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Alternative speaker cable to Naim NAC A5

R

Rich020370

Active Member
Evening all...

I'm looking for an alternative to the Naim NAC A5 speaker cable. I've moved my hi-fi and no longer have the facility to loop the 4m of cable that I currently have.

Ideally I'm looking for a flexible cable that offers the same sound quality (or better) and can be coiled more easily.

Thank you
 
Quick research and reviews has me thinking: Tellurium Q Black II / Van Den Hul Magnum MkII / Atlas Hyper 3.5.

Any thoughts?
 
I have Witch hat phantoms, excellent cable. You can try it for 30 days with money back if you don’t like them. But give them the full period, as they take a couple of weeks to really settle.
 
I moved from NACA5 to some Sommer 2x4mm cable and it's been excellent. It's very flexible, sounds great, and easy to terminate, this sort of stuff:

https://www.studiospares.com/sommer-meridian-24mm-grey-speaker-cable-per-m_546410.htm

An important part for me was the flexibility, as i wheel my speakers around as they sit in the middle of the room, and I take advantage of casters to push them around, so the cables are moving all the time. I was finding that NACA5 had a way of popping out of the connectors on the bottom of my Shahinians which was a pain as they aren't that accessible.
 
Cesare said:
I think this is relevant as if you aren't using Naim, you don't need the length as that is just a requirement of the early Naim amp designs.
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Yes, that is why I was asking.

Not all brands publish LCR values, however, Atlas does and popping them into Excel returns 5.91m minimum length to meet the loop inductance of Naim's recommended minimum of 3.5m of NACA5 (the latter of which measures 1µH/m, so Naim's recommended minimum L is 3.5µH).

On the other hand, Atlas Hyper 3.5 parallel capacitance is 3.35x higher than that of A5, so the maximum length based upon limiting total capacitance to equal that of 20m of NACA5 is 5.98m.

If we base the maximum length on R rather than C then the maximum length of the Atlas is 36.73m to match the total resistance of 20m A5, however, parallel capacitance is now 6.14x higher at 1966pF/m, dangerously approaching that of Kimber 4TC* which has C at 8.5x that of A5!

* Kimber 8TC trumps all by having C that is 21.63x that of A5. Arguably, Kimber loudspeaker cables shouldn't be used for anything other than weaving dream catchers, general arts & crafts, etc.
 
BTW, VdH doesn't publish inductance, making minimum length for Naim A5 equivalent calculations somewhat less than exact.

Across all of the brands and models that folk have requested be put into the lookup table so far, the average for L is 0.65µH/m, with a maximum of 1.1µH/m. To be on the safer side, it would be prudent to guesstimate lowish here, however, rather than going with the minimum, perhaps average makes better sense, especially so, as the median value is the same in this case. With this in mind, 4m of the VdH should be perfectly fine as minimum length. The mean of all L works out to longer than that, however, the VdH published C and R values, as well the physical construction (ie. massive conductor gauge plus similar to A5 webbed insulation), are likely to give some leeway here.
 
I would try EWA LS25 or LSA 40 if you can push the boat out. Check out the thread and there are trial cables doing the rounds so you can try to see if you like them. IMO these are fantastic and well worth having a trial at least
 
Craig B said:
Yes, that is why I was asking.

Not all brands publish LCR values, however, Atlas does and popping them into Excel returns 5.91m minimum length to meet the loop inductance of Naim's recommended minimum of 3.5m of NACA5 (the latter of which measures 1µH/m, so Naim's recommended minimum L is 3.5µH).

On the other hand, Atlas Hyper 3.5 parallel capacitance is 3.35x higher than that of A5, so the maximum length based upon limiting total capacitance to equal that of 20m of NACA5 is 5.98m.

If we base the maximum length on R rather than C then the maximum length of the Atlas is 36.73m to match the total resistance of 20m A5, however, parallel capacitance is now 6.14x higher at 1966pF/m, dangerously approaching that of Kimber 4TC* which has C at 8.5x that of A5!

* Kimber 8TC trumps all by having C that is 21.63x that of A5. Arguably, Kimber loudspeaker cables shouldn't be used for anything other than weaving dream catchers, general arts & crafts, etc.
Click to expand...

With the sort of cable i'm suggesting (sommer stuff) you'll find it's very flexible, and it's also cheap, so you can buy whatever length you are happy with to ensure you meet the induction requirements, then it's easy to store the spare.

Here's a bit of mine to give you an idea of how easy it is to bend and how small a radius you can achieve:

PXL_20201015_064157590 by Cesare Ferrari, on Flickr

And that's the 4mm stuff. I've used a 4m run of this with NAP135s with no obvious change in character from NACA5, not sure what minimum run you can get away with, but given the cost and flexibility i'd suggest 4m and go from there.
 
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Cesare said:
With the sort of cable i'm suggesting (sommer stuff) you'll find it's very flexible, and it's also cheap, so you can buy whatever length you are happy with to ensure you meet the induction requirements, then it's easy to store the spare.

Here's a bit of mine to give you an idea of how easy it is to bend and how small a radius you can achieve:

PXL_20201015_064157590 by Cesare Ferrari, on Flickr

And that's the 4mm stuff. I've used a 4m run of this with NAP135s with no obvious change in character from NACA5, not sure what minimum run you can get away with, but given the cost and flexibility i'd suggest 4m and go from there.
Click to expand...

Ok it happens to sound good - do you know if the specifications closely match that of A5 too?
 
beammeup said:
Ok it happens to sound good - do you know if the specifications closely match that of A5 too?
Click to expand...

I would expect not, as the design is different (the reduced spacing between the conductors will affect the capacitance for example). The specs for their stuff is on their website, I think the cable I use is this one:

https://shop.sommercable.com/en/Cab...ian-Mobile-SP240-440-0056.html#tab_attributes

Looks to me like the capacitance is much higher than NACA5, but the resistance is lower (half). Can't see inductance, i'd assume it's lower than NACA5 (it's the old high capacitance implies low inductance argument). The higher capacitance would show itself in softer high frequencies, but frankly i'm not sure it will make any difference at short cable runs (mine are 4m I believe).
 
Cesare said:
I would expect not, as the design is different (the reduced spacing between the conductors will affect the capacitance for example). The specs for their stuff is on their website, I think the cable I use is this one:

https://shop.sommercable.com/en/Cab...ian-Mobile-SP240-440-0056.html#tab_attributes

Looks to me like the capacitance is much higher than NACA5, but the resistance is lower (half). Can't see inductance, i'd assume it's lower than NACA5 (it's the old high capacitance implies low inductance argument). The higher capacitance would show itself in softer high frequencies, but frankly i'm not sure it will make any difference at short cable runs (mine are 4m I believe).
Click to expand...

OK thanks for your input .
 
Cav said:
QED 79 strand.
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Excel returns 5.3m minimum length to match the inductance of 3.5m A5.

When I bought my NAIT2, I decided to save a wad by going with 79 Strand. I needed 10m a side and loudspeaker cable is sold by the foot over here in Canada, with A5 being $8/ft plus plugs, plus taxes, back then; so half as much again as the cost of the amp for the opportunity to wrestle with a stiffer knock off of BICC outdoor lighting cable.

My NAIT2 currently has 3.5m lengths of old Exposure cable on, cost me $80 and came with a half-dead NAIT3.
 
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