Lorenz Soh

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 4 of 5

Used product for
3 Months to 1 year

Price Paid:  $700.00

Summary:
I dropped by the Kimber distributor and during a casual conservation, the salesperson offered me a Kimber KS2020 digital cable for a trial. What? I was already pleased with my Audioquest cable but since the home trial was without obligation, then why not. Guess what? BIG MISTAKE!!! I was addicted..... The audioquest was labelled as garbage and disposed of quickly. Welcome to the world of Kimber Selects.

I bought the KS2020 which was indispensable and thereafter I saved and lusted after the KS1030. In fact, the approval I have from the KS2020 made me bought the KS1030 without any trial. Yes, the KS2020 was that good. The KS1030 does the same thing of adding sweetness and revealing the veils from all the speakers and NEVER adding any harshness to the presentation. I can always put in any CD and out of the speakers will confidently emerge the MUSIC.

if you want to experience what music is all about, trust me, borrow, beg and try the KS1030. And don't say I did not warn you.

Strengths:
Details without sounding harsh.
Additon of a thin coating of glucose to the overall presentation

Weaknesses:
PRICE!!!
Too sweet-sounding as times.

Similar Products Used:
MIT, Van den Hul, Audioquest, tara labs

Price Paid:  $700.00

Summary:
I dropped by the Kimber distributor and during a casual conservation, the salesperson offered me a Kimber KS2020 digital cable for a trial. What? I was already pleased with my Audioquest cable but since the home trial was without obligation, then why not. Guess what? BIG MISTAKE!!! I was addicted..... The audioquest was labelled as garbage and disposed of quickly. Welcome to the world of Kimber Selects.

I bought the KS2020 which was indispensable and thereafter I saved and lusted after the KS1030. In fact, the approval I have from the KS2020 made me bought the KS1030 without any trial. Yes, the KS2020 was that good. The KS1030 does the same thing of adding sweetness and revealing the veils from all the speakers and NEVER adding any harshness to the presentation. I can always put in any CD and out of the speakers will confidently emerge the MUSIC.

if you want to experience what music is all about, trust me, borrow, beg and try the KS1030. And don't say I did not warn you.

Strengths:
Details without sounding harsh.
Additon of a thin coating of glucose to the overall presentation

Weaknesses:
PRICE!!!
Too sweet-sounding as times.

Similar Products Used:
MIT, Van den Hul, Audioquest, tara labs

Price Paid:  $600.00 from Soundline, Christchurch, New Zealand

Summary:
I own and use every day -

Meridian 596 DVD/CD Player
Aragon Soundstage
Dynavector HX1.2 190 watt amp
Arvus QS 12.6's (see www.worldsbestspeakers.com)
Kimber 1020's between Aragon and Dynavector
Shahinian Arcs
REL Storm III Subwoofer
Kimber speaker cable

Right, first things first. Let's face it, if you have $2000 NZ Dollars or $600 US for one set of interconnects, you have either too much money, you are very fussy or you're a show off/poseur. I happen to be very fussy, an audiophile if you will but don't blow my money on rubbish so bear with me and let me explain myself and clarify a few ideas that obviously people have regarding high end interconnections.

I returned from Hawaii with an Aragon Soundstage, upgraded my Meridian 508 to a 596 player (24 bit, etc...), ran 1020 Kimber Selects from the player to the Aragon Soundstage, then 1010's to the Dynavector and it sounded great, but it didn't sparkle like it should have and I couldn't put my finger on why. I tried various other interconnects but I couldn't upgrade using any other brands, I only went backwards or occasionally sideways in sound quality.

There is a track on Seal's CD called Don't Cry that I used for auditioning all of the interconnects and not one interconnect ranging from Van Den Hul to Audioquest, MIT etc...could improve on what I had so I thought, right, time to upgrade my speaker wire then since it can't be the interconnects that are the problem, but no, what I was offered was a weekend to audition some 1030's for my player/pre amp connection and then I could use my 1020's for my pre amp to amp and WOW.

The soundstage is now wider, yes, that's good, but the difference with the Shahinians is incredible. What happens is this - when you play Don't Cry from Seal on all of the other interconnections the actual height of the voice and the effects leading up to the instruments kicking in comes to about half way up the wall. My partner is not an audiophile and says I'm crazy being so fussy but I had her agree with the height perception of half the height of the room. I plugged the 1030's in and transferred the 1020's to the pre/amp and then keeping the volume the same, which is easy when you have a digital display, the height of the performance nearly doubles. My partner sat in my soundroom chair and said "The sound now reaches the ceiling" which is exactly true. The clarity is better, soundstage is wider but the overall impression and emotion is there in spades. Depth is so real as well.

When using the Arvus speakers, the difference is not quite as pronouced with height but the emotion and realism is quite amazing and after having the 1030's, anything else makes the speakers sound dead, which is not true but it's hard to go back when you've heard these.

2 years ago I bought some 1010's after audioning them and then upgraded to the 1020's, kept the 1010's for pre/amp and used the 1020's for cd/pre. In that system, the 1030's were not justifiable due to cost and the equipment I had could not show them off. If you have the best equipment, these 1030's will shine, if you don't have the best equipment, then you have wasted your money. Everything is relative. You don't put a Meridian CD Player with a Kenwood amp and you don't fit second hand tyres on a Ferrari, so accordingly only the best, most revealing equipment will show off a good set of interconnections. For my money, they were well worth it and I give them 5 stars for performance and 5 for value because they match my equipment and make it shine. My entire CD, amp, preamp, sub, speaker, cable, interconnection setup comes to around $80,000 NZ Dollars or more than $28,000 US Dollars and for the equivelant of $600 for one pair of 1030's, my system now sounds as it should so in the big scheme of things, these interconnections are money very well spent and they were a big upgrade and I have not thought about going any further for many months now, in fact I still hear my system daily and smile.

So for those who scoff, and I do understand why you feel this way, until you save your pennies and start building a great system (start with a good source, not good speakers) rather than those mediocre kits from the Circuit City's and KMarts, you'll never know what a good set of interconnections can do to your grin factor on a Friday night with bourbons and good friends on hand.

Strengths:
Beautiful sound and amazing soundstaging

Weaknesses:
Cost if you don't have the money for the best out there

Similar Products Used:
I have tested several high end cable from Van Den Hul, Kimber Silver Series, 1020's, 1010's and several other supposedly high end cables

Price Paid:  $750.00 from $750 for a DEMO model, $1200 regularly

Summary:
There's no question...the KS-1030 is a wonderful cable. I decided to shell out the extra money for one pair of them: for the connection between my pre-amp and my amp, since that's the most important link in my system. I only did it because I was able to get a demo model for $750. My other connections are all KS-1020. Bear in mind, a one-meter pair of 1030's costs around twice as much as the same length of 1020's. In my moderately-educated opinion, the 1030 is only about 15-20% better than the 1020. I would not pay the rather significant difference between the two cables unless I had tons and tons of money, and could afford to equip the entire system with 1030s. In other words, maybe if I had 1030's on everything, I would realize a more significant improvement than I do with one pair of 1030's along with 1020's everywhere else.

If money is even a slight consideration, you would do extremely well to go with 1020's across the board, and skip the 1030's. You'd be missing out on a little in terms of midrange transparency, definition, and speed, but not that much in the low or high ends.

Just so you know, these are not bass-heavy cables. My previous interconnects, the Tara Labs Master Generation 2's, were far more bass-inclined. However, I believe this was because those cables had a slight artificial bias toward the low-end. 1020's and 1030's have only a bias toward the truth, so you will not hear the heavy-handed bass that you would notice with the Master Gen 2's and many other mid-priced cables. Everything will come through as the artist intended it to, so lousy recordings will not be aided or masked, but great recordings will sound otherworldly.

Strengths:
Incredible sound...about as good as you can get without spending ultra-mega bucks

Weaknesses:
$700 better than the KS-1020? Nah.

Similar Products Used:
None

Summary:
I may be inclined to agree that $1,200 is a hell of a lot for a pair of interconnects. But cables do make a difference and if you want the best you will pay for it! Ultimately, what you must decide is if you will miss the money when listening to your favorite recordings and getting goose bumps from how incredible it sounds.