Kimber KS 1036 Silver RCA Cable Review

[Rotiv]

II think the Select range appeared in my country about 25 or 30 years ago; they were very expensive, but at that time the stratospheric market of today didn't exist yet.

 

[Robin L]

Probably many of us, some time ago, years, decades , dreamed of having cables like these.

Decades ago, I had hard-wired some of the cheaper snaky braided Kimber speaker interconnects to a pair of Mission bookshelf speakers. A thousand veils were lifted (not!).

@IanRoberts was simply noting that these cables cost more than his stereo and that his stereo is not a particularly low budget system, thus making the price of the cables seem apparently even more bizarre.
I think his choice of 'which is still pretty high end' to describe a $4500+ 2.1 channel stereo is appropriate here.

Please excuse me, that was snark.

Once the prices of audio gear reach six digits, it all turns to magic.

For True High-End cultists, everything else is mid-fi.

This is the interconnect of choice for True High-End cultists.

 

[kandamrgam]

Not sure if this was posted in this thread but relevant video:

The guy tests the electrical conductivity of random objects like fruits and other foods, simple metals etc... TLDW: Most things conduct well and hardly made any difference.

 

[webmst007]

As part of my team member George's application to become an ASR moderator he has been blind testing various RCA cables. With his X10 human ( Elvin blood) Swiss made 24 jewel hearing he has confirmed that there are no audible differences to be discerned between these cables.


Here he is writing his report for Canine High End Hi- Fi Magazine.

He is still available for mod duties when not asleep or eating........will work for food.....

 

[Ropeburn]

microwave frequency cable

That makes me think... theoretically, it wouldn't be such a bad idea to choose a very "bad" cable that barely exceeds audio bandwidth. You'd ha

As part of my team member George's application to become an ASR moderator he has been blind testing various RCA cables. With his X10 human ( Elvin blood) Swiss made 24 jewel hearing he has confirmed that there are no audible differences to be discerned between these cables.


Here he is writing his report for Canine High End Hi- Fi Magazine.

He is still available for mod duties when not asleep or eating........will work for food.....

View attachment 518738

George for mod! Literal superhuman hearing. Where's the poll?

 

[davmol]

OK, here we go again with another reviewer slagging off Kimber without even listening to the cable. Look, some things just can't be measured, and if someone can't hear the difference between this Kimber and an Amazon Basics, then they need their ears testing. I bet Amir didn't even bother to burn it in before testing it, sigh.

I own this Kimber cable and I can tell you that it really does lift the veil on everything I can throw at it, and it provides an astonishing level of blackness between the notes, so dark it's almost haunting. On Dire Straits' "Money for Nothing", I could finally hear the micro-dynamics of Mark's plectrum hitting the strings, and it felt like he was standing right there with me. Next I queued up Teddy Swims with "Broke", where the Kimber accentuated the smooth chocolatey mids in his voice, before the final test of Meat Loaf. Now I don't know why I was worried, the Kimber revealed so much shimmer in the high-end transients, along with a wonderful wide-open holographic soundstage, and I couldn't want for anything more as he belted out "Life is a Lemon and I Want my Money Back". It was clear audible justification for the $4k spend.

So, if you listen - really listen - and you honestly can't tell the difference between this Kimber and an Amazon Basics cable then as I said, you need your ears testing, or maybe your system simply isn't resolving enough? All I can say is that when used to connect my Aiyima T20 and SMSL A50 Pro, the synergy that the Kimber brings is nothing short of miraculous. It's 5-stars from me, so stop with the measurements and use your ears, get out there and buy it, it sounds great (my wife thinks so too).

 

[Rick63]

 

[Ropeburn]

 

[CD2]

... sounds great (my wife thinks so too).

My neighbor across the street noticed the difference. My dogs started howling.

 

[PristineSound]

OK, here we go again with another reviewer slagging off Kimber without even listening to the cable. Look, some things just can't be measured, and if someone can't hear the difference between this Kimber and an Amazon Basics, then they need their ears testing. I bet Amir didn't even bother to burn it in before testing it, sigh.

I own this Kimber cable and I can tell you that it really does lift the veil on everything I can throw at it, and it provides an astonishing level of blackness between the notes, so dark it's almost haunting. On Dire Straits' "Money for Nothing", I could finally hear the micro-dynamics of Mark's plectrum hitting the strings, and it felt like he was standing right there with me. Next I queued up Teddy Swims with "Broke", where the Kimber accentuated the smooth chocolatey mids in his voice, before the final test of Meat Loaf. Now I don't know why I was worried, the Kimber revealed so much shimmer in the high-end transients, along with a wonderful wide-open holographic soundstage, and I couldn't want for anything more as he belted out "Life is a Lemon and I Want my Money Back". It was clear audible justification for the $4k spend.

So, if you listen - really listen - and you honestly can't tell the difference between this Kimber and an Amazon Basics cable then as I said, you need your ears testing, or maybe your system simply isn't resolving enough? All I can say is that when used to connect my Aiyima T20 and SMSL A50 Pro, the synergy that the Kimber brings is nothing short of miraculous. It's 5-stars from me, so stop with the measurements and use your ears, get out there and buy it, it sounds great (my wife thinks so too).

This got to be a sarcastic troll for sure.

 

[G|force]

This got to be a sarcastic troll for sure.

One can only hope so.

Ray Kimber himself is fully aware that his product is a scam that is made for and sold to gullible and insecure people.

 

[Robin L]

OK, here we go again with another reviewer slagging off Kimber without even listening to the cable. Look, some things just can't be measured, and if someone can't hear the difference between this Kimber and an Amazon Basics, then they need their ears testing. I bet Amir didn't even bother to burn it in before testing it, sigh.

I own this Kimber cable and I can tell you that it really does lift the veil on everything I can throw at it, and it provides an astonishing level of blackness between the notes, so dark it's almost haunting. On Dire Straits' "Money for Nothing", I could finally hear the micro-dynamics of Mark's plectrum hitting the strings, and it felt like he was standing right there with me. Next I queued up Teddy Swims with "Broke", where the Kimber accentuated the smooth chocolatey mids in his voice, before the final test of Meat Loaf. Now I don't know why I was worried, the Kimber revealed so much shimmer in the high-end transients, along with a wonderful wide-open holographic soundstage, and I couldn't want for anything more as he belted out "Life is a Lemon and I Want my Money Back". It was clear audible justification for the $4k spend.

So, if you listen - really listen - and you honestly can't tell the difference between this Kimber and an Amazon Basics cable then as I said, you need your ears testing, or maybe your system simply isn't resolving enough? All I can say is that when used to connect my Aiyima T20 and SMSL A50 Pro, the synergy that the Kimber brings is nothing short of miraculous. It's 5-stars from me, so stop with the measurements and use your ears, get out there and buy it, it sounds great (my wife thinks so too).

"I'll have what he's having."

 

[Robin L]

My neighbor across the street noticed the difference. My dogs started howling.

in pain, no doubt . . .

 

[robbiekhan]

This test puts a big smile on my face: Amazon Cable - double lenght, which makes it a bit unfair..... but still identical results. Thank you Mr. Bezos !


There are exactly three parameters that "significantly" (i. e. super super minimal ) affect the sound of cables:

1. Resistance
2. Capacitance
3. Inductance

Did you measure these as well?
The characteristic impedance (i.e. the ratio of voltage to current of the electromagnetic wave in the cable) of both:
Is it exactly 75 Ohm, as it should be?

The resistance holds very true indeed, those who remember the launch of the Fidelio X1 headphones will recall the stock cable with it was very high resistance and legitimately impacted the sound as a result, using a third party cable completely solved it.

No guesses as to why Philips changed the cable with the X2

It was the only time I ever whipped out my multimeter to test a cable because what I was hearing along with others on forums had to have an explanation.

 

[pablolie]

Probably many of us, some time ago, years, decades , dreamed of having cables like these.

Given my personal background I always thought it idiocy. I paid some extra for connector quality feel and looks... but never ever believed it'd make a sonic difference, even in the mid 90s when I started to have more disposable income and switched stuff around far more often than now.

 

[dtaylo1066]

The worst thing is after finally getting them all set up and tuned in, I have to get rid of my banana and mud cables.

 

[aagstn]

So, if you listen - really listen - and you honestly can't tell the difference between this Kimber and an Amazon Basics cable then as I said, you need your ears testing, or maybe your system simply isn't resolving enough? All I can say is that when used to connect my Aiyima T20 and SMSL A50 Pro, the synergy that the Kimber brings is nothing short of miraculous. It's 5-stars from me, so stop with the measurements and use your ears, get out there and buy it, it sounds great (my wife thinks so too).

The system needing to be resolving enough followed by using affordable amps and one with tubes broke me. You win for best comment in this thread. No one is topping connecting an $4k cable to a $200 tube amp.

 

[xanalog]

Thank you for the review @amirm,

The time you spent could have allowed you to check-off an item in your bucket-list.
I cheated and voted before reading your review of what we ALL already knew.

Perhaps this review should be relocated in one of the ~100 threads here, with the 'Snake Oil' in its topic title.

 

[SorenTyson]

Thank you to the ASR member who loaned this expensive cable to Amir for measurements.

That takes guts, kudos to him

 

[Mnyb]

Amir must by now have an impressive collection of audio snake oil gadgets and cables

Kimber is kind of worse than others for using completely unshielded rca cables , like the original pbj cables .
And digital cables that deliberately did not conform to any impedance standard.

If memory my memory serves me . It seems to have begun with speaker cables 4TC and 8TC or similar, with a twist pattern that reduces inductance, in theory this should be better . Prices where not totally horrible.

But all these businesses seam to meander towards more snakeoil and higher prices all the time .