Intro
Contents
We know Kinki Studio mostly for its amplifiers and dacs. The Chinese brand has been making very nice electronics for years. Recently, we tested the CHoco Sound EMEI. Also a nice amplifier with a playful character. Now we got some cables from Kinki Studio for testing. Are they just as interesting?
Kinki Studio’s new line is called Earh. This indication can be found on the metal blocks incorporated into the cable. It looks very cool, we must say.
Jewel
Anyway, the finish of these new cables is very good. It is very reminiscent of a Dutch brand: Crystal Cable. The Kinki cables are also thin. The plugs are comparatively a bit heavy: especially with the mains cable which of course has to have some stury connectors. However, the connectors don’t mess up the terminals on the devices. We have seen worse in that case…
We got a cable of each type from Boelsz: RCA, XLR, mains cable and speaker cable. Perhaps there will be a coaxial interlink, usb cable and network cable later?
The cables are not cheap, but certainly not expensive either: 485 Euro for the mains cable, 495 Euro for the XLR, 465 Euro for the RCA version and 945 Euro for the speaker cable.
Construction
We strongly suspect that the conductors in the Kinki Studio Earth series are the same in all cases. We measure equivalent conductance and characteristics and it all looks the same too. But the latter doesn’t necessarily mean anything.
Kinki Studio lists high-quality silver-plated copper as conductors. These are apparently twisted to reduce inductance. The material is also “cryo treated. The block in the cable should absorb interference above 100 kHz. As insulation, Kinki Studio uses Teflon. The jacket makes the cable a little stiff, but it’s certainly not too stiff. We get everything behind the set quite easily.
Now we do see that Kinki Studio varies with the amount of strands. The speaker cable has more strands than the interlink. It has to, because more current goes through that cable and the cable is longer. The same goes for the mains cable through which, of course, 230 volts must pass. You will see the results later in the measurements.
Neat
All in all, the set looks very neat. It is well cared for, distinctive and all in all still reasonably priced. For a complete set you would spend around 2500 Euro. We are assuming a source, integrated amplifier and a pair of speakers. We know cases where that is easily a factor of four.
The conductivity of the power cable is higher as that of interconnect ???????? !
Well… Yes. But that makes sense. Doesn’t it?