre here
https://cpc.farnell.com/pro-power/79-strand-white-100m/79-strand-white-speaker-cable/dp/CBBR0412?mckv=spabk2bZO_dt|pcrid|451507266400|kword||match|b|plid||slid||product||pgrid|76520268445|ptaid|dsa-818647743556|&CMP=KNC-GUK-CPC-KWL&s_kwcid=AL!5616!3!451507266400!b!!network}!!&gclid=CjwKCAjwmeiIBhA6EiwA-uaeFbAwdqrOlrFHADutZgWuzqSQeKtVJDhxMXC39gfIG-QzAjpISHpktxoCw7UQAvD_BwE
Click to expand...
Ah, 'QED', my brain registered 'Chord Co.' for some reason.

Regardless, that isn't the twisted pair configuration that Naim were on about back in the days before NACA4. Their 'SPEAKER CABLES, A SPECIAL NOTE' missive contained the recipes (there were two initially, later changed to one with RS type 357-946 4mm 56/0.3 being recommended within an early Naim manual).

Naim-Audio-Ltd-Speaker-Cables-A-Special-Note.jpg
 
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