Belden ICONOCLAST Interconnects and Speaker Cabling

Nice!

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Well executed, solid.

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I just received another BAV power cord today. Same great build and performance.

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Looking good :slight_smile: Now do you offer them in rhodium and gold EU schuko versions or just gold plated? Or what is your take on different platings? My experience is that usually gold works fine with sources and rhodium is better for amps.

I´m happily looking for to spend some money,no sorry,improve my sound once again with your great cables :relaxed:

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Gold is more durable for PLUGS that get moved a lot. Rhodium is SOFT and best where a connection is made and left alone (at a speaker SPADE terminal). An AC plug is OK if you leave it be as the Rhodium is less wear tolerant that Gold.

As far as amps verses other things, the contact resistance of Rhodium is lower but it is a small difference (see the table). The resistivity is OHM-m so it is length factored. We don’t have much length in a AC prong. Ask for the data if you like, it’s all pretty common knowledge, it is how you use it that matters. We are aware of the plating limitations and have to figure in how the cords may be used so we settled on a little harder plating to keep the cords performing well over time. Rhodium is $$$ and lowers service life on an AC cord.

Rhodium is nice BECAUSE it deforms to a surface and fill in the gaps for an air tight seal. Set and forget.

Contact pressure can switch the performance if it is too light. More pressure lowers the resistance and why houses burn down with worn out plugs. Resistance equals heat.

It all depends on use cycle more than anything. High retention force AC plugs will add wear with use and Gold is a better option with frequent use. No real amazing stuff here, just the coating hardness. Nickel is used a lot as it is VERY wear tolerant and cheap and actually real good for AC systems with frequent use so that’s why you see Nickel plating a lot…it’s how the cord is used. We do look at all this believe it or not.

Best,
Galen

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I received my additional set of SPTPC cables and SPTPC jumpers and hooked up the BIWIRE from my 8 ohm autoformer taps on my McIntosh MC1000s to the MF on the XR290 and jumpered to the HF using the Iconoclast SPTPC jumpers.

I am using my original SPTPC speaker cables on LF.

I am literally amazed how this bi-wire setup transformed the sound. The clarity and openness and PRAT is amazing. I was struggling with Sunlight firmware sounding right. The Iconoclast Biwire released what was holding back my system though I thought I had pinnacles previously. My wife was flabbergasted with the change in sound. I know it is something when she is still talking about the sound the next day and how great it is.

I am reticent of trying other autoformer impedance taps since the sound is so balanced. I will let it settle before I try split autoformer impedance or lowering both together. The bass is so authoritative and vocals, strings and percussion is alive and spatial cue depth is on steroids. There is no old wives tales regarding LF modulation of MF and HF. It is real and unmistakable after you hear better. I thought the P20 was an improvement until I heard this. Maybe it is compounding all my other improvements but this stands out even more than upgrading the Edcore transformers in the DS DAC.

I thank Bob and BJC in getting me hooked up and wires at the doorstep in 3 business days. Thanks Galen for the advice and your stellar design and supporting this forum.

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Vmax,

Remember that we have more musical octaves in the lower frequency range; 20, 40, 80, 160, 320, 640, 1280, and 2560 Hz than treble range (above 2000 Hz).

If we go by the WILKI - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octave_bandAdjustment
-1 16 Hz 15.625 Hz
0 31.5 Hz 31.250 Hz -39.4 dB
1 63 Hz 62.500 Hz -26.2 dB
2 125 Hz 125.000 Hz -16.1 dB
3 250 Hz 250.000 Hz -8.6 dB
4 500 Hz 500.000 Hz -3.2 dB
5 1k Hz 1000.000 Hz 0 dB
6 2k Hz 2000.000 Hz 1.2 dB
7 4k Hz 4000.000 Hz 1 dB
8 8k Hz 8000.000 Hz -1.1 dB
9 16k Hz 16000.000 Hz -6.6 dB

What does bi wire have to do with this? We hear time base distortions better at higher frequencies, even if more octaves are in the low frequent ranges. Also, if we isolation the music above and below the woof to mid-tweeter X-over frequency (around 200-300 Hz) mitigates the superposition of signals that creates IM distortion, or beat frequencies that aren’t supposed to be there.

Not all music or situations will benefit the same, or two listeners hear it the same but the improvement is real. HOW real can be based on measurements, or if we can hear it, Both have a place. We have to be better first (the calculation and measurement) before we can decide if it is heard.

It is definitely worth the trial to see how your speakers and ears respond. Many times it is like a component level upgrade, true. Glad your system was in that camp.

Best,
Galen Gareis

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I have a unique pair of speakers which use planar magnetic tweeter and midrange drivers which play down to around 200Hz. Filling in the bottom end are stereo pairs of servo controlled subwoofers which are made to play up to and maybe even a little over 200Hz. Sounds like the crossover point is right in that sweet spot.

I am sold on bi-wire. My crossovers ate at 400 Hz and 1300 Hz. The stock gold jumper bars were doing me zero favor. The locking banana and spade iconoclast jumpers really did not cost me much maybe an extra half inch in still being able to be close to front wall as speaker design requires.

Thank you Darrell, for the comments, your order and for being a long time customer. Folks need to understand that many systems will definitely benefit from bi-wire. I am somewhat surprised at how few customers purchase our jumpers. I too noticed a nice bump in SQ when I replaced the OEM copper or brass strips with the SPTPC jumpers. I suppose it’s the price that is the deterrent. At the same time when $400 provides a big improvement it’s really not that much in the scheme of things. This weekend is a time for reflection. I hope everyone has a great and safe Memorial Day weekend!

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Not too unique. The T+A CWT 1000-40 cross-over at 200 Hz and 2,000 Hz. It’s good to try to keep the midrange out of the cross-over points.

You just have a good design speakers cross-over design consideration.

Best,
Galen

Very cool.

Conversely, I found more gains by removing the 2nd set of binding posts, upgrading to non-ferrous Cardas posts and replacing the internal wire than I did with a 2nd set of identical Iconoclasts. The speaker design, quality of internal components and xover point(s) all seem to matter.

My two-way ATC SCM11v2 crosses at 2.5k.

Whispers?

I did speak to another owner of a pair of my speakers who converted to Cardas post’s because they gripped better. He didn’t get a sound boost but simply preferred them. He did not bi-wire or tri-wire either told me he didn’t believe it was necessary but he had ran Cardas cables to speakers from his McIntosh MC2KW amps.

The speaker designer Roger Russell also claimed bi-wire or tri-wire was not needed but they were provided, Roger also never believed cables made and appreciable difference as stated on his web site.

Regardless he did spend a great amount of time on crossover design of The XR290. Roger did tell me in an email where I had personally asked him about set up and placement , when I bought the speakers used six years ago. He stated when designing the XR290 system at McIntosh he went to the trouble of comparing acoustic instruments played by real people in the same listening room to recorded ones played back over the same speaker system. How many speaker designers will go to that amount of trouble or would even try that? That was what was unique about Roger Russell and the resources he had at McIntosh at that time when designing the XR290 flagship. I pulled that email back up recently just to see if I had overlooked something he might of recommended and found that gem. May he rest in peace, having just passed away this month.

I will chalk my experience with bi-wire on the XR290 up to the Iconoclast cables.

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Whispers? Yes they are. These were specifically built for me in 2006 at the Allen Organ plant in Macungie, PA. They were supervised/walked through and tuned for me by Legacy engineer Troy Caldwell. Troy was largely responsible for the Whisper design. That same year I left Legacy and joined Belden.

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Very nice.

I have admired Legacy speakers and their Wavelet processor from afar for quite some time.

Currently, I am looking to acquire a Wavelet on the used market for “tuning” my office 2.2 system.

Cheers.

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Loving that SUB!

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Just noticed the new PS console in your picture.

I use my PS 4 as themary source of subscription content (NETFLIX, Amazon Prime and the like) and to spin Blu-ray discs (I have not made the jump from 1080p yet).

How is the new Playstation as video source component, if you don’t mind sharing?

TIA.

Thanks Paul! I took one of Legacy’s 15" drivers w/dual voice coils and a heavy duty rubber surround. When I plugged the specs into one of the “build your own” online resources it gave me the ideal enclosure size. It may appear crude but this box uses 2-layers of MDF and was then covered in birch 5-ply furniture grade plywood. Everything was heavily glued, clamped and screwed.

When my oldest son and I finished the box it weighed in at around 160 LBS. The motor on the driver added another 46 LBS. To make it movable I placed it on a wheeled amp stand that I originally made for a Levinson amp. The passive sub is powered by a Crown XLS 2500 class-D amp. It rocks and is actually very articulate and fast when dialed in. The Crown amp is rated at 775w and has internal high and low-pass filters. The enclosure has stereo input binding posts so I run the amp in the stereo mode with a channel for each of the voice coils. It sure does what I ask it to do.

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Ha, the PS5. I lost sleep, went mostly mad and screamed at the sky trying to buy one of the stupid boxes. Talk about 4-months of frustration! It’s not healthy, the feelings I have for Sony these days and their handling of the PS5 roll out. BH Photo finally took care of me when my place in line finally arrived.

The PS5 is plugged into an LG CX 77 OLED and delivers absolutely “stunning” video. I don’t do surround preferring “stereo” but the audio too, is great. Streaming of video is direct through the LG. For the few, very few SACD disks I have the Oppo remains.

The PS5 is a highly recommended component in my opinion.

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