Kimber PBJ, Part 7
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| Posted on August 24, 2022 at 23:23:07 | ||
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Posts: 7331
Location: Bay Area Joined: December 11, 2000 |
 Oh what might have been. During the Winter 1993 quarter, I dated my friend and UCSC classmate, Kim. I had never melded so effortlessly with anyone else. But then, when we were selecting classes for the Spring 1993 quarter, I was going to be a TA for one of Kim's accounting class. Because of that conflict of interest, we decided to break up. During spring break 1993, I went home to San Francisco (which was also Kim's hometown), and reconnected with my ex-girlfriend, KJ. It felt as though KJ and I would finally get back together, and potentially get married. After the Spring 1993 quarter, I graduated, but Kim needed one more year, something I should have done. I wasn't ready for the real world. And when I moved back home, I ultimately and sadly did not get back together with KJ. In late summer 1993, I reconnected with Kim, who was very happy to see me. We had the new Vai album, and Kim said it was a toss-up between "In My Dreams With You" and "Still My Bleeding Heart," as to which one made her feel more in love with me. But being at our parents' places wasn't the same as being in college together.  Nevertheless, Kim and I went to San Francisco's Ultimate Sound, which was still located in the dungeon basement of the Sherman Clay Building. Although the single-ended RCA Kimber PBJ got all the attention, one of my first PBJs was actually a balanced XLR pair. No, Kim (no relation to Kimber) did not eat peanut butter & jelly sandwiches. We went to the Tenderloin, and had banh mi sandwiches. At my place, we hooked up the balanced Kimber PBJ between a B&K Pro10MC preamp and Muse Model 100 power amp. Back then, a 1-meter pair was merely $62. That not bankrupt me, even though I was not working part-time. I was free to bowl league, go out with girlfriends, or buy another PBJ. Within two years, that balanced PBJ would be used with gear from Adcom, Classe', Fanfare FM, Parasound, and Theta.  Those 1993 samples came in a Ziploc bag. During the mid-to-late 1990s, Kimber placed the PBJ in plastic clamshell packaging. It remained that way, until recently. They now come in a vacuum-sealed plastic bag, kind of like beef jerky. Not very elegant.  Almost 30 years later, the balanced Kimber PBJ still uses Switchcraft XLR plugs.  Modern-day PBJ has heatshrink wrap, with a signal-flow arrow. But c'mon, do you really need that on a balanced interconnect, where one end has female XLR, the other male?  The balanced PBJ now costs $16 more than the RCA version. Termination for RCA is $96, while termination for XLR is $112. The cable portion for either is $26 per half meter pair. -Lummy The Loch Monster
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