Kimber vs Audioquest interconnects and speaker cables
Lionel Silva
and AQ?
Kimber 4TC to AQ Indigo
8TC to Crystal or Midnight
PBJ to Topaz
Silver Streak to Quartz
Here is the equipment this would be used with:
AA DLC w/PS-3 and Pass Aleph 3 driving Infinity Compositions Prelude
speakers.
I will be comparing these to Straight Wire Maestro II, which I have on
loan. They are much more expensive than the Kimber or AQ cables above.
RMac
sale. On inspection I find that the woofers have rotted out.
I can buy new woofers from the factory for $120 for the pair.
Question: Should I do this, or put the money towards the purchase of
something new? A local audio dealer is offering Advent Legacy III for $199
per pair?
Robert MacLeay (RM...@aol.com)
"Highly formatted signatures look dumb
when viewed with proportional fonts."
John Butler
> How would you compare the following similarly priced cables from Kimber
> and AQ?
> Kimber 4TC to AQ Indigo
> 8TC to Crystal or Midnight
> PBJ to Topaz
> Silver Streak to Quartz
To which I answer, Kimber, Kimber, Kimber! with one caveat which I'll get to.
Kimber 4TC vs. Indigo? 4TC. Sonically, 4TC should do anything 8TC
does, unless you need that lower gauge for a longer cable run or
better bass damping. I have a nice MOSFET amp, and the makers said
that AQ Indigo wouldn't really be high enough quality to do it
justice. They thought Crystal or Midnight would be more appropriate.
With your Pass Aleph, I'd say it's even more true.
For the money, however, I'd take 4TC or 8TC over either Crystal or
Midnight. These two overachievers from Kimber have MUCH lower
inductance than just about anything else on the market. They also
have a wider bandwidth and faster rise time than most other speaker
wire.
Actually, you might want to get 4TC, and if you later wish you had
8TC, get a second pair of 4TC, which makes it physically identical
(except it's two braids instead of one) to 8TC. At $5/foot for 4TC,
and upgradeable to 8TC equivalent, this takes away most of the
price/performance arguments.
Kimber PBJ vs. AQ Topaz? No contest - PBJ! Topaz has AQ's euphonic
sweetness, but is grainier. AQ Ruby is smoother, but is $100/meter
pair. PBJ is just flat-out accurate, and has wonderful bass extension
and tightness, and especially, uninhibited dynamic range. The only
caveat about PBJ is that you need to determine whether an unshielded
design will be OK in your setup. If you need shielded, check out
Kimber's KC-1, or something from Straightwire, such as Conductor,
which is much less expensive than Maestro. Last I checked, Conductor
was around $100/meter pair. Another alternate at this price point:
Nordost Flatline Black Knight. Extremely low capacitance - even
lower than Kimber. Black Knight is 99.99997% OFC copper at $70/meter
pair in a Teflon dielectric ribbon cable. Also worth a listen at
this price point: Monster M850.
Kimber Silver Streak vs. Quartz? I'd rate Silver Streak as an even
bigger blowout. A pure silver positive conductor for the price of AQ
Quartz? Are you kidding? Alternate at this price point: Nordost
Flatline Blue Heaven. Blue Heaven is silver-plated 99.99997% OFC
copper at $180/meter pair in a Teflon dielectric ribbon.
According to the hi-fi reps I talk to, Teflon dielectric is excellent
at slowing oxidation of OFC. It's used in 4TC, 8TC, Nordost
Flatline, and (I think) PBJ and Silver Streak. So Teflon-insulated
wire should keep its performance characteristics for a long time.
--John
BobM
market, but I must say that I just replaced my PBJ interconnects with
StraightWire Maestro, and at least in my system, the Maestro seems to be
smoother. The PBJ, although very palpable, has a bit of "glare" compared
to the Maestro. To me it was worth the extra $100 for the Maestro, but I
would be perfectly content with the PBJ if I were to budget lower. I think
that many of these nuances are dependent upon how resolving your system
is.
Bob
In article <00001ec4...@msn.com>, BlackM...@msn.com (John
Butler) wrote:
> lsi...@zNET.com (Lionel Silva) writes:
>
> > How would you compare the following similarly priced cables from Kimber
> > and AQ?
>
> > Kimber 4TC to AQ Indigo
> > 8TC to Crystal or Midnight
> > PBJ to Topaz
> > Silver Streak to Quartz
>
> To which I answer, Kimber, Kimber, Kimber! with one caveat which I'll get to.
>
<snip>
Clark Glickman
cables? I was thinking about getting PBJ's and using AQ indigo or crystal
speaker cables (bi-wired). Would this work well? If not, why not? Thanks!
Jon Dachs
M. Syrek
I am sure sound quality has something to do with it:>
Chuck Ross
jonatha...@appart.com (Jon Dachs) wrote:
> In article <4ktqve$g...@jade.tab.com>, cl...@tab.com (Clark Glickman) wrote:
>
> > Has anyone had any experience with mixing brands of interconnect and
speaker
> > cables? I was thinking about getting PBJ's and using AQ indigo or crystal
> > speaker cables (bi-wired). Would this work well? If not, why not? Thanks!
>
>
> Why not go all Kimber?
>
> --
> jonatha...@appart.com
I don't see what possible harm mixing brands of interconnects and speaker
cables could cause...they're entirely different kinds of transmission
lines with different signal levels and power levels.
I had PBJ for a time mixed with Krell "The Path", then with Kimber 8TC,
but finally decided I didn't like the PBJs...too bright. Went to first AQ
Ruby, then to Monster M-1000, and the current speaker line is AQ Midnight.
Sounds great.
--
____________________________________________________________________
Chuck Ross KC9FL South Holland, IL ckr...@ais.net
Mdickins
speaker
>cables? I was thinking about getting PBJ's and using AQ indigo or
crystal
>speaker cables (bi-wired). Would this work well? If not, why not?
Thanks!
I have indigo bi-wired for my 805s and KC1 ( sheilded version of PBJ's)
for my subwoofer and my CD player connection. Seems to be just fine.
John Butler
> Has anyone had any experience with mixing brands of interconnect
and speaker
> cables? I was thinking about getting PBJ's and using AQ indigo or crystal
> speaker cables (bi-wired). Would this work well? If not, why not? Thanks!
Actually, I have a mix of PBJ going from components to pre-amp,
Straightwire Conductor from pre- to power amp, and Straightwire Music
Ribbon speaker cables. The PBJ/StraightWire interconnect combination
sounds better than all PBJ in my electronics. I think it's because I
need a shielded connector to the amp, so Kimber KC-1 would probably
work well there, too.
There's nothing wrong with mixing cables. Sometimes it helps,
sometimes not. The first consideration is probably mating the
cable's characteristics to the components it's connected to. For
example, really bright electronics might benefit form high
capacitance interconnect (WBT, MIT) to tame the high frequencies.
Tube electronics (with very high impedance outputs) and passive
pre-amps would benefit from low capacitance interconnects (Kimber,
Nordost Flatline).
You might, however, be mixing sonic signatures by going to different
brands, and thus compromise the focus and coherency of the sound.
Different types of metal and dielectrics have different sonic
signatures. PBJ is very detailed and revealing in the upper octaves.
It also has unrestricted dynamic range and good bass extension.
It's also prone to noise since it's unshielded. The shielded version
is called KC-1. AudioQuest is generally sweeter sounding.
"Unfailingly musical" is the phrase I remember from Stereophile
regarding AudioQuest cables.
That said, and given the price of AQ Crystal, why don't you stick
with Kimber? Crystal is slightly more expensive than Kimber 8TC,
which is very clean, rejects noise well, and works well with
bi-wiring. Or for the same price, you could get 4TC for the upper
end plus 8VS for the bass. The sonic signature of 4TC and 8TC would
match the PBJ because they use the same copper and insulation.
.\ark \'atkins
>I have a pair of The Advent Loudspeaker(s) which I got cheap at a garage
>sale. On inspection I find that the woofers have rotted out.
>I can buy new woofers from the factory for $120 for the pair.
You can have them refoamed if you can find a pro audio service in your
area that repairs speakers. I've had both pairs of my Smaller Advents
refoamed for about $50/pair. You may have trouble finding someone who
has the surrounds, as they are getting very scarce. They are no longer
being made, so don't hesitate. The original Advents are still very good
speakers and worth repairing.
-=[ .\\ark \\'atkins ]=- | ma...@telepath.com | 1:147/3101
| http://www.telepath.com/markw | 1:147/2021