Revisiting the Kimber KCAG


I've been using RCA KCAGs between my preamp and amp for about 15 years. I've tried many other ICs (in approximately the same price range or lower) including Siltech, XLO, Cardas, Staightwire, and some of the internet-only jobs like Oritek, Signal Cable, and Guerilla. Some worked well in my system (I kept those), others not, but what I keep hearing is how incredibly transparent the KCAG cables are (in my system). Do they do everything perfectly? No. With some music you can hear juuuust a little bit of hardness in the mids, and the soundtsgae is not as big as with some other cables.

What I would like to hear from the gang here is whether there are any other cables in this price range (or maybe a bit more) that have the same information retrieval, speed, and transparency (while still remaining very musical) as these classic cables... and maybe improve a bit on those areas where the KCAG may be a little weak. At this point I can work with either RCA or XLR.
tonyptony
Tonyptony, you are correct the Kimber 1010 are on the warm side, but the Kimber 1021 is another history.
I'm glad you like the AZ silver reference, its a wonderfull cable. Enjoy it. In the end if you are still having the "hardness problem" maybe the answer is not in the cables, but elsewere. then you must dig deeper.
Hi Bombaywalla, I haven't read or posted much in a long time. The vdH carbon cables don't seem to get a lot of "run" anymore, they've been around a long time, and you know how that game goes. But they're still a totally unique product, and deserve a wider audience IMO. There's actually quite a few user reviews over on Audioreview.com. BTW, the original "The First" was not the same as its successor, the current "The First Ultimate", which has something like 3X the number of carbon fibers in the return/shield for lower resistance and better noise rejection, and is worth a listen if you haven't heard it recently.
Ahh....Kimber Select. My plan is to change everything to these Series. If you have the cash, I strongly you make an excellent start with the current Select.... BUT don't say I didn't warn you of the potential addiction....
Hi, Tonyptony
I'm just wondering you have Guerilla, Signal Cable and Oritek, how was the sound compare to your KCAG? especially Guerilla coz I'm looking for their product. I owned some kimber cable before from PBJ, Hero, Silver Streak, except KCAG but Silver Streak is more improvement than the other two, more speed and good on bottom end. My opinion if you're looking for speed and Transparency, Go to Nordost, I have Solar Wind speaker cable it kills my Kimber 8 TC.