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Kimber 4TC, Part 2

After I graduated from college, the July 1993 Stereophile featured a review of the Kimber PBJ line-level interconnect. At $62 for a 1-meter pair (RCA or XLR!), even if you only worked part-time or made just above minimum wage, you could actually afford one.



I liked the PBJ so much, it was only natural, to obtain a Kimber speaker cable. I bought the 8TC, which was.....underwhelming.

In 1994, MTV and VH1 phased out music videos, in favor of programming and reality shows. Thus, a source for new music dried up. Long fans of Erasure, my friends bought Erasure's new album, I Say, I Say, I Say . Maybe its blue album cover made us more favorable to Kimber's TC series, which then featured a black & blue color scheme. We still have no idea why our favorite song, "Man In The Moon," was never released as a single. It should have been a hit.




Perhaps in late 1994, I bought Kimber's 4TC. Surprisingly, the cheaper 4TC sounded better than the 8TC. Yeah you had to give up a little body, smoothness, and bass extension, but the 4TC was superior in liveliness, musical expression, treble extension, and pop. The 4TC was so good for so little, it still left you with a little money for CDs and, if you budgeted, little road trips.



My friends were still in college. So we took the economy subcompact cars, and drove up and down California. If we took 101, we could hit the California Missions.



When you stopped at fruit and vegetable stands, your Latina friends would kind of freeze. You see, their relatives often worked on farms or in the food processing industries. They came from towns like Fresno, Merced, and Salinas. Today, farmers markets have become popular, here in the Bay Area.

Anyway, one time, on the way back from SoCal, one of your Asian girlfriends, Laura, bought mushrooms and veggies. When you guys got home, she invited you over, her mom had shrimp/prawns, you made rice, and you did hot pot. Laura smiled, "Well, hot pot isn't cooking cooking."




I *think* that, in the 90s, the Kimber 4TC actually came in a plastic clamshell. I ordered mine via San Francisco's Ultimate Sound. It came quickly, but was merely in a plastic bag. The Kimber 4TC now comes in a small grocery tote.



As with any cable, your mission is to utilize a cable burn-in device. Not sure if the audiodharma Cable Cooker is a hot pot, but it is a tool, to unlock the Kimber 4TCs potential, something NO amount of regular playing can do. This sample is a double biwire 4TC, two pairs tied together at the amp end. Treat one leg for 2 to 2.5 days, the other for the 2 to 2.5 days. For illustrative purposes, the photo above shows the untreated legs with the banana plugs exposed. We recommend that you cover them with electrical tape, while the other legs are being Cooked. Those 4 to 5 days are merely a school or work week. They'll go by, before you know it.

-Lummy The Loch Monster



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Topic - Kimber 4TC, Part 2 - Luminator 18:30:06 03/20/21 (1)

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