The only other companies I’ve come across with such an extensive range of cables as JIB offers are Chord and
Audioquest. JIB’s inventory consists of every type of Audio and Video cable a consumer could require, along with power cables and car audio cables.

So who are JIB?

JIB is a German company run out of Berlin by founder Jurgen Isaac Bauer, his love for Classical music spurred him on design and create cables which he felt suited his system best. After a few years he began to develop on his growing knowledge of conductors and dielectrics and soon formed JIB which was to launch with not just one cable but an extensive range of cables.

I was asked by our editor Stuart if I’d like to have a look at the range JIB offer and choose a couple cables which would interest me for review – the list was long and wide! I decided to take a listen to a few cables – a glass fibre toslink, a silver USB and the topic of this review the Krypton XLR’s.

Their construction is made up of:

Overall size of the cable is 18mm
99.9999% pure HG-OCC® (Ohno Continuous Cast) copper.
Cable structure of high conductivity micro-conductors, in Teflon.
PTFE coated chlorine free cotton damping
Connectors made of Fiberglass with 24K gold plating.

Packaging wise the cables arrived in a wooden case with metal clasp, externally trimmed in a two tone leather and internally with a velvety/suede type material. Very nicely done and substantial.

The cables were burned in for a few days and then subsequently connected to my Kavent Acoustics amp for some listening. These cables are very thick and a little on the stiff side. I had to hold and bend, which wasn’t natural to the cables original curve, with one hand and then locate the XLR socket with the other hand. Once in they didn’t seem to pose any threat in moving or raising any of my components, it was just the contour out of the plug that was a bit tricky.

Sound

‘Stolen Dance’ by Milky Chance is a great track to listen to when ascertaining the harmonic flare of a piece of equipment, or in this case a cable. The JIB seemed to offer a quite a substantially more enveloping rear soundstage, spreading rear width and height on both sides further than I’ve previously heard on this track with any other combination of components. Centre focus remained absolutely solid and depth too was impressive. Overall three dimensionality is superior to many other cables I have heard of this type, complimenting the Kavent amp’s abilities to image incredibly well.

Overall tonality of the cable is a little warm, a touch smooth and engrossingly immersive. The presentation is one of a sultry infection – late night bar rather than a nightclub.

Detail retrieval is pretty good with the most prominent details being a little rounded, well controlled and expressive. The smaller nuances, harmonics and micro details are fantastic. I found myself less focused on pin point imaging, but just emerging myself in the entire musics’ acoustic.

Sam Smith’s acoustic version of ‘Latch’ originally performed by Disclosure gave a splendid fluidity to his vocal tone, piano notes had a strong tone and sounded really quite natural. The overall performance held strong attention from me and left me digging out some more of my favourite acoustic tracks, hunting for this insightful appeal to reverbs and cues like an archaeologists digging for ancient ceramics.

Live performances from the likes of Loreena McKennit and Candy Dulfer kept ticking box after box with regards arena and hall acoustics, picking out areas of the crowd who applauded more emphatically than others before the whole included themselves to congratulate the performance.

I wouldn’t say that the Kavent is the most dynamic amplifier and the Krypton equally isn’t either. I would state that the overall presentation is more geared towards musical flow rather than typical ‘Hifi’ type aspects, many will appreciate this and some energetically fatiguing systems I have heard would surely benefit from this approach.

During Chris Jones ‘Soul Storm’ I was drawn to the fact that the music remains very explanatory and cohesive during busier passages, yes there’s a touch more grain when things get more complicated, but the slight colouration to the cable helps mask this in the midrange very well.

So, what are the individual portions of the bandwidth like if I had to nail it down?

Treble seems to have two aspects to it:

One would be that extremes are a little soft but still there and the upper end focuses the forefront of the soundstage well.

Two, lower portion of the treble is hugely open, just floats around the listening space of its own accord, expressing harmonics which late at night with the lights off can be a little eerie.

Midband is a little thick and juicy, three dimensionally it’s fantastic and tonally gives real body to a vocal, great expression, presence and real musical involvement. There’s a naturalness with a little bit of added flavour.

Bass is firmly big and round, not lumpy or bloomy but just nice and plump. Expressively I’d say the Krypton does a great job of allowing notes to drop down and around the room, retaining good information in its upper registers.

Conclusion

The JIB Krypton is a substantially thick, well made cable which offers a truly engrossing musical character as opposed to the cleaner ‘Hifi’ typical sounding cables. One could suggest that it doesn’t do this or that on first listen, but after taking some time to listen on your own, in your own time it’s pretty damn addictive and draws the listener into the way it allows the music through from the system components.

With some sexy looking plugs and a case which you could use take your hand luggage on to a plane, its value and pride of ownership factor to price ratio is outstanding!

Dan Worth

Build Quality – 8/10
Sound Quality – 8/10
Value For Money – 8.2/10
Overall – 8.06

Price at time of review – £385 – 1m pair

Recommended – for being truly musical and remaining true to the whole reason behind hifi – the music!

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