Kimber Kable KS 1126 Balanced XLR Interconnect

KS 1126 is the hybrid balanced interconnect in the middle of Kimber’s Select 6000 series — silver and copper conductors braided into one cable rather than one or the other alone. In Select’s numbering, 26 denotes the silver-and-copper hybrid conductor material, and the 11xx prefix denotes balanced XLR (10xx denotes RCA). Above 1126 sits the all-silver 1136; below sits the all-copper 1116.

The Select braid is identical across all three material choices — only the metallurgy changes. Each conductor is a mix of VariStrand (multiple strand gauges within one conductor, since different gauges favour different parts of the frequency band) and solid core, braided in Kimber’s counter-rotating weave so each conductor’s position relative to its neighbours changes continuously along the run. That geometry cancels the fields the conductors would otherwise induce in each other, doing the noise-rejection work a foil or mesh shield would otherwise be asked to do. Studio-grade XLR connectors with silver-plated contacts terminate both ends.

Kimber’s argument for the hybrid is not compromise but balance: silver contributes the low-level resolution and spatial precision, copper the tonal weight and body. The blend lands somewhere neither material reaches alone, and for many systems it is the more natural-sounding of the three — particularly where the electronics are already on the analytical side. Its loudspeaker-cable counterpart is the KS 6065, built on the same silver-and-copper hybrid principle, and its RCA sibling in the same hybrid material is the KS 1026.

KS 1126 is the correct starting point for a system where the electronics are fully balanced and the goal is Select-tier construction without committing to pure silver or pure copper voicing at the interconnect. Comparing 1116, 1126, and 1136 in the same system with familiar recordings is the honest way to settle the metallurgy question, and the hybrid is the frequent middle answer. Walk in during business hours or book ahead if the audition needs your specific source and preamp in place.