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In June 1993, I graduated from UCSC, and then went back home to San Francisco. We snapped up OMD's new album, Liberator.
Shortly thereafter, the July 1993 Stereophile featured a review of the then-$62 Kimber PBJ, and compared it to the $350 KCAG. There were only two differences, between PBJ and KCAG. 1.) The PBJ's conductors were copper, while the KCAG's were silver. 2.) The PBJ used a red/black/blue color scheme, while the KCAG used a clear Teflon outer casing/jacket.
San Francisco's Kimber dealer, Ultimate Sound, were then located in the "dungeon" of the Sherman Clay Building, on Kearny between Post and Sutter. Meanwhile, your girlfriends liked to shop for clothes in and around Union Square. Here, we were on Maiden Lane, less than two blocks from Ultimate Sound. Because of SF's cool nights, the girls needed jackets. Red, black, or blue?
The Kimber PBJ came in a thick Ziploc bag. At $62 for the PBJ-meter pair, PBJ was less than, for example, 5 CDs, or most jackets. Ultimate Sound, which catered to entry-level high-end audio market, sold plenty. The KCAG came in a hinged velour case, similar to ones found at Union Square jewelry stores. But the girls loved music, and we later discovered that, without reason or justification, the killer "Can I Believe You" was left off of OMD's Liberator. In order to get it, you needed to find the "Stand Above Me" CD single.
Later in the 90s, users felt that the colored dyes in the Teflon adversely affected the cables' sonics. So then Kimber came out with the Timbre, which was a PBJ, but with clear Teflon jacket. Timbre originally came in a plastic clamshell packaging (which we presently do not have). Timbre is currently $120 for termination, plus $48 per meter. At these prices, Timbre comes with either UltraPlate Black RCAs or Switchcraft XLRs. Going up to WBT-0114Cu will add an additional $96, for a set of four. Laid flat, the Timbre is merely 0.2125" wide.
PBJ came with UltraPlate RCAs, which were nickel-colored at the tip, but with a gold-colored barrel. Timbre comes with UltraPlate RCAs, with a black-painted barrel. We have no idea, if there are any sonic differences, between gold and black colors. One channel has two red-colored bands, while the other sports two white-colored bands.
We cannot find any serial numbers or signal flow arrows. We recommend burning-in the Timbre in the direction of the heatshrink's writing. While the tri-braid cable proper is thin, flexible, and soft, it will twist, coil, rotate, loop, and turn on its own. No matter how we try to keep it straight, the Timbre will bend on its own.
-Lummy The Loch Monster
Follow Ups:
I am not familiar with the Kimber line- Lummy.
For the Thiel CS1.5, we did use Kimber's 4TC and 8TC. In January 1998, we were among the first, to get the Select KS-3033. The stupid CS1.5 had its binding posts at the very bottom. Worse, they did not accept bananas. You had to twist and bend the cable's leads, in order to route and attach the spades.
The KS-3033 was a poor match (plodding, thick, airless, brown-toned) for the CS1.5.
Having lived with the Thiel CS2.4, which did accept bananas, I did find the old Kimber speaker cables to be better here, than on the CS1.5. Makes me wonder how the current-production Carbon 16 would work, on Thiels. One of my audio friends came across a Carbon 16. But he knows someone near him who has a Cable Cooker, so this Carbon 16 was not sent to me :-(
As for Kimber's interconnects, in systems ending with Thiels, the smoother-sounding Select series is probably better than the PBJ/Timbre/Silver Streak/KCAG.
The CS 2.4 is a sweet spot for modern Thiel loudspeakers.
I once had a demo with the CS 1.6, only after spending considerable time with the models, CS 2.4, CS 2.4SE , CS 2.7 and CS 3.7 loudspeakers.
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