|
Cable Asylum Interconnects, speaker wire, power cords. Ask the Cable Guys. |
Register / Login
|
In 1998, I had the Thiel CS1.5. In a long room, where you can sit from afar, the CS1.5 is a fine product. But here in the SF Bay Area, we had small rooms, which did not allow the CS1.5 to breathe.
I then went to Ultimate Sound, and bought the Kimber Select KS-3033. This made the CS1.5 even worse: slow and plodding. I was so depressed, I not only shut off the stereo, I didn't want to stay home.
Sixpence None The Richer's "Kiss Me" played, and my friends enthusiastically got me to come out. Hiking around the Crystal Springs reservoir along 280 in San Mateo was therapeutic. Afterward, we went to Sound Perfection in Menlo Park. In a phalanx of electronics and speakers, SP had the ProAc Response One SC minimonitor. Using the same source and preamp, SP switched between a solid state McIntosh power amp, and a Conrad-Johnson Premier 11A tube amp. Despite changing only the power amps, the ProAc 1SC sounded radically different. And that was a good sign; it meant that the 1SC was merely telling it like it was.
We then tried the similarly-priced and -sized Totem Model 1 Signature. The ProAc 1SC had the more extended treble and onion-like imaging. But the Totem M1S rocked better, and more often caused us to do the double-take, looking for/at the performers.
At that point, we had nests of speaker cables. But within Kimber, we had the 4TC, 8TC, and KS-3033. Both the ProAc 1SC and Totem M1S were bi-wireable. Thus, we got to play around with wiring combinations. The 1SC liked 4TC up top, KS-3033 down low. The M1S was perfectly fine with 4TC top and bottom.
We then went to Honolulu. There, Audio Direction Ltd.'s Stewart Ono (AA's late UncleStu52), showed the new Kimber Bi-Focal XL speaker cable. He said it used both VS and TC conductors. They were like taking the stock speaker cable, and "puffing it up," getting the individual strands to cross each other closer to a right angle, as well as increasing the distance between strands. All of this was held in place by a special core and insulation materials.
When we were back in San Francisco, we saw the movie, She's All That, one of our favorites. It included Sixpence None The Richer's "Kiss Me," during that scene where a made-over Laney Boggs wears a red dres, and walks down a flight of stairs in high heels. Then she trips and falls. We did get the Kimber Bi-Focal XL. It wasn't just excellent on the ProAc 1SC and Totem M1S, it was superb on lots of bi-wireable speakers.
As you know, once you have an audiodharma Cable Cooker, everyone wants to use it. Thus, hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of cables get sent to me. And we've treated multiple samples of Kimber's 4TC and Carbon 8. Since we have them in at the same time, we can experiment, with bi-wiring combinations.
If your amp has 5-way binding posts, you can biwire, using two stereo pairs. One pair can have spades, while the other has bananas.
Using two Carbon 8s does not have the convenience and stable positioning of conductors of the all-in-one Bi-Focal XL (which is now $3,525 for an 8-foot pair with WBT connectors). But with the Carbon 8 being so skinny, having two is no big deal.
We have thrown multiple pairs of Kimber Carbon 8 at bi-wireable speakers. Do you judge a cable, in terms of accuracy? Do you observe how well or poorly said cable does, at the job of passing signal intact, from amp to speaker? Then you might appreciate two Kimber Carbon 8s, over the already-excellent Bi-Focal XL. The Carbon 8s do a better job of maintaining image outlines. The Carbon 8s seem to preserve better the music's (a) breath, (b) micro details, (c) contrast between music and space, (d) bass energy and shape, and (e) speed and control. When you use two Carbon 8s, you might feel that there is simply less distortion and obstruction, between you and the music.
-Lummy The Loch Monster
This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:
Topic - Kimber Carbon 8, Part 8 - Luminator 13:51:02 04/01/22 (1)
- RE: Kimber Carbon 8, Part 8 - fantja 22:59:11 04/15/22 (0)
Top of Page ]
[ Contact Us ]
[ Support/Wish List ]
[ Copyright © 2025, Audio Asylum, all rights reserved ]
