What would you pay for cables?

I use Van Damme cabling in my main system. Will never change it.

S.

I wonder how much NAC A5 costs to make and what the dealer price is. Certainly a rip off at full retail when you consider K20 was the same price as Naim cable. The fact that it’s an atrocious sounding cable that is horrible to use is just the icing on the poo cake Oh and LS2 pisses on it too......

BICC?

Around a couple of quid a metre I suspect...

Apart from the ten-times markup price and the people marketing (Naim) and selling it (their dealers), what's actually WRONG with it? I mean, it's 2.5mm good quality copper (nineteen strands each conductor) in a chemically inert (with the copper) insulation. I agree the insulation is a pain to strip and cut the webbing, but I don't think there was a huge amount wrong sonically.

Unless Naim have sole design rights over the materials used, I suspect this cable, like the A4 before it, is derived from something else. I believe the original dumbbell design was for outside string lighting (second hand info this). Levinson? cable was the K20 insulation but hundreds of strands. The k20 cable sounded bland for some reason and the K400 and K600 were cheap 42 and 79 strand in a fancy fugly outer jacket.

New name for NAC A5- The Suicide Line!

I really must get out more

S.

I was totting it up in my head and over the years I reckon I've spent over a grand on various speaker cables and interconnects.


My theory these days is that the better the engineering of the equipment the less these things have any effect. Unless they are designed to be weird of course, which some are.


So I wonder if we should operate on a principle which is the opposite of what is considered gospel: if you can hear differences between interconnects it shows that the kit is not good enough.

A4 aged and sounded 'off' - especially the black variety - after a few years, the copper visibly dulling off. K20 had a better insulation which doesn't react so with the copper, but for some reason after a few years, when we stopped dealing with Linn, the non-Linn amps sounded bland and rather dull - (think typical perception of the Audiolab 8000A in audiophile land). These cables had 42 strands at 2.5mm and similar inductance in the spacing. The A5 had nineteen strands each thicker and still 2.5mm - amazing it sounds so different by and large.

The H07V-R stuff Andrew and I like is still 2.5mm but seven strands this time. I don't find it has a sound at all particularly apart from the fact you get the basics without the filigree details emphasised overmuch - i can deal with that..

I won't start too much about Cable Talk 3.1 and 4.1. Same copper and supplier yet they did seem to sound different. Current Talk 3 looks to be 4.1 without the webbing, but with a small diameter tube between the conductors to maintain a touch of inductance. It looks like a 2.5mm conductor version of the old Cable Talk 'Theatre 2' which was 1.5 or 1.75mm from memory.

I’d pay whatever I thought was reasonable to help me enjoy my music better.

Recently I have spent quite a sum on Coherent cables, but the difference they have made in my system far outweighs the outlay financially from my perspective.

I didn’t what? Confused.

Dave's right, cable differences are largely imaginary. Not completely imaginary, but those big differences you hear disappear when you listen blind, or even when you swap back from your 'upgrade' to the previous cable. Cables are not something I'll ever be spending on again.

I’ve heard significant differences with speaker cables, but I’m less and less convinced of the worth in spending large sums on mains or interconnect. But then I don’t have a system of Paul’s level.

With speaker cable, I haven’t found price to be a good indicator of sound. Cheaper cables have often outperformed expensive ones. Unless you’re using precious metals, I struggle to see the justification for high prices. I’d always DIY now, especially when lots of expensive cables are just bought in large reels and re-badged, but I wouldn’t criticise anyone else for splashing out, whatever does it for you is right.

I had a listen to the Coherent system at the show the other day and it was competent but no more. Which given that the speakers alone were £13K merits a 'Could do better' in my book.

Some of the worst sounds were being made by systems with humungous and clearly very expensive power cables and speaker cables. Not to mention expensive isolation feet under absolutely everything. All very strange.

As always, YMMV.

S.

Should say the best sound I heard (didn't go in every single room) was a Lampizator system with enormous speakers (Diapson).

That system did have every type of foo imaginable deployed including exquisite hand-carved cable lifters and it was very, very good indeed. I have no idea of the price but certainly well into six figures even without the accessories.