Kimber Kable
Contents
| Cable | Kimber 8PR, 8TC and 8C |
| Balance low, mid and high | 8PR: Bass is a bit thin. Lots of texture audible though. Clean and pure midrange and treble.
8TC: Fine mids and treble. Bass tad thin. Enough body in the mids. 8C: Emphasis is on mids and treble. Bass is definitely there, but that’s not where the focus is. |
| Tone of vocals and instruments | 8PR: Very quiet cable. Voices are nice and clean in sound.
8TC: Clear voices. Layering in sound image is correct nicely. Quiet cable! 8C: Clear, open sound. Agile. Sometimes a bit thin in the middle. Clearly less “quiet” than the 8PR and 8TC. |
| Stereo image | 8PR: Smaller image. Nicely placed though. Focus is on the music.
8TC: You sit quite far from ‘the action’. Gives overview, but feels a bit more distant. 8C: Image is forward. A little less calm, but lots of air. |
| Rhythm | 8PR: Not very dynamic character. Bit ‘tame’.
8TC: Not very dynamic character. Bit ‘drowsy’. 8C: Lots of sustain in the piano. Fast tabla. Transients are ‘on point’. Energetic. But not very dynamic. |
| Overall | 8PR: Slightly tame cable. Very quiet and lots of quietness. Clean mids and treble.
8TC: You can listen for a long time. Feels a bit shy, but that also gives calmness. 8C: Very open and fast mids and treble. Bass may be a bit more prominent. |
| Material and construction | 8PR: 16 strands OFC, 10AWG per pole / 5.26mm2
8TC: 16 strands OFC, 9AWG per pole / 6.63mm2 Carbon 8: 8 strands OFC, 2.32mm2 per pole. |
| Price | 8PR: 609 Euro, 8TC: 1240 Euro, 8C: 2995 Euro |
Measurements Kimber Kable
LCR Measurements
Propagation variation
Kimber 8PR
Kimber 8TC
Kimber 8C
Response measurements
Noise measurements
Hi team,
This is quite an amazing project that you have done.
I am trying to use this information to help my selection decision making on some new cables. My conclusion is that the Audiomica ones which you tested seem to be the best value in terms of price vs your feedback about their sound. And from the qualitative feedback it seems like those cables would play well with most systems. Is this a correct conclusion to draw from the testing?
I understand that I would probably want to try the cables out on my system to make sure that they fit with the sound that I like.
I am relatively new to hi-fi so I apologise if this is a question that is a philosophically wrong way to think about things.
Hi Leon,
It is corrent that the Audiomica hits a sweetspot. They deliver very decent quality for a decent price. They are not cheap, but they are very good sounding. And yes: we estimate that they will work in most system.
It is always wise to first try a couple of cables and – if you found your match – buy them. We never advice to buy anything ‘blind’. Always try before you buy!
Thank you for the response and thank you again for putting together this review!
Welcome!
I wonder, if the impedance of the cables would not provide a more significant perspective instead of individual values of R, C and L ?
Well. We measured impedance. So check it out.
Here (impedance vs phase):
https://www.alpha-audio.net/review/megatest-speaker-cables-32-cables-listened-to-and-measured/attachment/audioquest-impedance-2/
is one cable data incomplete!
I see. Slp 14/4 phase. It was accidentally measured in rad. That’s why i left it out.
Hey Jaap, that is a really nice test with lots of information, thanks for that! Would it be possible to have it all into one table for a good overview, instead having to scroll through the individual pages? May be too much to ask 🙂
Keep up the awesome work!
Standard cable of 2.5mm2… I am using 16mm2 “standard wire”, 3m long. Very low resistance. That ticks one box. I guess I can theoretically calculate the inductance and capacitance. Wonder if these are of significant consequence at 20kHz. Maybe I can twist the cable to reduce the inductance if it has some impact.
Let me know how it turns out… ;-).
This is beyond – need to study it – not just read, to understand.
Thanks for including the “peasant” installation cable AudioQuest 14/4 – I use the more expensive version XTRM 14/4. My question is – how did you terminate the cable and in what configuration? I have it terminated with nakamichi bananas and connected in a star-quad configuration.
Martin
It is terminated with spades.
And, just like that, Alpha-Audio shoots to the top of the audio reviewer heap! The GOAT of tests and shoot-outs. Well done kind sirs, that was an impressive and Herculean effort!
Thanks,
Eric
Thank you Eric.