Hello dudes! I am completely down with reality-based, physics-based wire/cable selection. 100% I guess I should have been clear that my interest in these in particular -- over other choices -- is aesthetically driven. But I am a bit concerned about the capacatance these things might have at 15-20ft runs.
This concern is based, mostly, on the one and only Gene De La Salla's review of the Kimber 4pr and 8pr.
The issue is that the side/back of the speakers are
visible due to room layout and circulation and the cables run to the amp noticeable. And so I want it too look nice. And I like the look of braided cables. What can I say? maybe its a fetish?
The nice thing about braided Kimbre-esque cables is you can create really clean and nice looking terminations without boots and tons of heat shrink. Instead you just un-braid the strands to the length needed to have each reach the terminals and then "re-braid" them into a inverse double twisted pair for each binding post (create two twisted pairs for each terminal, and then twist those pairs in the other direction around each other). Looks really nice and minimalist. I would like the ability to biwire/biamp. again, I totally understand the biwire voodoo thing. its just that "jumper" on the binding posts on my speakers are finicky (sometimes not the greatest connection) and detract from the appearance. Bi wire just makes a more secure connection, and because anyone can see the back of the speakers before they see the front, its nice if it looks good (its a modern house, what can you do!). and yes the backs of the speakers look good, with the same veneer as the sides and blingy cardas binding posts/speaker jewelry. A braided biwire I think is just going to be cleaner aesthetically than jumper cables and cooler looking than a bunch of rubber boots and red and black wires. Braided cable unfolding into four reverse twisted pairs with spade connectors -- like a smokin' hot medusa hair thing or creepy Cronenberg contraption!
But I don't like the Kimber Brown and black color scheme on the PR series and don't want to pay more for Kimber's nicer color schemes (which, barring non-magical thinking is pretty much the only difference for the higher priced models as far as I can tell). The cable I am talking about is only about $5 per foot. not a crazy premium for the given AWG. Okay, a bit of a premium. But not much worse than Canare star quad once its "prettified" with some techflex or woven jacket etc. And that ends up kinda with a punk aesthetic (too much rubber...). Again, the aesthetic thing....
I use the monoprice zip all the time and the BJC Beldon. Indeed, my house is wired in wall with the belden. But the mono price zip is going to look so NOT sexy, and the BJC Belden stuff looks god-awful either in grey or white, unless I start wrapping it in techflex, putting boots and bling on it, etc etc. Its also stiff as get out, doesn't like to lay flat, etc. And no, I am NOT going to braid my own....
Though for what its worth, according to our ripped Audioholic masters, the Kimbre braided geometry seems to have some grounding in reality (see the pun I worked in there....sorry). Link to article:
http://www.audioholics.com/gadget-reviews/kimber-kable-8tc-speaker-cable
Specifically there is this quote in the technical measures: "The Kimber 4PR effective gauge is about 14AWG while the 8PR is 11AWG and the 8TC is slightly below 10AWG...By weight of comparison, the inductance of the 8TC and 8PR was a mere .037 uF/ft and .041uH/ft, respectively; which was nearly four times lower than the 10AWG Bluejeans speaker cables that I revere so much."
I am presuming effective gauge means the gauge one gets when you take all the actual coper conductors and twist them together into one single conductor. On the 4PR that does indeed get you around 14AWG .
As well as, later in the page they examine capacitance: " It is no surprise that when a cable is designed to be low inductance that its capacitance will be proportionally higher as a result... Kimber’s published capacitance spec is 38pF for the 4PR and 90pF/ft for the 8PR and 100pF/ft for the 8TC. This is about what I measured as well, as you can see from the graph above. The Kimber 8TC and 8PR cables exhibit about four times higher capacitance than standard 10-12AWG zip cord, and twice as high as its 4PR sibling. Again I don’t see this as a show stopper especially since most people purchasing these types of cables are doing so for short runs (under 50 ft) and are likely using high quality amplification that doesn’t have stability issues driving moderately high capacitive cable." They conclude with: "They measure considerably superior to standard 10AWG zip cord and they look a whole lot better too."
So, if I am understanding the body-sculpted great ones correctly, the braided geometry seems to actually do something positive in terms of overall resistance and skin effect, whether it is audible or not.
So I agree, the difference I hear -- IF i am really hearing any difference at all...a big IF -- is likely due to the extreme inductance versus capacitance ratio. the kimber at equivalent of 11AWG has four times lower inductance than 10AWG belden BJC uses as standard. Does that make an audible difference at 15-20ft lengths?
