Kimber Kable 8TC vs 12TC (cable general)

C

chaosrealm93

Audioholic Intern
hey all,

i have the possibility of buying either the 8TC or 12TC in the near future and would like to hear what you all think. i know kimber and specifically the 8 and 12 TC are both respected names on this forum for not being snake oily and fairly rooted in fact. my question is which one i should go for.

ive read elsewhere online that the 12TC provides more bass and an overall richer sound. also, they say that the 12TC shouldnt be necessary and wouldnt be distinguishable from the 8 unless you have big woofers that need the extra control it would provide. is this true/possible?

im looking to buy my speaker cables once and buy it right

thanks guys !

my current setup
===========
pioneer VSX 520
monster lamp cord (i dont know what AWG)
PSB Imagine B
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
Someone doesn't like you. Kimber Kable is pretty much audiophoolery. I'd kick Ray Kimber in the balls given the chance, right along with Bill Low and a few others offering idiocy in cable.

Figure out what you need and build it yourself or look at monoprice.com, mediabridge brand at amazon.com or for fancy stuff bluejeanscable.com
 
C

chaosrealm93

Audioholic Intern
Someone doesn't like you. Kimber Kable is pretty much audiophoolery. I'd kick Ray Kimber in the balls given the chance, right along with Bill Low and a few others offering idiocy in cable.

Figure out what you need and build it yourself or look at monoprice.com, mediabridge brand at amazon.com or for fancy stuff bluejeanscable.com
its that bad huh?
 
BoredSysAdmin

BoredSysAdmin

Audioholic Slumlord
Forget about fancy cables. I say use that budget for new sub if you don't have one
 
tyhjaarpa

tyhjaarpa

Audioholic Field Marshall
Stay away from expensive cables, they will do nothing better than regular cable as long as you have thick enough OFC cables.
 
G

Got Hi-Fi?

Audioholic Intern
Running a pioneer VSX 520 your monster lamp cord is probably more than enough. You won't benefit much from higher end cables.
 
KenM10759

KenM10759

Audioholic Samurai
If you want something which looks nice & high-tech that sounds the same as both Monster zip cord and Kimber Cables, buy from one of the sponsors here, Blue Jeans Cable. Sensible quality, reasonable cost, no BS.
 
Speedskater

Speedskater

Audioholic General
When it comes to loudspeaker cables cable the first questions are:
1] How long is the cable?
2] What is the impedance curve of the loudspeaker?

The only reasonable (but not in price) cables that Kimber Kable makes are their loudspeaker cables.
 
highfigh

highfigh

Seriously, I have no life.
I listened to a system yesterday, which uses some kind of expensive cables, cable stands, expensive Class A mono block amplifiers, very nice speakers, a nice turntable and cartridge and a different preamp from the one he had been using. Since he has worked in the Audio business for decades, he has saved tons of money on his investment but I would guess that it's in the high five figures even with the discounts.

When I mentioned that one speaker was closer to his main listening position, he said they had recently cleaned the carpet and that he hasn't placed the speakers where they had been but he had raved about his newest speakers in the past. He has two other pairs of expensive speakers in the room, as well as two large-ish subwoofers that aren't being used- the speakers have a jumper connecting the positive and negative terminals, which prevents the cones resonating because of the sound from the speakers that are being used (JBL and some other manufacturers ship their larger drivers with a jumper to prevent damage from rough handling).

To be honest, I'd rather listen to my system. The balance of frequency response and perceived image/sound stage are much better and, while he doesn't use his system for video in any way and we didn't listen to any mono music or speaking, mine places the sound dead center between my speakers and human voice is very natural.

I used speaker cable that was cut off when I did an installation, so it could be called 'scrap'.

While I spent some time placing my speakers and used Room EQ Wizard to do this and also when I placed some acoustical treatments, he has done neither. Admittedly, finding the "right spot" for speakers is a royal PITA, it needs to be done. He has done little to treat the room and in fact, I asked him to move the pillows that had been propped up on the backrest of his sofa because I had the same sensation I get when other phase issues are present, from bad speaker placement, crossover problems, driver polarity reversal or having a lot of absorption on one side and less on the other (which is what he had, with the pillows in place). It helped, but it didn't help enough, IMO. I also moved one speaker so its distance was more similar to the other and toed it in a bit.

I think he's having serious doubts about the system and he said he's going to return the preamp that's in the rack now- he seems to be hunting for just the right pieces more than usual and this is the reason I don't want to deal with the really high end equipment- it's easy to become veruy neurotic about whether the sound is as good as it should and could be and the price is too high for me. If price is no object, someone can spend what they want, but I don't see it as a good value to drop close to $100K and have doubts. I went to a high end dealer a couple of weeks ago and that system sounded much better, to me- the SPL was also very low and it still imaged extremely well.

Specific to Kimber cable, I know a Kimber Cable dealer and when I asked one of the guys working there about it, he told me that he asked Ray himself why he sells cables that are so expensive and the answer was "People pay me a lot of money for them".

The son of Noel Lee (fonder of Monster Cables) was asked for his opinion on his father's products and he said "My father found the solution to a problem that didn't exist".

Buy them if you want, but if you think you hear a difference, it's either because you know they're being used and were told what you should hear, you decide that you want to hear the same differences as others or because the cable has some electrical characteristic that causes this difference. A group of wires that each have been insulated will have more capacitance than a group of strands that are insulated together, like regular speaker cables. If they start talking about 'skin effect', make sure you read about this before you go to the dealer, so you have the info you'll need to see that this is a selling tactic- skin effect means nothing at audio frequencies.

Save your money.
 
TLS Guy

TLS Guy

Seriously, I have no life.
Forget Kimber, they are not even as well made as cheaper cables.
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
Running a pioneer VSX 520 your monster lamp cord is probably more than enough. You won't benefit much from higher end cables.
Has nothing to do with an avr. The ones benefiting from high-end cable are those selling it. If it's prettier and if that's worth the money to you, fine, but wire isn't magically going to improve audio as long as the wire is of proper construction and gauge for your use. Monster is another company producing overpriced wires/cables. The current crop of high end cables mostly took their cue from Monster's success.
 
G

Got Hi-Fi?

Audioholic Intern
Has nothing to do with an avr. The ones benefiting from high-end cable are those selling it. If it's prettier and if that's worth the money to you, fine, but wire isn't magically going to improve audio as long as the wire is of proper construction and gauge for your use. Monster is another company producing overpriced wires/cables. The current crop of high end cables mostly took their cue from Monster's success.
Clearly you have nothing better to do than troll, and you have no knowledge of hi-fi whatsoever. Bugger off.
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
Clearly you have nothing better to do than troll, and you have no knowledge of hi-fi what soever. Bugger off.
More than you do apparently, if you like buggering people with nonsensical audio advice you're in the wrong place.
 
G

Got Hi-Fi?

Audioholic Intern
More than you do apparently, if you like buggering people with nonsensical audio advice you're in the wrong place.
Yeah, I guess if this forum is for asshats like you, I am definitely in the wrong place.
 
Pogre

Pogre

Audioholic Slumlord
Clearly you have nothing better to do than troll, and you have no knowledge of hi-fi whatsoever. Bugger off.
I'm fairly new to this forum, but HD has been around a few years and I've never seen him troll. I've moderated a few forums in the past and usually the guys doing the trolling are the ones who resort to childish tactics such as name calling. If you disagree, why don't you post up some facts (links) and prove him wrong?

I think your money would be much better spent on better speakers than audiophool kables.
 
G

Got Hi-Fi?

Audioholic Intern
I'm fairly new to this forum, but HD has been around a few years and I've never seen him troll. I've moderated a few forums in the past and usually the guys doing the trolling are the ones who resort to childish tactics such as name calling. If you disagree, why don't you post up some facts (links) and prove him wrong?

I think your money would be much better spent on better speakers than audiophool kables.
Then you sir, are just as bad as he is. Or blind. Take your pick.
 
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