Kimber 8 TC

How do you describe the sonic characteristics of this cable?I'm looking for a speaker cable for my Densen B 110/Epos M 15 and I think that Kimber might be a good choice!

 

I don't believe that cables have "sonic signatures" per se. Rather I think that they detract from the basic sonics of the rest of the system to a greater or lesser extent. I listen exclusively to classical music - orchestral and operatic - and so I've chosen components with a basically warm sound but which don't smother the detail in ill-defined mush or mess up the soundstage.

When it came to choosing speaker cables to maintain as much as possible of this basic requirement I found that Kimber 8TC was at least as good as anything I tried at the price-point. Note that I have them on the bass units only of biwired 2.5-way speakers. I found Kimber 4TC to be better on the tweeters.

The sound of my system may not be the "fastest" around. But it was never meant to be in the first place.

 

last time i heard 8tc vs a bunch of other speaker cables - including townshend isolda and some very thick pro-ac (iirc) i preferred the kimber - if you buy it new off russ andrews in a standard length you used to get 90 days to try it and send it back if you didn;t like it. worth a punt if you are a believer....

 

I think your right.....a cable can't add any sound but will act as a filter to remove more or less signal.

But convention has it that we seem to talk about the sounds cables make !

Obviously the best cables will be those that effect the sound the least...ie get your signal from source to destination with least change.

 

the kimber is a great cable... as far as i can tell it does the least to ruin the sound quality of your equipment.. without really adding any character of its own into the mix.

it copes well with very large amounts of current and is a great cable if you have speakers capable of deep and tightly controlled bass. I cant recommend 8tc highly enough

 

Its ok ..not the best I've used or heard but better than a great many. Mind you there are some true horrors out there...8tc reminded me a lot of a souped up twin and earth, with a price to match.

 

But Kimber was made 8 or 10 years ago.It is not recent,no?Maybe I should choose a more recent cable,like Atlas Hyper 3.0,it was made in 2005

 

age can lead to maturity.

 

But Kimber is a high capacitance cable.This can cause amplifier instability,no?

 

All cables will have some capacitance ....its not the only factor involved, don't forget inductance and resistance. Then theres topology and also proximity to other dielectrics ie carpet.

I thought it was the other way round low cap cables cause oscilation ......but may be wrong.

 

I'd reccomend getting a very basic and cheap cable. You can compare the higher priced alternatives to it, to see if you really think its worth it.

You may end up just using cheap cables throughout.

I do.

 

excellent advice........

 

at the moment I'm using a cheap Qed Silver Anniversary,and is not so bad!

 

well.....spend your cash on more music!!

 

It always comes back to the question of Value For Money on upgrades in my view.

An example might be - if your amp (for example) has a second hand value of £500, and you plan to spend £400 on interconnects and power cords....

If you were to sell your amp for £500 and add the £400 budget, shopping for a second hand amp with £900 to spend, would this give you a greater improvement to your sound than the cable change?

If you believe in cables, its still worth asking yourself that question IMO.

 

I tried to go that route recently whenI ditched my Naim amps and started looking for something other than NACA5. I bought both the Blue Jeans Beldin and Canare, and they were both truely horrid. I would haven never guessed it could make such a difference, but they both just sucked the life out of my system (YBA Passion Integrated, Naim CD5/Hicap, Audio Physic Virgos).

Putting back the NACA5 made a huge improvement, and I'm still thinking that there is probably something better to try. I still have the BJC Beldin, which I recently had to use again when one of my dogs chewed a run of the Naca5, and again we just didn;t listen to the hifi with it in place, and bought a cheap extra run of NACA5 from my dealer to put back in place.

Bruce

 

I use a not-so-expensive QED-400, tried among others Kimber 8VS - and it lost in all aspects - the sound was muddled in comparison, treble was dull and curtailed, bass was wooly, dynamics constrained, I was in shock. Didn't expect it at all. 8TC may well be better in treble, but if you like your QED, it's worth trying XT400 as well, if your system is not on a bright side. Or indeed keep your Anniversary.

 

Qed

My system is on a bright side and the Qed doesn't help,because it is a bit bright,too.I'm having a demo with Audioquest Type 4 and I think this is the cable I will get.It has rhythm and a good timing,and is neutral,very direct.

 

its amazing that some commercial brands can get something as basic as making a bit of cable so wrong.

I use a cable which cost £8.99 from maplins and think theres nothing wrong with it at all (because there isnt!)

 

The AudioQuest Type 4 is 6 £ m!But is a good cable.