Kimber KCAG versus Nordost, newer Kimber interconnects, etc

Elizabeth and jond,

Thanks for the suggestions.  I do remain interested in the Nordost Leif series given my experience with the Heimdall 2 speaker cables.  There are  a number of  more current interconnect choices and often it comes down to specific interactions which is why I enumerated some of my equipment.  

I really love the old KS1016 and have one between my phono stage and my line stage.  I want to upgrade my Hero XLRs to the KS1116s but the hefty price keeps preventing me from pulling the trigger.  Probably a 2020 purchase at this point. 

I had NORDOST LEIF series PURPLE FLARE cables in my “B” system.
I continue to have NORDOST NORSE 2 series FREY full cables array in my “A” system.

In brief,

(1) there is a BIG difference in audio performance as you move up in their product line, and that improvement is not subtle. The PURPLE FLAREs were okay, but are no match for the FREYs....full stop.

(2) The litmus test in point (1) was personally witnessed at an audio expo in TORONTO wherein NORDOST demonstrated the performance of various cables as you move up from stock cables, through various models , and up their VALHALLAs. (No very top ODINS at that show). NORDOST ran a repeated 3-day audio expo demonstration symposium in Toronto on that very issue, it was attended by thousands (myself included) .

The author wrote an article reporting on the shared observations of the thousands of attendees at the TAVES audio expo in Toronto in Nov 2014.

Nordost

"... I had a chance to sit in on a couple demonstrations in the Nordost room, giving my feet a well deserved break. I’m very familiar with the benefits of high quality cables and use a full Nordost Heimdall 2 loom with my reference two-channel setup. That being said, I always find the Nordost demonstrations to be an “ear-opening” experience.

Michael Taylor from Nordost demonstrated the significant sonic benefits of replacing an OEM cable with a Nordost model – in particular:

1) a swap of a single USB cable, from OEM to Nordost Blue Heaven ($250/2m), to Heimdall 2 ($500/2m) and;
2) a swap of a single RCA interconnect, from OEM, to Blue Heaven, to Heimdall 2, to Tyr 2 and finally Valhalla 2.

Along with convincing the audience in the room that cables DO matter, I’ve now got the bug to upgrade...”

I would like to thank all who responded to this post.  I probably should have been a bit more focused in my initial statement.  My standard for tonal neutrality and transparency were my previous Quad ESL's powered by my highly modified ARC tube amp.  In this setup I used a Placette passive line stage with short KCAG interconnects which worked exceptionally well and with all the ARC tube amps/preamps I have used.  As I now have the Martin Logan CLX's which are nearly as transparent A the Quad ESL's but with a larger listening window and much greater dynamics, I needed a very different amplifier - think a very transparent powerful solid state amp.  The KCAG's did not match as well with the solid state amps I have used as delineated above.   I was surprised how well the Nordost Heimdall 2 speaker cables worked between my amp, the Coda No. 40 - an extremely stable 400 wpc amp, and the CLX's.  My more focused question is what are the optimal interconnects to be used with solid state amps and preamps of high quality feeding the Martin Logan CLX's.  I suspect that there are few who have examined this narrow question, but if you have I would value your observations.