Kimber PBJ, Part 3
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| Posted on May 8, 2022 at 12:02:53 | ||
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Posts: 7331
Location: Bay Area Joined: December 11, 2000 |
 Here's a cool east-facing shot, taken from the Marines Memorial Club & Hotel. In summer 1994, my friend (and occasional writing partner) Scylla was at a dental appointment at 450 Sutter (the art-deco building in the middle). Meanwhile, I walked across Union Square to Ultimate Sound, where I purchased a Kimber PBJ line-level interconnect. Scylla and I then took the 38-Geary to my place, where we placed that PBJ between an Adcom GFT-555II and a preamp. Scylla, then entering her senior year at Cal, liked Huey Lewis & The News' cover of "But It's Alright."  The next Saturday, I went to Audio Excellence, then located on Washington, across the street from the Transamerica Pyramid. Afterward, Scylla and three girlfriends met up, and we went out for yum cha (dim sum), to discuss our upcoming trip to Hawaii. Some wanted to do this, that, and everything in between. But Kaye said, "I don't want to cook and clean. I just want to eat, lie on the beach......and do absolutely nothing at all!"  When we got to Honolulu, of course we had to pay a visit to Audio Directions Ltd. A Kimber dealer, ADL had PBJ in stock, and was selling a lot of it. It's illegal to touch sea turtles. But this guy (gal?) was lying on the sand. So, with our group wearing PBJ's red, blue, and black, we lay next to the turtle.  On current-production PBJs, the heat shrink wrap will have an arrow, indicatiNg signal flow direction. But this sample, possibly from the mid-1990s, has no such arrow. So, a rule of thumb (which can be broken, BTW) is to make signal flow go in the direction of the writing.  Astute readers know that, back in 2003, the very first product we put on the audiodharma Cable Cooker was the Kimber PBJ. Even though we had over a dozen PBJs, we did not take any photos. So, after you determine your PBJ's signal flow direction, put that PBJ on the Cable Cooker.  "Sorry about the creeper photo," says Scylla. "We were at Ala Moana Beach, when these four hot guys lay their towels down in front of us. I put on my shades, and stared at those guys. You're damn well right, I wanted them to notice me!" Even if your trip to the beach takes, say, 2.5 hours, 2.5 hours on the Cable Cooker goes way beyond what 25 years of regular playing time does. Still, optimal Cook time for the PBJ is between 2.5 and 3 days. No surprise, the Cooking process (a) reduces grain, and (b) allows the PBJ to decode at least some soundstage depth. The images no longer run into each other, kind of like maintaining your distance from (a) the turtle, and (b) each other. If you find the untreated PBJ's mid-treble to be a bit rough, the Cooking process mitigates some of that. However, if you get the PBJ with WBT-0147 RCAs (not pictured), as was common in the late-90s and early-00s, the Cooking process reveals that it's the UltraPlate RCA, not the PBJ wiring itself, which is guilty of adding grain and brightness to the mid-treble. -Lummy The Loch Monster
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