Kimber makes the fabulous, and often overlooked, Tonik interconnect cable. It isn’t expensive so you might not be inclined to take it seriously. I want to take a minute to sing its praises due to a recent discovery I made. I want to be sure to bring it to your attention.
Pricing With Outstanding Kimber Ultratike RCA Terminations
.5m $96, 1m $108, 1.5m $120, 2m $132
Demo Set Up
We have our gear on open audio racks in the store. This gives us flexibility in moving gear around. We (& you) get to hear a myriad of combinations of equipment as we move a rack of this, next to that, to connect the gear we want to demo. We’re not like the stores than nail down an expensive system trimmed to the 9s, with no ability to compare other products.
We have four levels of cables on hand to use for various applications. Sometimes we need fairly long (2-3 meters) runs, depending on which combo we need to play. We don’t have long runs of the high end cables.
1) Shielded Interlinx
2) Kimber Toniks
3) Kimber Heros
4) Kimber Carbons
I’m about to write about a GREAT new CD I bought, Benjamin Grosvenor playing Schumann & Brahms, just released on Decca. The sound is warm, open and makes the piano sound authentic in character. I played it at home and brought it down to the shop to give it another spin.
The system I fired up is an Atoll CD80 Signature CD player ($1750), Atoll PR-200 Signature preamp ($1500) and Atoll AM-100 Signature power amp ($1500). I started with Klipsch Cornwalls ($6600pr) which were just recovering from a strong workout a customer had given them. The speaker cable is Kimber 8 PAIR.
The piano sounded rich and rounded, BUT, it was missing the PRESENCE I knew it had. I know this gear well. I knew what was missing… was NOT the fault of any of this hardware. I’ve heard this stack many times, at length.
I went to look behind the stack and saw the culprits! We had connected some two meter runs of Shielded Interlinx for the last customer- due to the distance of separation of the components he wanted to hear.
This fix should just take a minute. I moved the gear so I wouldn’t need the longer interconnects. I grabbed a couple of Kimber Tonik interconnects from a nearby stack and voila! The presence was back! The singing timbre of the piano, with gorgeous, colorful overtones and plenty of air- was easy to hear now on Schumann’s incredible Kreisleriana.
This “fix” consisted of running two Toniks (CD to preamp, preamp to power amp) $96 ea. The Shielded Interlinx cables run $60 each. For only $36 more apiece, the Toniks took this system from smooth to ALIVE. We had used the Interlinx because we needed the 2m runs and they were available in that length.
I’m thinking many of you at home are running some interconnects you’ve had forever that don’t have Kimber level of open, airy sound.
The beauty of Tonik is, that you can up your game for only $96 per cable (L&R). For the time and money we music lovers invest in our hobby, it’s not a big ask.
As you go north in the Kimber line, there ARE improvements.
Kimber Heros (.5m $231) sound richer than Toniks.
Kimber Carbons (.5m $510) sound even more open and dynamic than either little brother.
BUTTT, the saving grace of the Tonik, is that for its modest price … it sounds closer to the Carbon than it does the Shielded Interlinx!
My point, as always, is to be aware of the point of diminishing returns. I know you’re not likely to buy Kimber Carbons for the above system. Yet I am very comfortable twisting your arm until you pony up for Kimber Toniks!