The empirical audiophile : WBC ultimate cable review against Kimber 8AG Kable, pure silver.

The empirical audiophile reviews the WBC ultimate cable against Kimbers 8AG pure silver you'll be surprised at the outcome.
Dear Audiophilic,
We appreciate you choosing WBC-ultimate for you to evaluate it listening pleasure. We guarantee that you will hear a significant improvement from the moment you plug these cables in, but the performance will further improve as the cables are broken in during normal, listening.
Since these cables, come with a 24 month/730 day extended return window from us, you can break in the cables at your convenience. Our return window will start from the day the Amazon.com return window is exhausted.
Furthermore, as almost all online sellers are now offering returns, we heartily encourage you to go for cables that are 10 to 50 times more expensive than what you spent on our cables and AB test against ours and keep the best performing cables and return the rest.
Happy listening!
Warm regards,
Team World’s Best Cables
NOTE: To contact us after the expiration of the Amazon return window, please send us a message via Amazon’s “Ask a question” feature (white button) on the ‘About Seller ‘page and we will assist you with the return.

[@TheBRBvideos]

I use the WBC UE 9AWG bi-wire in my humble system. Superb cable after a two week run-in and at an affordable price.

[@ML-rm3vk]

I used wbc cable and I must say a terrific change in sound.

[@sonusancti]

That's the best endorsement non-endorsement I've heard. I'm a Kimber fan myself. Lucky you to have the Ag!

[@carlitosgomez71]

What does a single run do in comparison sound wise

[@mrpmj00]

Wow, you bought the WBC ultimate 7 AWG. I bought the WBC ultimate 9 AWG and it improved my sound for my high 1100 damping factor amp PS Audio S300. I stopped at WBC 9 AWG because I wanted a black cable. My video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/Y4jFh6airpaLZtk source=Apple Music lossless

[@psyphonyxaudio]

MUCH thicker than I imagined. Thanks for showing them.

[@darrellross8609]

Dear Sir, I went with BJC Canare [ 4ft ] w/ Locking banana plugs, a great peace of mind feature. Best, D. From Stl.

[@Immersive-r4c]

Sir, considering your empirical criteria cited, and, implicit in your comments about the value of the used Kimbers, why in the world would you not sell the Kimbers to offset the cost of the WBC and then pocket the rest? Maybe you have aesthetic reasons as well as functional hook-up related ones, but those are not mentioned.

[@billgeorge4348]

No kidding!

[@trucchuong1726]

For those who might be confused or unfamiliar with the term "double running" speaker cables, which means "bi-wiring" if your speakers and amp are capable of. In my opinion, analog and speaker cables with different designs/brands/prices, most of them, sound different; however, in side by side comparison, they're better or not, from one to another, is totally "subjective." I've learned that after years of enjoying this fun hobby. You could simultiniously blind test 5 different audiophiles in a room. They would tell you the difference, but which one is better, in sound to the other, is totally subjective because those audiophiles might prefer one type of different speakers, electronics, and/or genres of music, etc. and once again, it's just my personal opinion.

[@bentleygt3716]

more expensive doesn't mean better.. . thank you for your honest opinion !. wow. for a fraction of the Price ?. no-brainer. it's something to seriously consider. the good news for me is that i'm starting my audio Journey from scratch. so i'll be buying speakers. amps. DAC. Streamer and of course speaker cables and interconnect cables... i looked up the company. they don't seem to have a website ???. they only sell through Amazon.

[@pandemonium274]

I don't understand you. If the UBC's are equal, why wouldn't you keep them and sell the $6K Kimbers? What you are doing doesn't make financial sense.

[@123BV8]

He’s a true audiophile and only interested in what others think of his system not what he thinks…..

[@chrisf7249]

So why don’t you keep the new cables and sell the kimber? $5500 says you should.

[@larryhoffman7471]

Wonder how a single run sounds.

[@hubert-williams3379]

Ok. I'm bit lost on the double run concept to get 4ga cable, Can you explain what is the double or how are you doubling the cable to get 4ag.. On another note did you consider the burn in time on the WBC to make a more decerning decision/comparison?

[@danmarjenka6361]

If they sound the same.....sell the high-priced Kimbers, to put a lot of cash in your pocket.

[@slr12001]

Don’t know about the other cables but upgrading to WBC was the best decision I ever made regarding my stereo system. The clarity on the high end continues to blow me away.

[@mindhead1]

Based on your review you should sell the Kimber and pocket the difference.

[@Lebrewski07]

I picked up a similar set a while back. They are will made and look and feel great but i didn't hear a difference over the previous cables. That craftsmanship is worth the $175 that I spent.

[@timessquarerecordscom1469]

David Elrod makes great power cords

[@robertnitsche8410]

I bought the 9 AWG WBC Ultimates 6 months ago and they sound better than the Audioquest Rocket 33 and Nordost Blue Heaven cables that i've used. They really opened up after 50 hours use. They really let my Kef LS50 Metas show off their holographic imaging. They are great cables, can't recommend them enough.

[@peteleoni9665]

Wait......I clicked on this because I thought you would be making fun of "Kimber" and these other like cables etc....Now....I guess I just want to be as kind as possible I feel for you and I feel nothing but antipathy to those "cable companies" who take advantage of people like you. This is heartbreaking really.

[@bongofury3176]

If these cables just aren't thick enough then try the 'replica' AQ WEL Signature elephant trunks...

[@randyc2367]

Hard to knock kimber in my opinion. I have the 8TC as well as the 4PR but in my opinion you get great sounding cables that will hold their value and great service win win..

[@woobiecat5631]

I keep asking this guy a few basic questions and he never responds. OK, I assume you don't read questions or care about comments. I just don't have time to keep speculating on topics you bring up, when you can't respond, its not like you get that many questions. I dont have time for you either, see ya.

[@analogguy5548]

Former “audiophile” - 💸💸💸💸💸🤣😁🤣🤣🤣

[@gw61]

What can you hear?

[@labalo5]

Hmm I see some macos at the side there??

[@dicmccoy]

Yes, with the wire itself, you've reduced resistance, but nobody every thinks about terminations. Luckily I see you have spades, so you have the contact. The spring type bananas that have poor connection grip inside the binding posts will increase the resistance, and then there's also the mass of the connector. The WBC spades don't look like low mass connectors. So now that you've doubled the wires, you've doubled the connectors and you may not be decreasing resistance like you thought you were. Also, be careful of measurement values from any cable manufacturer. Most of them are only giving you the measured values on the cables itself before terminations. Most never give you ratings on a completed cable.

[@sonusancti]

If that's the arguments then best connector is no connectors, go bare, as I do. You also overlook that signal isn't done with connectors and has to go through speaker internal cabling which is common high gauge copper normally.

[@dicmccoy]

@sonusancti There is no best. Bare wire, you are introducing oxidization at an increased rate vs soldered and heat shrinked connectors. No matter which way you go, there will always be pros and cons, so choose your poison. I don't want to cut and strip my cables every so often, so I got deep Cryo Treated Mogami 3104's from TFA that use Low mass Multi-Contact LS4 beryllium copper BFA style bananas. Resistance on the completed cable after terminations for 10ft is .0079 ohms, capacitance is 760.6pF, inductance is .0098mH. You can't have all 3 super low, so the capacitance is a smidge up, but still lower than most offerings from Kimber.

[@sonusancti]

@dicmccoy You're such a know it all. I'll leave you to your own religion.

[@dicmccoy]

@@sonusancti you'll be ok with your lamp cord.

[@sonusancti]

@dicmccoy And you're a presumptuous prick.

[@sidesup8286]

If you are SURE there was no difference, why not sell the Kimbers for 3 or 4 thousand dollars profit, and keep the $500 cable? In reality, I'm pretty sure there was a difference, but you were not able to detect it.perhaps because of your aging hearing, and other things.. You look to be well into you 60s or more. In order to be scientific, did you do all the following below? This is what I do when comparing anything audio, or it is not a serious comparison.. 1. To warm my equipment up, I play music on it for two full hours first. The sound of our equipment changes and improves dramatically within the first hour and a hal of playing music. Play a recording first, play another recording in between, and then play the first recording again after that, from the first track.. The sound will have opened up, with more space between the instruments, sweeter tonality, and more and tighter bass. ALWAYS. At least get your system fully warmed up to where its sound is not changing markedly when comparing, or it's ridiculously unscientific.. 2. Put on a recording that you know like the back of your hand. That you purposely play frequently and have played recently. Famiiliarity, EXTREME familiarity is of UTMOST importance. I have recordings that I know so well, that if ANYTHING changes in the sound, I'll immediately hear it. I use those recordings for evaluation. Even though I'm tired of them by now. 3. You must get the volume level to the exact same level as when you have played that very familiar recording in the past. A volume control with lighted numerical readouts work great; otherwise you must go by your ears. 4. Not playing the recording several times in a row with your old cables first, still in place, is not smart. Sonic memory is short; very short. After doing this go directly to playing the new interconnect cables. Even the few minutes it takes to turn off your equipment, in order to remove your old cable and put the new cables in, is a serious variable. When you turn your source and your amp back on, they will be less warmed up and the sound will be noticeably brighter and different somewhat; if you really have "ears." Some would argue that the few minutes where you have to turn off your equipment to substitute the interconnects, makes any comparison invalid, because of this. They have a good point. But going by memory of how a recording sounded the last time you played it a few months ago is ridiculous. As I say, sonic memory is short. 5. Cds are best for trying comparisons. Every time your stylus plows through a vinyl groove, it mis-shapes the groove from stylus friction heat (many hundreds of degrees), and it takes many hours for the groove to return to its former state.That's why they tell you not to play a track too many times in a row. Not only is it a variable when comparing, but it can degrade your record groives. If you did all these things and have "ears" and perception good enough, you will hear differences between different cables, every time. I am not sure if you will hear a difference between the same cable doubled up, but I would think the sound would be a little fuller sounding. Silver and copper always sound different to me. With silver being brighter and noticeably purer sounding, every time I've heard it; if it's from a good company like Kimber, who really knows how to work with silver, who does it right. Anything less than the above steps, and it's not a comparison that should be taken seriously. Our best audio reviewers do things that way. Variables of any kind make comparison experiments moot. At least you have ears good enough to hear differences between cables sometimes. Some people are so deaf or unperceptive that they can't hear differences ever; between cables. I misplaced a 3 prong AC power cable a while ago. I ordered a cheap AC cable from ebay. When I put it in and played back familiar recordings, the bass guitar lacked definition so bad that I couldn't even hear the notes start and stop like before, or really what he was playing. The bass notes were all jumbled together instead of hearing distinct seperate notes;,as before. People who have such bad perception that they can never diiscern differences between cables; is almost as bad as someone who couldn't discern light from dark or tall from short. Hard to believe. People who cannot ever tell differences between cables, reads like a who's who of who can't hear. They like to think there is something wrong with us; but there is something extremely wrong with them, and they alnost always have crappy equipment. Do THEY do the steps above when making comparisons. LOL...!!!. No!

[@Roger-r7s]

Subjective experience is valid to the individual but when making any kind of more general assertion and evaluation, you need to have more rigorous controls and procedures that will remove many interacting cofactors and variables in order for the subjective perception to have a strong correlation with objective (acoustic/physical) performance characteristics. Also those differences should be able to be consistently replicated if all other variables are held equal. The very best audio design engineering brings both the subjective and the objective into a close convergence, coupling and model mapping, instead of just vanishing distortion specs on pure sine waves, that don't reflect real world conditions, or the complexity of the non linearity of our holographic reconstructive auditory systems.

[@sidesup8286]

Maybe iif I was an audio reviewer I'd worry about all that crap, but us NORMAL people just buy what soundss good to us, having a great idea of how real instruments sound, and we don't worry about the blah blah of people like you that try to reduce this beautiful world to numbers, graphs and charts.. I have made the right choices for my system and I adore it greatly; and wouldn't change a thing. There are others somewhere (maybe) that would not find your type annoying. You guys that have bricks for ears can't hear the obvious difference between cables etc. And that's fine with me. Live and let live; I say. Talk to THEM. Even on a Sunday don't expect the preaching from a doubter like yourself to make other people doubters. We're experienced enough to know what we hear. We don't need to change anyone elses opinion, like you guys, who continually TRY TO; but FAIL.

[@peanutbutterjellyjam2179]

Heard that those them there cables allow you to see the colour of farts. Is that true?

[@DIYZONE101]

Unfortunately, it is a debate that will never end, those who insist on buying ultra expensive cables will say that they sound better even if perhaps this is not the case. Too often it is thought that the price is proportional to the quality, I believe this is true up to a certain level, besides if the quality level rises it is simply marginal.

[@SastusBulbas1]

Your review states exactly what professional cable manufacturers and engineers have been stating and showing proof of for years. Audioholics and Audio Science review have been showing this a lot in these last years, AES engineers were showing this when I quit on audio 20 years ago. The crazy thing is WBC 7awg is also overkill, Their Canare or Mogami is the Benchmark standard, and the only actual reason to use 7awg is if your running a cable from home to the supermarket. Its crazy that rock solid physics proven over decades relating to cable, conductivity, LCR and length are still continually ignored by the smallest percentage of humans on the planet who use psuedo mumbo jumbo to justify being scammed by dealers. Albums are made with $2 cable. I'm tempted with the WBC myself, but with a power amp giving 600w per chanel and speakers going down to 18hz -2 db, depending on equipment layout I need cable between 2.5m to 7m in length, Canare 4S11 Starquad is pretty much lossless up to 100ft per run. A 15ft pair with Banana is $125. A dressed pair with nylon braid and superiour locking banana is $326, WBC own 7awg is $285 a pair. 7awg is usually ofc marine battery cable, a few speaker cable manufacturers use this as its a decent jacket, flexible, and can be bought with red or black outer, comming in a single run, you need two to make a cable, my problem with this is it offers little rejection to noise and is so heavy spades can rotate or banana's bend. Once I decorate I will possibly do a full WBC cable loom, or make my own, or buy from Benchmark to save hassle, I want AES cables of a different colour to the XLR cables, but the same brand from source to cable, currently using Chord but have sold my Signature as the layout changed from 2m XLR and 5m speaker cable to 7m XLR and 2.5m speaker cable. If I like what I hear, I will be doing both systems with the one brand, Canare or Mogami, then give up on cables.

[@Pete.across.the.street]

Audio science review😂😂😂

[@SastusBulbas1]

@@Pete.across.the.street sorry you find it funny, but the fact remains what they do now was being done decades ago when gullable retards were buying into cable scams. I still find it funny that audiofools believe their systems and hearing are beyond the laws of reality and physics, due to spending money, to listen to a recording gimped at 20Khz due to mic specs, recorded on $2 starquad.

[@Pete.across.the.street]

Cables degrade the signal and reject noise. Some do it better than others.

[@mrpmj00]

they also inject warmth and realism as in Cardas parsec cables

[@Pete.across.the.street]

@mrpmj00 that would be caused by signal degradation or lack of

[@stratenboek]

Of course there is a difference in the 2 cables, everything matters 🎵🎶🎷

[@sidesup8286]

If the difference is big; it's easy to hear...If the difference is subtle, it can be missed, especially if you are not taking precautions about doing things the correct way. Everything DOES make a difference; even if it's just different and not necessarily better. There is currently a thread on Audiogon where the OP asks the audience "Why are there people who absolutistically tell other people what isn't possible to hear, when they say they can hear a difference? Like cheap vs. premium cables, for instance. The answers range from "They didn't receive enough love when they were a child" to the Fear Of Missing Out, to "dumassyness" as one guy put it, to "wanting to tell other people what to do".. to "I know everything there is to know, and am a scientist"...(a fake one, not a real one). Real ones have an open mind and realize there is a whole lot we don't know yet. What's even more bizzarre, is that most of these people who have never heard differences between cables, don't even need to try out more expensive cables. They just know there's no difference because of their theories. They should be asked where their Super Powers come from? It would be interesting to insert something that they think couldn't make any difference, into their system that doubles it's sound quality. Maybe because of their highly biased mind, they wouldn't hear it; even though it makes double the sound quality.

[@robertthurston6858]

@@sidesup8286These nay sayers are people that trying to be in other people’s wallets.

[@sidesup8286]

I'm not an audio company or a salesman trying to sell people overpriced things. You are right that they try to get into people's walkets, and looking at those retail prices, makes one wonder what they could have really priced it at and still made a good profit. There's many people out there that equate price with performance, and think if something costs more it sounds better. Hate to admit, but that often is the case. But sometimes it's just as you say " Somebody trying to get into your wallet." I try to audition first, when I can. Nothing much is safe to assume in high end audio. Fortunately it is possible to put together amazing sounding systems cheap, by buying vintage used equipment. But you better have a good service guy handy. Most of that old stuff in my experience, only works for a while.

[@justasimplefox]

4 awg for a 2m run? I can´t get any dumber 😂

[@NosEL34]

😁

[@terryilett9437]

maybe differences are there but beyond human hearing

[@sidesup8286]

Human hearing has evolved, improved and adjusted over the milennia through something called natural selection, which enables a species to survive and thrive. It deserves way more credit than many give it; especially those men with their measuring machines. Audiophiles with real "ears" can hear very small differences in the sound. Our host does a good job, presents intelligent subjects & talks, about audio. He might just need a closer listen on some very familiar material and some varied types of music/ recordings. In this case I would guess if there is a difference, it's probably subtle.

[@terryilett9437]

@@sidesup8286 I understand your point of view however I do not believe many humans if any can hear beyond 20Khz and it may be possible that frequencies beyond 20Khz are the playground for these very expensive cables. They could quite possibly retrieve detail beyond 30Khz and a middle age person may only here up to say 14Khz especially someone from a noisy work environment. It maybe why expensive cables may not be suitable for Empirical Audiophile.

[@sidesup8286]

It is not mostly about frequency response. Cables and audio equipment which greatly trounces other audio equipment and makes it sound gross, do so mostly in the middle frequencies and bass, at frequencies which are not anywhere near the limits of people's hearing (frequency wise).. It's the QUALITY of the frequencies instead...the clarity, openness, purity and genuineness of harmonic overtone structure that takes the cake. The piccolo I believe is the highest pitched acoustic instrument, and not many instruments go up anywhere near a piccolo. Audio is very misunderstood by many. Hope this helps.

[@philipw7058]

So what your saying is that you like bragging rights to your friends on how much you pay for your system your reasoning makes no financial sense,I can’t trust your opinion,your electronics your room acoustic treatments if any,current coming in to your house and last but not least your hearing 👂no two people hear the same