Darrell, I sure appreciate your question and Galen’s response. My experience is a bit different. I have only had the jumpers for a few days but already have found reasons to justify their existence.
I remember back in the college days when I bought a used Firebird with about 80k miles.on it. I wanted a TransAm but had nowhere near enough cash to make it happen. So, I found first a hood scoop that I thought I would match with spray paint and attached it with rivets from the underside of the hood. The first part of the transformation was complete and over the weeks I convinced myself that the Firebird was significantly faster than before. The spoiler was next and no one would ever convince me that I did not now have a TransAm. To this day, I am a believer. No matter if you think you can, or think that you cannot, you’re right.
So, I have been fighting the little brass jumpers on my Legacy Whispers for 15-years. Connecting and reconnecting my speakers with spades has always been one of those aggravating tasks that once complete is quickly forgotten…until the next time. What a joy it was to remove those little aggravating plates for the last time. The single spades easily slid under the binding post, tightened down like never before and the ultrasonically welded, “locking” bananas easily inserted into their new homes and tightened down like glass.
For some these will be a nice improvement and “really look nice as well.” To others, a totally unnecessary accessory.
I swear my Whispers never sounded so good. And you know what? They never did, to me!
A bargain to me, I hope to have the option posted on the site soon. For those interested please feel free to shoot me a PM for pricing or to place an order.
Try moving the red (+) speaker lead to the corresponding binding post above where it is now (moving it to the mid/tweeter + binding post). Leave the black (-) speaker lead where it is now.
Leave the jumpers as they are.
@rower30,
I am currently running your SPTPC speaker cables to my Tannoy Westminster speakers. I just picked up a set of Dukane Ionovac plasma super tweeters that I will run on top of the Tannoy’s. The frequency range of these tweeters is 7500Hz - 100,000Hz. Best to run the same SPTPC’s?
Galen is on a big boat and on the way to Hawaii. He tells me he will be responding when not practicing the Hula. I suspect he will recommend to maintain continuity.
The Iconoclast speaker cables are impressively designed. I get why they cost so much. Surely there’s something between that and a simple twisted pair of 10awg like the 1313a. What about speaker cables optimized for subwoofers?
Good Morning Rob and welcome to the forum! You are correct, there is a “major” difference and improvement with Iconoclast speaker cables over Belden 1313A. It is truly like night and day. The speaker cables are designed to optimize performance over the entire audio band including low frequencies. I have a home built sub that is powered by a Crown class D amplifier and subsequently use a pair of Iconoclast speaker cables for that portion of the system. My sub uses a dual voice coil driver so a pair rather than a single is being used but we do offer the option to allow you to order a single cable. Again, welcome to the forum.
Here is the answer based on how this all works. The lowest frequencies are moving down the cable at near the same speeds across frequency. See the Vp charts in the literature on our web site that shows this. This means that the addative of ALL frequencies called the group velocity (the voltage at any point in time at your speaker) will also travel nearer the same speed. The “group” velocity is called that because it is the sum of the group of signals that superimpose to add constructively, or destructively, or even create IM signal distortion that adds to the single voltage at every instant in time at your speaker terminal.
The IDEAL would be if EVERY frequency traveled at the exact same speed so the TIME alignment of the GROUP velocity was not distorted. But, we don’t have that. At RF, we do. The Vp at each frequency and thus the group velocity are more time aligned at RF.
OK, but as we go lower in frequency the Vp DIFFERENCE is far less than in the upper frequencies. The use of many small wires to help improve Vp across frequency and thus group velocity is mostly the upper frequencies, not low.
What did I say? I said try 1313A and COMPARE it to ICONOCLAST and see what you hear. The lower you go in frequency, the real data says it will be harder and harder to hear any improvement. We are here to sell you how this really works, and when an improvement is more likely to be heard.
Be careful about what you can expect on a subwoofer. I use the GENERATION ONE RCA to my subs as the improvement the 4x4 design provides aren’t technically designed for lower frequencies.
Let me know if this helps your understanding of what’s happening. The slope of the Vp curve flattens out down low so Group Delay of bass frequencies is better and better time aligned. That’s what the data shows, and that’s the answer you should get.
The DATA on the BAV cords uses RF and swept Rs test to select the best dielectric for passive RF supression and optimum low frequency transmission of 60 Hz power. Th data is far better than my $$$ reference cord(s) under the same test conditions.
The dieletric that tests best for this passive RF supression is EPDM. To keep coss LOW, and to use the optimized cable designs, I have chosen the Belden EPDM line of power cables with high quality IEC and Duplex connectors. I will not “invent” what already is working. EPDM is exensive as it is a thermoset vucanization process, but it works. BAV uses industrial design bulk cordage, we can leverge the volume.
The DATA will be made available to support WHY we chose the design for our BAV power cords. Again, ICONOCLAST philosophy is to go with the date. Many will feel the data, although accurate, isn’t enough to benefit their application. I have no issue with that and this is exacty WHY we have the data, so you can make informed choices.
High quality audio gear with IEC sockets passes the FCC emission ingress or egrees, RF consumer (stricter than industrial limits) tests with unshielded cords. Few need “shielded” cords. I use all unshielded BAV series in my system, 10 and 14 AWG with a P20 regenerator. Yes, I use what I design.
My application is likely not severe as I have 1.5% THD at the wall, and a steady 120 Volt rail that doesn’t sag. The P20 clamps this down some more but you get the idea, I’m in good shape at the wall over many of you. I will have beta testers power cords out shortly to comment on application and use experiences.
We will investigate an EPDM style star quad design lower inductance and shielded ICONOCLAST design power cord, and with realistically measured data but…will these changes be beneficial to a high quality IEC input power supply stages? The measured changes will be real for sure but each system will be different.
The ICONOCLAST design is NOT a snap done design as it is a custom and more complex cable by far, and for usually isolated benefit to specific users. The availability isn’t near term.
