Ray Kimber of KimberK able was in “You gotta” mode. After he told me that WBT, the 34-year-old German company that supplies connectors and cable terminations to hundreds of manufacturers worldwide, had a new, environmentally friendly facing process that made for better sound, I arranged to meet with WBT founder and CEO Wolfgang Thoerner on Sunday morning to discuss their new “WBT-PlasmaProtect” PVD (Physical Vapor Deposition) plasma process.
Traditional gold, copper, and palladium galvanic electroplating baths are not only toxic and high consumers of energy, Thoerner told me, they also result in a chaotic organization of molecules on the plating surface. The new PlasmaProtect PVD plasma plating process, which was five years in development and required a new machine that cost 1 million euros, enables fine gold plating of copper surfaces with 25% less energy and no need of toxic chemical baths. The company says the new process produces “a permanently homogenous material bond which allows for broadband signal transmission which can be precisely reproduced over the long term in connectors.” The surface is also claimed to be thin, flawless, tightly sealed, non-porous, and scratch and abrasion-resistant.
WBT claims that the new process, which only works with copper, makes for “precision of the signal flow for unparalleled signal quality… [and] even more defined sound.” I wasn’t able to hear a before/after demo, so I can only report that the new process exists and that Kimber is adopting it.
“It’s difficult to describe, but it’s absolutely different” Thoerner said at the end of our chat. “Because the plating is more coherent, the sound is more organized, true, and realistic to the source.” Kimber is so sold on the process that he expects a complete changeover on Kimber cables within a few months.
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