Hi-Fi Choice asked us to provide an introductory cable loom for a group test in their July 2020 edition. See their thoughts on 4PR, TONIK and DV-21
Kimber cable loom review from Hi-Fi Choice
Thursday, 9th July 2020
The requirements were for a 2m pair of speaker cables and 1m analogue and digital interconnects, coming in at no more than £370. We opted for the 4PR / Tonik / DV-21 combination as it fit easily within the budget (£306) and represents a good starting point for any decent system.
All of these cables are well-established in the Kimber range - 4PR being their first ever back in 1979 - but if you think this may have put them at a disadvantage against newer rivals, think again. As they say in the review, “An oldie, maybe, but certainly a goodie”.David Vivian, reviewing, is clearly impressed by the musical nature of these cables. Right from the start, when it comes to sound quality he suggests that there is something “ineffably right about the way this cable loom sounds. Tonality, imaging and timing appear to be nailed. It’s rich and transparent with no sense of hype or artificial emphasis”.
Click here to read more about Kimber Kable.
Listening to Honest Emotion by Michael McDonald, it’s not just the way the cables perform so well across the frequency range that impresses but also the coherent way they reveal the feeling of the song. He writes: “Bass is sumptuous, weighty andextended. the mids and treble are free from grain and glare. The track sounds meltingly sad but, just as importantly, elegantly sewn together and all-of-a-piece.”
Moving onto something with more pace, he’s equally impressed with the loom’s ability to bring a natural balance to the performance. “Sigrid’s vocal on Strangers is outstandingly pure and superbly well resolved”, he writes, “and those opening bass salvosare powerful and propulsive without being bloated.”
Back to a slower pace, Eels’ Your Lucky Day In Hell again reflects the cables’ ability to bring everything together as a coherent whole, balancing incisiveness and precision with articulate bass: “You can hear right into the mix with lots of treble detail and atmosphere. Polished-lens clarity, here. Baselines are firm, snare drums crisp and resonant. And everything is locked in place in three dimensions.”
What welove about the design of Kimber Kable is it’s ability to get out of the way and give you the sense that you have a direct, natural relationship with the music. So it’s a pleasure to hear this nature reflected in the review’s concluding remarks, where David reports that this 4PR/Tonik/DV-21 cable loom
“in no uncertain terms delivers an object lesson to the others when it comes to balance and naturalness. It’s a hugely polished act and fine value… It sounds so natural, composed and coherent, newer rivals bow before it”.
I can’t think we’d want a better summary of our cables than that - at any level!
Written By Simon Dalton
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