Naim Super Lumina Speaker Cables 5mt pair, 4mm to 4mm bananas

Very good condition Naim Super Lumina 5mt pair speaker cables, 4mm to 4mm banana connectors.

UK RRP £3495

“Many of Naim Audio’s core buyers have an ‘interesting’ relationship with cable. Their loudspeaker cable of choice for the last quarter of a century or so is Naim’s NAC A5; this is the perfect example of a ‘do just one thing well’ design, in that it has excellent ‘musicality’ (a combination of timbral properties alongside – naturally, being Naim – a good sense of musical order and beat), but almost everything else takes a back seat. This sonic signature traditionally dove-tailed nicely with Naim’s equipment, but the limitations in detail resolution, soundstage, and even the tonal balance of the cable began to prove something of an obstacle to ultimate performance, especially in the light of products like Naim’s 500 series and Statement line. Yes, other cable brands are available and many Naim users use other brands (most notably from the Chord Company line), but such is the loyalty to Naim that standard NAC A5 is used in some extremely high-end Naim set-ups. Super Lumina addresses that need to push the cable envelope for Naim’s most loyal followers.

In interconnect or speaker cable form, Super Lumina features silver-plated copper conductors and silver-plated tellurium copper alloy connectors and FEP insulation throughout. XLR and DIN connectors for the interconnects use Naim’s unique Air-PLUG connectors. These feature individually machined and anodised aluminium rings. Aluminium’s non-magnetic properties make it consistent with materials used on the chassis of Naim products, and a highly durable connection to boot, but gold terminals are used on its RCA plug versions. All the shielding on both interconnects and speaker cables uses a non-magnetic tin-plated copper weave, and the cables are finished in a subtle and elegant shade of mid-grey. Super Lumina is also thinner and more flexible than most high-end audio cables. Discretion rules!

Like Naim’s other cables (except for sold off the reel NAC A5 ), Super Lumina is made by hand in the company’s Salisbury HQ. It’s also subjected to the same ‘destressing’ process used by Naim for decades (this means cables get hung like game, and periodically shaken like the apocryphal lamb’s tail). Little gunmetal alloy blocks seal the ends of the speaker cables and those ends can be spade lugs or 4mm terminals.

It would be a shame if Super Lumina only played to the Naim crowd because the interconnect and speaker cables are great in their own right. Although it’s entirely understandable because they work so well in Classic, 500, and Statement products from the brand. Super Lumina is good enough that I ‘sat’ on this review for far too long because I was enjoying its performance so much. This is a cable many high-end brands would be only too happy to call their own. In fact, if they painted over the Naim label and charged twice as much, no one would bat an eyelid in sonic terms.”