Cable Wars - ASR Review of Kimber KS 1036 Silver RCA Cable ($4500 pair)

Common Sense would suggest evaluating audio products by LISTENING.

Caveat- one must have a transparent enough system to hear differences. 

 

 

hilde45

5,725 posts

03-21-2026 at 07:36pm 

If your room acoustics are bad, every claim you make will be taken with a grain of salt.
 

Right on point!

Similarly, those without a system to speak of, or with a system that’s not on a level to support high end cables, and who have never heard a system on that level extensively enough to make any judgement calls, their comments aren’t worth much. And this probably includes 90%, if not more, of the ASR members. 
 

I have right now in my system Nordost Tyr 2 XLRs, Kimber KS1116 copper XLRs, Kimber Carbon phono RCAs and Kimber Carbon XLR cables, and all Kimber power cords throughout (except stock cord on turntable motor).

No - Bluejeans don’t sound like Nordost or Kimber. Bluejeans suck in comparison - they’re dull and lifeless. 
 

In this system the difference between components, cartridges and cables is immediate. 

@kennyc ...Caveat- one must have a transparent enough system to hear differences. 

Exactly. And no point in spending good money $ on upgrading cables if it’s not.

TESTING 3 sets:

Just for grins, today  and tonight I re-tested 3 different pairs of ICs - Monoblock Tube amps, tube preamp, custom electrostatic speakers. Same 4 audio tracks. Sharing my own results and how these pairs resulted in my tube system.  All 1.0M long RCA interconnects. 

Connection: non-oversampling DAC > Tube Preamp:

1. Amazon > Worlds Best Cables, Ultimate VI, copper conductor, silver ends - RCA:

-slightly airy, not colored, sorta dry, boosted low freq bass, some upper detail, recessed midrange body/not boosted, midrange weight not as present as other pairs

2. Accusound / Apapature JJ, Silver-over-Copper conductor, copper ends - RCA

-larger sound stage, nicer extended detail in high frequency, added texture to strings-glistening, mid-body and mid body weight less present but nice

3. Cardas Clear Refection, pure copper, copper ends - RCA

-sound stage slightly more focused in, more noticeable body / weight, low bass is there, midrange is fuller, upper midrange tone and texture is there, some upper detail still there, yet not as uber detail glistening like the Aparture cables

None of these cables sound close to the same. Each set yields it own results in how they present themselves. This same baseline test has been repeated many times in the past.  There is nothing special about the music tracks used. 

@jasonbourne71 *wink *wink. I see what you did there with your last comment. I get it now and apologies for almost blowing your cover. 

@gkelly : Yeah, it might have been in the 80's when the AudioQuest switchbox appeared and was quickly withdrawn. The last time I smoked real Thai stick was around 1974 in Vancouver.