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Kimber Silver Streak, Part 3

162.205.183.92

Posted on May 21, 2021 at 23:15:25
Luminator
Audiophile

Posts: 7287
Location: Bay Area
Joined: December 11, 2000
"Take me to Hawaii!" exclaimed an Inmate from Upstate New York.



When she and I entered high school in 1985, my friend/classmate Mei Sue was listening to Kenny Loggins' Vox Humana on her Walkman. Her memory better than mine, she recalls that we had the same English, PE, Public Speaking, and World Civilizations classes. Because I wheeled the cart into and out of the classroom, Mei Sue, without being pejorative, called me an "A/V geek." Because of the awesome music, in April 1986, I took an interest in audio, and the rest... Back then, Mei Sue and I did not yet know about "high-end audio," but we were aware of after-market interconnects. Her knowledge of cables was limited to: "gold plating, while not a great conductor, does protect against rust."

Fast forward to 1997. Well aware that I was into high-end audio, Mei Sue now loved Kenny Loggins' "For The First Time." We decided to go island-hopping, her first time (other than a layover) getting off in Hawaii. She claimed that the first time she looked into my eyes was in PE, "I realized, oh s---, John's throwing the [foot]ball to me!"



On that trip, Mei Sue tried spam musubi for the first time. Ever the A/V geek, I saw the silver, white, and black colors, and thought of the Kimber Silver Streak interconnect. Mei Sue chuckled, in PE's football, "You were running with the ball, and William could only scratch your waistband. If he had been able to grab your shorts, I would have loved to see you go streaking!"

Mei Sue loved the Hawaiian Sun soft drinks. To my relatives, Mei Sue made a ham-fisted attempt at a cheeky joke, "John and I shared bodily fluids."

Even I sported a "WTF are you talking about" quizzical look. Mei Sue had to stammer, "He always got scratched, in football and basketball, and he would just keep playing. He got blood and sweat on me." "In folk dancing, I sneezed, teared up, and had a runny nose, which got on his shoulder."

If you are the guy, you are supposed to lead. But if you do not know what you are doing, you are up a creek. To me, the first time I looked into Mei Sue's eyes was in folk dancing. I must have been nervously sweating, and verbally or not, panicked, "What am I supposed to do?"



Anyway, we were going to a windward beach. I wore board shorts, and encouraged Mei Sue to do the same, or go with a 2-piece. But instead, she wore a black-and-white 1-piece. Ever the A/V geek, I once again thought of the Kimber Silver Streak. The wave-battered sand is fine, soft, and very sticky. Even if you are not using sunblock, the sand stubbornly clings to your hair, body, and swimwear.



After being buried in the sand, Mei Sue kept trying to dust off the sand. I shook my head, "You can do that forever, but you need to wash it off."



So Mei Sue and I got on my bodyboard, and we paddled out just beyond the upchurned shorebreak. Since the water flowed through my board shorts, it flushed off most of the sand. But Mei Sue's 1-piece trapped the sand. So she took it off, handed it to me, and I swished out the sand. Meanwhile, Mei Sue swam around, scrubbed her hair underwater, did somersaults. She said that the hardest part was, while staying afloat in the water, trying to get the 1-piece bathing suit back on!

Back in Honolulu, we went to Audio Directions Ltd., the authorized Kimber Kable dealer. They did have a couple pairs of opened RCA Silver Streak. The late Stewart Ono said that, in the RCA version, the Silver Streak "is better than PBJ, gets most of the way to KCAG, but at a fraction of the cost."

Later, the topic of cable burn-in devices came up. Stu patiently corrected the customers, "Oh no, it's not just about burning-in faster. It goes beyond what any regular playing time can do."



Look. Standing on the beach, and dusting off the sand for over two decades is fine. And that's what regular playing time will do for you. But to completely remove the sand, you need a proper cable burn-in device. We use an audiodharma Cable Cooker. But uh-oh; after 3 days of Cook time, the RCA Silver Streak has had too much. It now exhibits an overall lazy sound, with bloated images, softened attacks, weak percussion, rolled-off treble, and a lack of transparency and air.



No need to panic, exchange fluids, or put on a 1-piece while actually in the water. Using the Cable Cooker is easy. Just make sure you treat the Silver Streak in your preferred direction. Somewhere between 2.5 and 3.0 days, the Silver Streak becomes over-Cooked. No big deal. Just hook the Silver Streak up, leave it in place, and wait for it to (sonically) settle. Kick off your flip flops, grab a spam musubi, wash it down with Hawaiian Sun drinks, and enjoy.



When Mei Sue handled a Silver Streak, she was crestfallen, that it did not hold its shape. She thought the cable bending, curling, and twisting was like her sandy and wind-blown hair. But hey! Wash off at a private outdoor shower. Get all of that sand, dirt, salt, and sunblock off. Use nice shampoo, conditioner, and body wash. After all of the sun, use a supple restorative body oil or lotion. That's what the Cooking process does for/to the Silver Streak. Grain, hash, sibilance, and brightness are reduced. In fact, most of the "brightness" associated with Silver Streak actually comes from the UltraPlate RCA. Silver Streak using WBT-0147 is not bright at all.

With the distortions reduced, the Silver Streak now decodes soundstage depth. The images maintain better stability and focus. There's better control over the mid- and upper-bass. There's better preservation of the quickness and snap of snare drum.

After being Cooked, the Silver Streak does a better job of bringing back and solidifying memories. When we entered high school, Mei Sue and I both liked the Kenny Loggins and El DeBarge duet, "I'll Be There." There was no cart in our English class, but that class did leave us very confused, as to the difference between "who" and "whom." In fact, we didn't truly learn that, until we took our respective foreign languages. Yup, after being Cooked, the Silver Streak has the articulation, which can teach you that "who" is used in predicate nominative; while "whom" is used in all other grammatical cases.

-Lummy The Loch Monster

 

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