Kimber BiFocal XL

BiFocal XL is the most interesting cable in the Summit series because of what it actually is: two distinctly different cables built into one body, and a true bi-wire or bi-amp solution in a single run. It builds on the BiFocal X platform by increasing the copper mass in each layer.

The construction runs in three passes through the braider. A twelve-wire braid is worked around an X38R core to carry the high frequencies. A layer of braided ESD yarn separates that from a second, twenty-four-wire braid handling the low frequencies. Conductors are equal parts TC solid core and VariStrand throughout. The result is a cable that treats the high-frequency and low-frequency signal paths as genuinely separate runs sharing a single jacket, rather than a bi-wire made by paralleling two whole cables.

Termination is WBT NextGen, with the same conductor material and end-cap treatment as Monocle XL. The dielectric materials, the X38R stabilizing core, and the counter-opposed braid geometry are shared with Monocle XL — what differs is the two-braid architecture with the ESD yarn separation layer between them.

For a bi-wireable loudspeaker — which describes a great deal of what sits in the Scottsdale rooms — this is a more elegant answer than running two separate cables and hoping they behave. Its single-wire alternative is Monocle XL. Walk in during business hours or book ahead if the audition needs a bi-wire loudspeaker heard on BiFocal XL versus Monocle XL with jumpers, or against separate cable runs.