Kimber Cable Select

A short update; I ended up purchasing the McIntosh reference preamp, C12000c & C12000st (tube) and HIFi Rose 150b. (Everything is still boxed up waiting to be assembled once a rack to hold the equipment and cables, interconnects, HDMI, plugs and Niagara 3000 or 5,000 has been decided on.  

I am considering AudioQuest Thunderbird speaker cables (Zero or zero/biwire combo with Thunderbird XLR  interconnects or Kimber Kable KS6063 speaker cables with ks1116 interconnects. 

Any thoughts? 

@farne230 Sounds like you are assembling a nice system that I trust you will enjoy for a long time. I don’t have any experience with AudioQuest wire but can attest from my experience that the KS6063 and KS1116 wire you are considering are quite good. For years on my main system, I used KS6065 speaker cables and KS1126 interconnects but had KS6063’s and KS1016’s on other systems. I have a friend who has a McIntosh setup and has been happy with his KS1016’s and KS6063’s for years.

Full disclosure, however, for my new main system I have moved away from the Kimber wire and gone with Kubala-Sosna Realization for all power cords, interconnects, and speaker cables. That being said, however, from many years’ experience with the Kimber wire you are considering I can certainly recommend it, especially at its price point.

The main reason I wanted to reply to this thread, however, was to make another couple of suggestions that you might consider. For many years I used Kimber PK10 Palladian power cords on my source, preamp, and amp. They are very good and only recently supplanted by the Realization wire. The Palladians made a significant contribution on all the systems on which I used them. Also, I use an isolation transformer (Torus AVR20) and like it a lot. If you end up considering a piece such as the Torus, add up the continuous current draw for all your components. If the total draw is less than 15-amps you could use something like an RM15. The AVR20 is overkill for my system but I like it.

Kimber is certainly credible wire and been around forever. It must still be popular as it seems to hold its value in the used market. There are lots of great cables on the market Kimber certainly fits the bill.

It appears that you’re interested in Kimber Kable. I can’t speak to all of their products, but it appears that their primary design revolves about a litz braid. I do not have any personal experience with Kimber Kable, but assume them to be a quality product; however, before I purchased cables from Kimber Kable I would take a hard look at Iconoclast by Belden. The engineer in me really connects with the Design and Technical Papers that are available to explain the "why" for the Iconoclast cable designs. I also appreciate that the designer, Galen Gareis, acknowledges that he can hear differences in things that he cannot design for. In comparison to Kimber Kable, the Iconoclast speaker cables also use a braided design, but are taken a step further by flattening the braid out. Their return policy appears to be very generous so if I had the funds to support it, I would give them a try.

Generation 2 speaker cables and the 4x4 Generation 2 XLR interconnects are pretty cool designs/concepts.