Hopping on here as well. Have Hart cables for my Focal/Meze and my Audeze as well as the multi kit and love the flexibility and have no issues with the cables.
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I have been testing the KBEAR Limpid Pro cable. Here are my impressions of it:
KBEAR Limpid Pro
Note: This item was provided for review by Wendy Li from KBEAR via AliExpress.
The Limpid Pro is a new product from KBEAR. It is an 8-core pure silver cable and is an upgrade to the original which was a 4-core type. The Pro version doubles the number of cores which consist of 10 strands each. The material is 99.99% pure silver.
It is attractively presented in a small square black box with a gold KBEAR logo. There is a circular window displaying the cable, and also included is a soft grey carrying pouch with black KBEAR branding. The cable is beautifully made and very supple with a fairly loose braid and the earhooks are comfortable. The gold plated 3.5mm plug is in silver metal with branding as is the Y-split. The 2-pin plugs are also metal and feature colour coding for channel identification and the chin slider is a metal ring with separate holes for the two wires but is a little awkward to use as it does not easily slide up and down the cable.
The cable was tested using an Xduoo X20 DAP via the 3.5mm output with a variety of IEMs.
KBEAR Diamond (Spiral Dots ML)
The KBEAR Diamond is a single DD design featuring a DLC diaphragm. With the stock cable (which is very good) the Diamond has a V-shaped profile with powerful bass, a mid-bass emphasis which does slightly colour the lower mids and a generally recessed midrange. The treble is well detailed and smooth but occasionally does display a thin quality. With the Limpid Pro there were notable improvements. Listening to “Private Investigations” by Dire Straits, the bass was more controlled and tighter. Mids were more forward, resulting in a more shallow “V” profile. Treble became more detailed without harshness and the soundstage was improved with extra depth. These improvements elevated the Diamond to a higher level of performance.
KBEAR Lark (Stock tips M)
The KBEAR Lark is a dual hybrid (1DD + 1BA) and with the stock cable it has a well balanced profile with a bit of extra brightness at the top end. Its sound belies its price. The silver plated stock cable is rather thin and tangly. Fitting the Limpid Pro resulted in a considerable increase in detail and clarity with an improved transient attack. The soundstage increased in size. In Mike Oldfield’s “In the Beginning” from “The Songs of Distant Earth”, the deep bass drum was very clear and textured, thelq guitar solo had good bite and impact and the percussion was cleaner and more incisive. The spoken words “Burning-Melting-Dissolving” were exceptionally well resolved and their locations very well defined. Once again, the Limpid Pro cable managed to unlock the maximum potential of the IEMs.
TRI Starsea (Spiral Dots ML)
The Starsea is a triple hybrid (2BA + 1DD) and has tuning switches providing four sound profiles. Like the Diamond, it is supplied with a high quality cable and this does provide a good quality sound. For the test with the Limpid Pro the Starsea was set with the standard switch setting (Balanced). With the stock cable, the Starsea has a neutral, very detailed sound with excellent layering and separation. The treble is exceptionally extended and clear and the soundstage is holographic. In Holst’s “Uranus” performed by the LSO under Andre Previn, the Limpid Pro managed to extract every last detail from the performance. In the climaxes, the bass drum was very controlled and airy with a natural decay and after the first climax the harp and bass drum play very softly together. The effect here was magical with perfect resolution and separation. The Limpid Pro seemed to lift a veil from the recording with brass particularly crisp and authentic in tonality. The performance gains were very apparent and the advances in quality were certainly worthwhile.
The Limpid Pro cable can be recommended without reservation. The results will vary with equipment used, but I found a significant improvement with each IEM I tried. It was particularly successful with the KBEAR Diamond and I would encourage any owners of the Diamond to purchase this cable. I would also suggest it would be beneficial with other warmer sounding earphones as in this case the gains were greater than with the brighter IEMs I tested.
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Great review as usual!! Most of my extra/spare IEMs cables are from KB Ear and I’m very happy with them. Great costumer service too.
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That’s remarkably inexpensive for pure silver cabling comparative to most others Ive recently seen.
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Yes. £22.Superb value. Sounds excellent on my KZ BA10 as well!
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Great writeup @Nimweth.
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I recently bought a pair of Pangea Premier SE XLR cables from Audioadvisor’s storefront on Amazon. Amazon offered the Pangea cables in 1m and 2m lengths and I ordered 2m just to be safe. With some other cable orders over the last few months, I’ve learned an expensive lesson that some premium cables can be thick and inflexible, and their “effective length” is much less then a thinner, more flexible cable when considering the bend.
As it turned out, 1m would have been fine because they are very flexible. The return would be easy via Amazon, but I’m wondering if I should keep the 2m cables in case I need that additional length in the future. The only issue is that they are getting in the way, and actually reach the ground, which is where my power strip is. I’m wondering if there would be any issues if I looped the middle of the cables a couple of times and tied the loops together, to reduce the length. For instance, would I be adding any electrical interference to the signal by doing this?
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Since most of their product description talks about shielding and noise rejection you should be good even if you wrap it around a vacuum cleaner. 
But seriously, line level signals don’t seem like they would be interfering with each other.
You could always add it to the “Pending A/B Tests” list, for a rainy day.
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I’ve coiled and tie wrapped cables for decades, never had any issues if the cable was properly made, i.e. shielded, no gaping holes in the insulation, etc.
Sometimes there are electronics in the environment that will impact even well shielded cabling. Devices from High Voltage transformers / cables to Nintendo Wall Warts have caused havoc & noise on my systems in the past. You just have to isolate them and find what fixes their effects.
Mark Gosdin
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Thanks Nick and Mark. The XLR cable sounds great, so as long as it doesn’t get in the way, I think I’ll keep it.
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I just got this Molecule Elite 22awg silver cable from Double Helix. These photos don’t do justice to how beautiful they look in real life.
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It’s been a while since I’ve posted. But this one came out really really nicely, will fit the purple vérité closed its going onto.
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I have a set of HiFiMAN HE-400i headphones and I wanted to take advantage of the 4.4mm balanced headphone jack on my iFi ZEN DAC so after a little investigative snooping, I found this really nice (and inexpensive) cable set that allows me to connect the HE-400i headphones directly to the iFi DAC.
NewFantasia HiFi Cable with 4.4MM Balanced Male to Dual 3.5mm Connector Compatible with Hifiman Sundara, Arya, Ananda Headphones and for Sony WM1A, NW-WM1Z, PHA-2A
Price: $49.00 & FREE Returns at Amazon.com
- Length: 2.1meters(6.8ft), this cable is made with the Silver Plated cable, Headphone Extension Cords
- Connector: 4.4mm Balanced Male to dual 3.5mm Connector Jack Male
- This replacement cable is compatible with Hifiman Sundara, Arya, Ananda Headphones
- The 4.4mm Balanced Male is compatible with SONY WM1A, NW-WM1Z, PHA-2A and other Audio player that with 4.4mm Balanced port.
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I gather you are all aware of Forza cables already, but wanted to add my vote of confidence.
I received some Forza cables this week and could not be happier with them. I ordered the Claire HPC Mk2 headphone cable along with a pair of Claire RCAs. In the process of picking options I managed to screw up my order, but Matt was kind enough to fix it for me. World class service and an excellent product - highly recommended.
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I like the Forza cable. I’ve pulled a few apart to reterminate for people.
One was a Claire terminated to a single sided connector for a AKG or something, the 8 wire claire had to stop, and solder to 3 like 24awg leaders that then fit through the back of this connector haha. Just funny having 8 strands of high end litz and they all just came down to being soldered to 3 strands of maybe 24-26awg normal copper to make it work. They used plumbers tape to neatly compress the 4 lenghts of paracord down and cap it off, not a bad idea, works well. And doesn’t ignite to a flame or heat.
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I have two sets of Hart bal cables coming. Can’t wait
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Noice. I had a Hart for the Verite a while back.
He uses 4pin Mini XLR to make a modular system. Super handy.
I think his base wire is either Mogami or Canare mini quad. 26awg or so. Similar to Periapt without the jacket under the sleeving.
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Just got some new interconnects from my cable guy, Douglas Connection. Furutech OCC wire and Furutech connectors.
I really like getting custom cables because you can choose the components, you know exactly how much they cost individually, so you can figure out how much you’re paying him to make the cable for you. And this is a lot less expensive than buying from the fancy cable manufacturers. Obviously buying the components and making the cables yourself is the most cost effective, but I don’t have the skills, and I’m happy to help out a small business.
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Gorgeous! Love the simplicity.
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Nice. These locking connectors are really good.
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