KIMBER ANALOGUE INTERCONNECTS
From Tonik at the start of the range right up to their prestigious Select KS-1036, all Kimber analogue interconnects feature Kimber's unique woven geometry - proven to reduce RFI. That means that, whatever your budget, you can be certain you'll be benefitting from the unique design of Kimber Kable. And you'll be hearing more and more of the true potential of your kit.
The Kimber Weave
We offer ten models of Kimber's analogue interconnects, from Tonik at the start to Kimber Select KS-1036 at the top. The most distinctive feature of Kimber's cables is, of course, the famous woven geometry which helps the cable to resist and reject Radio Frequency Interference (RFI).
The benefit of this weave is that the cables do not need to be shielded in the conventional sense (a metallic shield can actually degrade sound quality by affecting the cable's magnetic field, and the shield itself can pick up noise and inject it into the signal ground).
The analogue interconnects can be grouped into three 'families' based on their weave.
Three Families of Cable - plus one
The tri-braid cables (Tonik, Timbre, Silver Streak and KCAG) have three conductors. The Hero cables (Hero-Cu, Hero-HB and Hero-Ag) have four braided conductors: the benefit of this more complex weave is better RF rejection. Finally the very best cable geometry is found in the Select Series of interconnects (KS- 1016, KS-1026 and KS-1036) which feature the most advanced weave using a mix of braided wire, electrostatic-dissipating yarn and a core compound which serves to space the conductors and damp resonance.
In addition to these three 'families' of interconnect, Kimber have now introduced the Carbon analogue interconnect. Kimber's new analogue interconnect sits close to Hero-HB in terms of price but is a significant step-up in performance. It uses eight, VariStrand™ copper conductors which are held in place with a carbon infused polymer and insulated with Teflon®.
The interconnect consists of a single run of cable but uses Kimber's special technique of separating the channels at each end of the cable, maintaining the weave.
Conductor Materials
So we have three 'families' of interconnect; what are the differences between the cables within each family?
Quite simply, these cables are differentiated by their conductor material.
Of the tri-braid cables Timbre is made with three pure copper conductors, Silver Streak with one pure silver conductor and two pure copper conductors, and the best cable in the family - KCAG - is made with three pure silver conductors.
The tri-braid cables also include the Tonik, which uses a slightly different copper purity and insulation when compared with Timbre, to give a cost effective entry-level design.
The use of all copper, a hybrid of copper and silver, and all silver designs is very common in Kimber's ranges. The Hero interconnects, with their more advanced weave, also employ this mix: Hero Cu is all-copper, Hero-HB is the hybrid of copper/silver, and Hero-Ag is all-silver.
And the same can be said for the Select designs, which use an even higher purity of conductor and insulation: the KS- 1016 contains six woven copper conductors, KS- 1026 three copper and three silver conductors and the KS-1036 comprises six silver conductors. At this time, there is just the one, copper, Carbon interconnect.
In our opinion, the improvements in geometry give a subjectively more open, three-dimensional sound and the move from copper to silver increases the naturalness.
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