Cables more hype than value?

Zd - thanks for that feedback. I think it just goes to show that one amp in different environments can sound very different.

However - I am the first to admit that the NAIM can be very finicky - they seem to work well with their own components/speakers, but when mated with components from other brands they can get more than a little "quirky".

Early on I spent some time "adapting" my components to the NAIM. It's design requires that all sources be properly grounded at their mains lead - so my Cambridge Audio phono stage with its Wal-wart power supply and the Pioneer Elite DVD player with two pin plug presented some challenges to get the best sound out of them - grounding each chassis to a central point seemed to fix many of the problems.

My more recent components, all having a grounded power supplies, seem to be a much better match.

Add to that the many different cables I have tried, i.e. IC's SC's and PC's are crucial to get it to its current level of performance.

So I am not at all surprised at what you experienced.

But once you get it all figured out they can sound very sweet indeed.

One other thing I know is an issue with NAIM is high capacitance speaker cables - they can cause the amp to throw a "wobbler".

Having said that - I found these details on the NAIM web site

NACA5 specifications are as follows:

Capacitance: 16pF per metre
Resistance: 9 milliohms per metre
Inductance: 1uH per metre

Minimum length: 3.5 metres per channel
Maximum length: 20 metres per channel
25 meters can be tolerated

lets take a range of cable length 3.5-20 meters

NAIM amps amp can easily accommodate values in the range of...

Capacitance: 56pF to 320pf per cable
Resistance: 31.5 milliohms to 180 milliohms per cable
Inductance: 3.5uH to 20 uH per cable

In my current listening space my cables are in the 3.5 metre range

- so this affords me fair degree of latitude in that...

- I can actually use cables up to "91pF per metre" without and issue

But the 16pf/meter, which is a bit of a "red herring", seems to be what most people latch on to.

But I did find that Kimber Speaker cables did not perform very well - compared to Van den Hul

Moving on....

From the link I posted it seems that different people have widely varying success with passive and active line stages

I think your observation about good active line stages being expensive, may also apply to good passive line stages also, since sound quality seems to depend on how it is implemented e.g. transformers vs stepped volume controls etc...

It also seems that a good passive line stage can be as expensive as a good active line stage.

One thing for sure - I'm a little wiser now :-)

Many thanks for taking the time to post - it was very enlightening

OK. I read all 13 pages of this thread and there's no consensus as to whether or not cables are more hype than value. So, let me approach this subject from a slightly different perspective. If my current connections are all "stock" wire that came with my components, except for my speaker wire which is minimum length(about 8 feet) 12 gauge copper speaker wire from radio shack terminated with monoprice banana plugs that I installed myself, which connection do you pro-aftermarket cable proponents think is most critical to improved sound quality? Is it the optical cable which gets the digital signal from my music server to my DAC? Or is it the speaker wire? Or is it the wire that provides the power from the wall socket to my amplifier? I have spent many hours improving room acoustics and experimenting with speaker and sub placement and am inclined to believe that these simple steps will do more for (or to) sound quality than any change in wires. Which wire is most important?

Danaroo, as with the original question posed in the thread I doubt that a consensus can be reached concerning your question. One reason for that, IMO, being that the answer will be dependent on the designs of the specific components that are involved, and in ways that don't have much if any predictability. The answer is also likely to often be dependent on the lengths of the various cables in the system.

See my post here for discussion of some of those dependencies.

My post here, earlier in this thread, may also be of interest.

Without knowing anything about your system beyond what is stated in your post above, though, my guess is that what may make the biggest difference would likely be changing the optical cable you mentioned to a coaxial S/PDIF or AES/EBU cable (depending on what your DAC can accept). With the odds being in favor of that difference being for the better, although not necessarily.

Regards,
-- Al

P.S: Apologies for the misspelling of your screen name.

Regards,
-- Al

Mr D- Every cable/wire in your system is important. Between every component; your signal is transferred and there are a plethora of nuances that can be lost and have a profound effect on your presentation. Imagine viewing a very high-def 3D movie, through a number of glass panes. If one of those panes was dirty or otherwise distorted the image: would it matter which one? I fully agree with Almarg about ditching the optical cable. One caveat there: don't buy a digital cable shorter than 1.5M(digital reflections being the demon to avoid there). My last was a Kimber Orchid, which if I were to ever need one again, I'd try to find. An inexpensive starting point would be the more basic Kimber, Analysis Plus or Synergistic Research lines of interconnects & speaker cables, just to see if your system will resolve the differences. The Cable Company can provide good advice(based on your components) and sets, at a nominal rental fee, for your testing/tasting. Found here: (http://www.usedcable.com//default.aspx)