Speaker Cables (again)

[goonybird]

So using QED XT25 ath the moment, but wanted to see if anything else worked better.
I am of the Doen't really make a differ5nec scholl but feel the cost of Conrad Johnson gear is more deserving of a cable price proprtionate.

So two inexpensive recent purchases
A 4 m pair of sleeved cable for £99 I haven't been able to identify it yet due to sleeving
Bought off ebay and came from a Shut Down Hi Fi Dealer.
The interesting thing is they are terminate with WBT0610 plugs, which is over £200 pounds worth.
So I suspect the cable may be something special.
Not big differences in sound but did open things up a bit.

Next ones, and I wanted to try these and decide this was my go to cable, was a pair of older Black/Blue Kimber Kable 8TC.
These were advertised at 2m so a bit short ( I need 3m) but for £40 couldn't resist
When installing yesterday they are longer than advertised at 3.0m
I Like these, as again improved space and imagery over the other two. Note slight differences but noticeable
Be interested to see comments on using the Kimber 8TC with CJ Tube Amps as they are High Capacitance

[Big Dog RJ]

G'day mate, nice one on those cables.

My very last experience with Kimber cables goes all the way back to 94/95... when I first came across a very well known highend audio store in Naperville IL. They were also dealers for CJ and ML stats.
They had two very top end systems, one using the ML SL3's driven by a full array of Class'e amplifiers. This system had a full Kimber Select loom, sounded tops! Fast, and accurate with an easy flow of music.

The other system comprised of CJ's Premier 12's, with the Prem7 preamps driving a pair of NHT speakers (no longer made). That was outstanding! One of my very first CJ tube amp encounters and a very memorable one. That particular system had a full Cardas cable loom. So between those two systems, ML stats and the NHT speakers, neither was superior, just different.

The CJ gear with the NHT's was wonderful to listen to for endless hours, which I used to do quite often whenever I visited until they closed shop. Then on a more dynamic, fast paced level, the Class'e gear with ML stats was also nice to experience.

Fast fwd that to early 2000, during my dealership years, we put together a very similar system for a customer who had ML SL3 stats. We supplied the CJ gear, a PV12 with a Premier 11A using Kimber Select cables. It worked fine until the customer tried out our Cardas cables at the time, can't quite remember the series too long ago but he preferred the Cardas. We just kept the Kimber cables for our demos after that. Cardas and Nordost seemed to be the preferred options at the time. Blue Heaven and Red Dawn were amongst the favourites, apart from their top of the line, SPM Reference.

Sorry not much help hear. All I can say is use whatever cables suit your needs and musical tastes. It's highly system dependent and a very personalised style, regardless of price. For example those Kimber Select cables were much more expensive than the Cardas but the customer preferred the Cardas!

Have a good one now,
Cheers, RJ

[Truth71]

It's an individual YMMV situation.

However, objectively Cardas offers a wide variety of cables and price points, they are very good people to deal with service and warranty wise, and it's an open secret that many high end cable company's use Cardas supplied wire and/or terminations for their own cables.

[goonybird]

Had to cut the sleeved cable to 3m & 1m
found out it isn't anything exotic. Sommer Meridian 260 cost about 12 Euro per metre. interesting that i blind tested them and kimbers were better.
So will stay with the Kimbers

[admin]

Had to cut the sleeved cable to 3m & 1m
found out it isn't anything exotic. Sommer Meridian 260 cost about 12 Euro per metre. interesting that i blind tested them and kimbers were better.
So will stay with the Kimbers

Let your ears be the judge. Too bad it wasn't something more "interesting" than a $5 per foot cable, but such is life.

[goonybird]

Ah but the WBT 0610 Banana Plugs will be re-saleable at a good price.