I’d be curious if one can hear the difference when they change attachment process.
yeah - was thinking that. Which will require some of us buying whole new cables to compare with our existing ones. Resale is good at this point, maybe not so much after this, if the new welds are sonically superior 
From what I know about sonic welding, there is no better method to bring two pieces of metal together in audio hardware. There are other hardware manufacturers using this method, and based on what I have read, for good reason.
Shunyata and ZU Audio both insist that sonic is the only way to go.
…and the nice thing is that BlueJeans cable, the great company that builds and terminates the Iconoclast cables, has been doing sonic welding since 2010 already: http://www.bluejeanscable.com/articles/ultrasonic-welding.htm
Galen: Maybe this was covered in the discussion earlier but if my amp and speakers can accept either bananas or 9mm spades, which would be best?
Thanks
It is a simple comparison of contact area. A spade has the most contact surface area and thus wins. Locking banana are good, yes, but area is area.
The spade Rhodium plating is SOFT an purpose to meld into the nicks and crannies of the mating surfaces and push out air. For that effect, it is a good long term connection, too.
Best,
Galen Gareis
Galen: Thank you for this explanation. Perfect. Kindest Regards, Joel
Galen, is it ok to send you a PM concerning my very special termination problem? Probably not very interesting for the community.
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Tony,
Just as a FYI, I ran this past Vasken before I attempted it. I had asked if there were any issues that might come up if I removed the speaker termination assembly and turn it around to make connection easier on both the top assembly as well as subs. Vasken said there should be plenty of slack in the wires to allow this, which I did and it has made cabling much easier for both assemblies. Food for thought…
SteveA
Thanks Steve. I’ll keep this in mind if I should find myself putting my Shahinians back into rotation.
I received my first ultrasonically welded “jumpers.” Wow are these nice. The connections are rock solid, perfectly welded and as strong as I have ever seen on a connector. These are the locking, welded bananas we are moving to on all “current/future” orders. The 7MM and 9MM spades are still being finalized. My Legacy Whispers came with flat copper or brass plates to bridge between the upper and lower binding posts. I have been using spades. Spades and the flat bridges have always been a bit of a challenge seating them just right while tightening the binding posts. So the jumpers will allow me to use the SPTPC cables with spades and now use SPTPC jumpers with locking bananas to bridge the binding posts. Will I achieve sonic benefits from having SPTPC jumpers? I will let you know but I sure think it will be a better connection option all around and look very nice. Compliments to Andrew and Jeff at the plant in making these for me. I could not be more impressed with the quality.
For those looking for a less costly bi-wire cheat utilizing the same cable design and copper variant, this will be a good choice. Custom made to whatever length best serves. By removing the outer jacket and creating a single leg per, the lengths can be reduced down to a few inches and still remain flexible. My jumpers started with 8" cable cuts. The exposed cable you are looking at measures 6". The connector length “not including” the connector prong is approximately 1 5/8" exposed. Tip to tip total length on these jumpers is 10 1/2" overall. When fully seated/plugged in to the binding post, the entire projection on these jumpers is about 4 1/4". They can be made shorter if necessary. I felt the bend was easy with no strain at all.
Galen is in Houston for the weekend doing a presentation for the 3,000+ member Houston Audio Society on Iconoclast interconnects.
Hope everyone has a great weekend. I’m sure ready for Spring.
Bob
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Purty!
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Them there are some mighty fine lookin’ jumpers!
Looking forward to the sonic welding on my cables, but not looking forward to being Icono-less while it happens.
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Thanks in advance. I will contact you in the next couple of days.
Nice to see the what’s inside the speaker cables. So for termination you have to get the insulation off each little wire! Lot of work. Quick thoughts: a short heat-shrink collar would protect the cable-to-plug connection some more. Also when I see that half-round cavity where the ultra-sonic weld sits in, I have the urge to fill that with clear epoxy. But I don’t have a rationale for why that would be better.
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Yes, each tiny wire. Galen let me help him terminate my own set, which means that I slowed him down… Screw up one little wire and you cut the whole bunch clean and start over again. It really is very labor and time intensive. I’m not sure how fast they are at BJC (a lot faster, for sure) but I think that it took just close to two hours for a pair of speaker leads. This ain’t you father’s speaker cable! 
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They have hand tools for that that rarely harm the wire and take about 3s per wire… Not to mention factory strippers.