10/09/2026
Hero is usually the next step after PBJ or Tonik, and it’s our top selling interconnect even though it isn’t our cheapest.
Stereophile’s new Recommended Components list came out this month. Nine Kimber cables are on it, and Hero is one of them. It has been in production since 1997. When SoundStage! reviewed it that year, John Upton wrote that “weak components have no place to hide with the Heroes in the house,” which is still the fairest description of what it does.
Hero can be terminated several ways, including balanced XLR. If you’re running single-ended, the most popular RCA options are: our own UltraPlate, or the WBT 0114 Cu, which is the connector in these photos. The WBT puts very little metal in the signal path, on the principle that less metal means less to add to the signal. The Cu means its conductor is copper, same as the cable it’s terminating. UltraPlate is a more conventional full-body RCA and costs less.
Same cable, same braid, two different RCA ends.
Which connector would you choose, and why?
