Detail, Smooth clean mids and highs

None

Have been listening to the 4TC cable now for the last week. Impressions are as follows:

The 4TC is very clean and transparent, I am hearing details not present before.

My Monster Z1 cables eliminated the high frequency grain and listener fatigue that was present when using standard Monster XP speaker cable.

Compared to the 4TC however, the Monster Z1 sounds muddy across the entire frequency range. The Z1 sounds like the bass frequencies are somewhat smeared together and that some of the high frequency range is filtered out. When doing direct comparison between Monster XP and Monster Z1 cables the Monster Z1 sounds like a big improvement.

When doing a direct comparison between the Kimber 4TC and Monster Z1 the 4TC is much improved in transparency and clarity without the high end grain. The 4TC creates a bigger sound stage with more air and space between instruments (better imaging).

I still dont understand how different cables can make such a big difference in my system? The difference is not something you have to strain to hear, it is obvious.

Most Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeplin sounded thin and tinny on my system before (always thought they were simply bad recordings). The 4TC really opens up the midrange and highs making these recordings much better to listen to. My system would probably benefit from a good Analog to Digital converter in place of the one in my modest DVD player.

I would strongly recommend giving these a try. I never thought I would spend this much for speaker cable. After all it's only 20 feet of copper wire right? After thinking about it I had to give this cable a value rating of 5 Stars since nothing for less money used so far has even come close in performance.

A word of caution, the standard Kimber spade termination was too small for the binding posts on my speakers. My posts are 5/16" diameter and it looks like the Kimber spade is for 1/4". No problem though, Audio Advisor exchanged the cables with ones having banana terminations. Audio Advisor prices are not rock bottom but their service and return policy are second to none.

Similar Products Used:

Monster XP, Monster Z1

Clean & clear sound (fast recoverable & no enengry stored), fast & dynamic, reasonable pricing, durable & beautiful appearance.

Terminating cable is painful, imaging & soundstaging slightly not as good as MIT & AQ at the same price range

Put it this way, this is a reasonable pricing cable designed for Hi-end system. Since I have tried many other within this price range & found 4TC has no coloration added on it. Some other brands tend to have adjustment on sonic charateristic (such as smoothen the high & making the low richer)in which it would also affect the tranperancy of the sound. I much prefer 4TC because it is clearer, faster, or perhaps leaner. After all, what a good sound stage & sonic details you can have with 4TC, terrific !

Similar Products Used:

MIT 750, AQ, VDH etc.

Excellent cable. Very transparent. Using these to power Paradigm Studio 20's via a SUMO The Nine amp and a Nak CA-5 preamp. The sound is effortless. Great speaker cable for the money.

Very neutral and smooth without the exagerated zippy high treble that I've found with some other cables, mid and high details are lots more apparent than my previous cable which is Monsters. (You guessed it right!) I am currently using 4TC for high level connections and considering 8TC for low level (Bi-amped) connection to replace my Monster Z1-series. Will post a 8TC review later on, once I've got them.

Neutral sound and good balance from the highest timbre to the deep bass. Fast and tight bass!

It looks funny!

I have tried a lot of different cables in my system (Thule IA60B, Thule CD150B DIGIT, Dali Grand Coupé) some have been bad, many have been good but only Kimber 4TC has been GREAT! It gives amazing performance for the money (110$)!

Similar Products Used:

Audioquest Midnight, SCReference (500$), CableTalk and more...

Excellent transparency. Very detailed highs

Need more listenning to find out.

I have only listened the 4TC for a couple of days. I should have listened more before I post the review. However, it is so obvious that the 4TC makes significant improvement over Monster and the Audioquest type 4+. I can't help posting these notes on 4TC.

I originally had Monster's "Original". The good points for it are good dynamics and strong highs. However the highs are at unpleasant strong level. Too much hardness and harshness. If you use it with infinity's 3000 or similar speakers, you are damaging your ears. Audioquest's type 4+ is a good speaker wire. It corrects the harshness problem, the real music instruments sound cleaner and fuller. However, I personally feel that the type 4+ has certain highs roll off. Although you can still hear much highs, clean highs, the highs are not quite extended. The upper bass and lower mids from type 4+ are fuller. This may be appreciated by many classical music listeners. I personally listened to many classical music and am able to win contest in "Name that Tune" for classical music section. However, I also enjoy pop and soft and new wave listennings. The extended highs become very important to me. Specially at low volumn listening, the rolled off highs would mean boring.

The Kimber 4TC is significantly more transparent just out of box. The highs are not only extended, but also pleasantly smooth. I certainly here more details than ever before. I can finally find the situation where "Lush" may be used. The mids are also smooth and clean, not in the sense that the voice are "pure" clean. It is "rich" and clean. When I go back and listen to the music using type 4+, I can still detect the details. But since the signals are weaker, so the type 4 didn't make some of the details catch my attention before. It is like you use a $10,000 telescope to find a sky object. Then if you look at it through a $500 telescope, you can still see it, barely see it. However, you did not quite notice that it was there because the image was not strong enough through your $500 telescope. If you are a believer that different speaker wire (even with same thickness) make no difference in sound, please hold your idea until you listen to 4TC. Certainly, you must use at least good amplifiers to do so. Good means top mass market (over $1000) or any upper scaled amplifiers. Not $200 Sony or Technics receivers. Low-end amplifiers don't deliver extended highs, the 4TC may make little difference. For my over $1000 amplifier, although the difference is still on the subtle side, it is detectable by any one. If you only buy $200 receiver, it makes no sense for you to buy this 4TC. This $100-$150 4TC will make difference on good systems. Is it to the extent that it worths $100? This would be your own judgement. However, if you want to save this $100, you definitely would not experience this difference, which to me is on my favorite direction. You may spend this $100 for a French Dinner. But to me, I prefer skiping one French dinner and let my pleasant listening last for a long time. There are many second hand 4TC out there, please get one and test drive it. You will then believe what I said. If you still don't like it. You can sell it on ebay. I guarantee it is a welcome product there. The market price is well over the price I paid ($80). Search "Kimber 4TC" on ebay, and hit "search completed items" to see the market prices.

Similar Products Used:

Monster original cable, Audioquest type 4+,

I have been using quite a number of budget cables but nothing comes close to the 4TC - at the end of the day, the lack of grain and harshness and the clean sound means that I will stick to these.
For the money (costs US$ 130 for a double 8-foot run for bi-wiring, double that), it gets 5 stars.

There are 4 x 2 strands of cable, but don't bi-wire with just a single run.

The teflon dielectric makes it sound much better than the 4VS (half the price) even though the 2 cables use the same conductors. I believe that part of the reason for that is that the teflon dielectric is much thinner than the PVC in 4VS, allowing the strands to get closer together in the weave.

I have a Rotel 870bx and a dynaco pa-3 along with an old denon CD player. I had been using Vampire wire (1.00+) a foot. I put these into my system, (6.00) and there were some new band members that showed up I didnt know my system could produce that much detail. Im amazed at what they did to my system.
Almost felt like I bought a new componet. The only thing I didnt like
was that the volume range "dynamics" seemed to suffer compared to the Nordost(3.00) I tried. The nordost brought out the detail, but you had to listen for it compared to the kimber, which said, here it is enjoy. I bought the Nordost due to price and I love "dynamics" and I dont mind "listening for detail". Im hoping when I buy a cambridge cd6 the detail issues will be solved.


4 speaker boxes, because I dont believe I have a five star system :-)

Mark

Laugh. If you check out the Network Cable, Category 5 UTP (review), you will see that the Kimber 4TC is nothing more than simple Category 5 plenum cable used for ceiling runs in high-speed data networks. Same 4x2 configuration, same teflon jacket, insulation and virtually the same performance. The Kimber 4VS is virtually identical to simple Category 5 cable (not plenum). This uses the PVC jacket and a variety of cheaper insulators then teflon.
For the technology, a 5 (it IS solid)
For the price, a 2
Overall...

This is the first cable I have tried in my own system other than zip-cord. I find it is an improvement. I have lower bass response now, and I can hear the metalic ring of cymbols instead of just the sizzle.
By the way, the only thing this cable has in common with CAT-5 cable is the number of conductors. The guage is larger, the Kimber is stranded conductors CAT-5 is not, the Kimber is braided CAT-5 is four twisted pair. I'm not debating any sound difference, because I havn't tried CAT-5, but I am debating that the two are the same configuration. It isn't so.