Cool ... finally Kimber Kable 8TC biwire speaker cable

pjdami

Okay for a few weeks now I have been pondering that something was missing in my two channel rig which consists of a B&K PT5 preamp, B&K ST125.2 amp, Myryad Z110 cd player, and LSi 9s. So based on some positive feedback from Dan and others I purchase the Kimber Hero ICs. Better and improved but something was still missing. Although the sound is very good (I was using single run Transparent Musicwave speaker cable with the Transparent jumpers) the B&K / LSi sound was almost too dark, veiled, or rolled off in the highs compared to how my Rotel rig sounded. I complained about the LSi 9 having a threshold volume to "wake-up" before one could hear the details. Since my two channel rig is in my office, I usually don't put the volume to high but prefer nice background music in the 70 - 75 db range from my listening position. I was at the point where I thought I wanted to get into some different speakers for the office. The sound was just too laid back and warm for me. The Studio 40's I have would get substituted for a while, but over long listening periods at the computer the Studios would tend to be fatiguing to listen to especially since my ears have been trained for the LSi sound. The LSi just have a better ambience and air to them.

Okay, so I keep hearing all these good things about the Kimber Kable 8TC speaker cable. I find a "good" deal on the internet for some 8TC biwire at $14/foot terminated nicely with bananas. I purchased an 8 foot pair and have been burning them in for about 10 hours so far. The 8TC is a braided 8 wire cable. The cables I bought, they used 3 of the wires for the highs and the other 5 for the lows to make the biwire.

So how does it sound? Wow... very detailed and forward sounding yet smooth with no fatigue. At lower volumes the LSi 9 have the detail I have been looking for. The rolled off highs are gone. Perfect balance in fact. I hope the burn-in doesn't get much more than this but it may mellow out a tad bit more. I actually had the treble +2 db before the new wire now I have everything flat again. I am thinking the Musicwave had slightly deeper bass but not by much. Midrange sounds a little more relaxed than the way the Rotel rig sounds.

So far so good.

mantis

Very Cool man,

Transparent and Kimber sound very different.I have found Transparent to work here and not Kimber and visa versa.Kimber is the corredct wire for my rig and I'm loving there sound or lack of there is.The Kimber seems as you found to add some sparkle on the top that I felt as need and or lost with the Transparent.But when you have a hot rig then the Transparents can cure and smooth everything out.

The correct wire for the job is key.

How about some more pic's my friend....

Dan

pjdami

Dan,

Check out my system showcase. The two channel rig I have to replace the overall picture with the new kimber wire.

The company I bought these from you can also get the factory Kimber spade terminations for $55 more. The banana terminations they did they say are approved by Kimber and the wire has a one year warranty on them.

If you want better pictures of the wire let me know. I can email them to you. They did a very professional job with the terminations and heat shrink wrap.

The sound on the B&k rig wow .. i'm diggin it now bigtime. I actually prefered the Rotel sound before this new wire... now I'm torn again... but its all good.

Thanks so much for your advice.
Paul

mantis

Hey Paul yes E mail me some pic's.Torn huh well so was I when I owned both.Rotle makes fantastic sounding gear.But so does B&K with more features.As you know I picked B&K over Rotel......not an easy decesion.The Transparent I perferred with Rotel and Kimber with B&K.....funny your rigs are the same...we have similar ears.

Send away my friend and I will check out the showcase.

Kimber got a new Digital X series digital cable on the market I picked one up.It's not on the website or have I had time to call Kimber.It's not a big deal but nice build quality with there Tipical Kimber plated ends.

polkatese

Paul, great review! ain't this thing supposed to stop anytime soon?? I meant the never ending "tweaks" to this audio improvement pursuits

STUFFMD

Hey PJDAMI,
The Kimbers were a little bright for my Rt's, but their perfect for my now LSI"S. They definately are perfect with the 9's, they add an openess or presence to the top and higher midrange. If I could find any weakness with them it was in the Bass area, that's why I went with the 4tc's and kept the Monsters on the LF. I know you have the Bi-wires, if you feel like playing some day, put the Musicwaves on the LF and see what you think.
Personally I notice a little bit of the much noted "wake up", but I had the same thing with the RT's as well.
I'm surprised you didn't get more of a bang out of the Heros, I love those things, for me it was as dramatic a differece as the TC"s, I'm sure it has a lot to do with equipment as well.
Enjoy, Stuff

tryrrthg

What company did you buy them from? web address?

Thanks!

pjdami

I found about this company on Audiogon. These are new cables though with a one year warranty.

http://cgi.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cl.pl?cablspkr&1067813183

The company's website is found here:



The wires came in packaged extremely well with bubble wrap protection. They even threw in a couple of velcro straps for wire management.

I am really enjoying these cables. They sound very open, true, and detailed. Stuff, yes they are a bit bass shy compared to the Transparent Music Wave but not by much. The mids and highs are killer sounding on the LSi 9 though with my B&K and Heros.

Here's a closer picture of the terminations that they did along with the packaging:

http://www.pnfaudio.com/

dcarlson

Has anyone ventured higher up the line from the Heros? As in Silver Streak or KCAG.

I would be very interested in hearing them and what people have to say about em. I have the Heros and love them.

RuSsMaN

That audiogon link has some outstanding prices for Kimber - About half what they *should* be in the store.

Makes you go hmmmm.....

Cheers
Russ

dcarlson

I'd say, the only thing is some of them are 0.5 meters. When I get home I'm going to have to see if that's long enough for my system and maybe snatch something up.

tryrrthg

Thanks for the link! I just hope they're still around when it's cable upgrade time!