Audiophile myth challenged as $4,000 boutique audio cable fails to beat $7 Amazon Basics in lab test

A lab test by Audio Science Review compared Kimber KS 1036 RCA interconnects to an Amazon Basics RCA cable using an Audio Precision analyzer.

Distortion, frequency response, phase response and square-wave rise-time were effectively identical between the two cables across 10 Hz–200 kHz.

Using the cables as S/PDIF links produced only picosecond-level extra jitter on the Amazon cable, and the host found Kimber's connector less stable when wiggled.

The host concluded both cables performed like the analyzer's internal loopback, undermining the Kimber cable's claimed advantages.