The trackingangle.com review ( Belden's Iconoclast Series II Audio Cables | Tracking Angle ) explores a common ground ICONOCLAST is well known for; “The combination of improved sound staging, dynamics, and sound space recreation helped my system achieve a new level of transparency.” - Ken Redmond
Is it the better Vp alignment in the upper frequencies or the lower frequency cable input impedance that is doing all this? It is hard to say.
The multi wire designs captures both frequency elements on purpose, yes. Following the math doesn’t seem to be such a terrible thing to do when it ends up sounding like this. The very first series I iteration carries this torch, and the admittedly more complex series II further moves the needle. Better yet, you can use the series I as a bass cable and the series II as the MID treble for a “series III” bi-wire set-up.
I’m using 48" DUAL, yes DUAL, bi-wire set-up. Two parallel to the bass and two parallel to the mid/tweeter. This drops the input impedance to HALF again (150-ohms versus 300 ohm) of the low impedance ICONOCLAST is designed to have. Care must be taken to use four footer or so to manage capacitance that ADDS in parallel. ICONOCLAST is pretty low cap (45 and 75 pf/foot) but we can’t run away from reality. Some amplifiers are super impacted by reactance.
Single cable = 600 OHM @ 20 Hz
Bi-wire = 300 OHM @ 20 Hz
Dual bi-wire = 150 ohm @ 20 Hz
I don’t get the fancy finish you all get. I use my lab samples so that’s why you don’t see the pretty transparent shrink legs.
I have the, of course, all the measurements on this approach. It all works really well. The lower reactance through the bass really helps amplifiers drive this cable/speaker combination. But we can’t use too much capacitance as the situation can flip if the amp is a sensitive design. Most aren’t, but checking is good. We can supply the numbers for you as needed to report to the manufacturer. My T+A M40-HV’s run super fine this way and yes, it is glorious sounding.
Don’t use the series II on the bass, there is no benefit. The series I lowers the total capacitance (45 Pf/foot) and has a lower DCR (higher CMA) right where it is put to good use, in the bass.
The two cables were designed on purpose to be used this way series III = Series I + II.
ICONOCLAST has a really nice upgrade path for everyone that captures the great sound stage size and image specificity in that sound stage. Wonderful stuff.
I’ll see if we can get the tech paper added to the site’s tech area.
Best,
Galen Gareis