I have seen robotic bond wire machines at use in aerospace that weld wires to pins
We have machine limitations and a MARKET value to be honest to. Sure, we can invision smaller and smaller anything but don’t forget that you can’t alter R and C without impacting the impedance and inductance which is really important in speaker cables. Keeping inductance at 0.08 uH/foot nominal wasn’t easy…keeping ANY of the variables where you want them isn’t easy. One , yes, all of them? Like herding cats is the saying.
This is why LITZ wire designs can have problems. The capacitance and inductance are hard to control, although you can get 40 AWG wires clumped together, yes. Imagine the problems keeping them from breaking and 100% termination. You have to remove what we called GEOSOL insulation (a kind of varnish) from each wire.
There are expensive LITZ type IC cable on the market, but the electrical aren’t reported or what exactly was the aim of the design. What is it all doing, not just the small wires? And did I mention the price? Tens of thousands per meter.
The patent splits the cable into frequency ranges with a tuned cross-over point and like open-short impedance properties and with a constant inductance between the two cables.
The concept to use Vp tuning with design changes by itself isn’t new, the research paper was done by BELDEN INNOVATORS thirty years ago, but was more for the science than true application. In the day audio cables were considered any cable that wasn’t an open or a short just about. Belden didn’t address the market of best in class electrical audio cables. They fundamentally know and knew how to do it. I’m proof of that.
Best,
Galen
@rower30 I think my mono amps are running cooler in this series I and Series iI biwire. Any engineering calculations that would support that hunch? Or should they be working harder?
In true bi-wire (two cables in parallel at the amp end) this is what you have;
You will double the capacitance that is seen by the individual wires, and why I kept it reasonable so amps aren’t driven into oscillation, and halve the inductance and resistance. The amp does see a lower bulk “R” to and from the speaker. The Vp curve changes as the total capacitance load on the cable goes up. Each individual wire loop DCR doesn’t change.
If you BI-AMP, you see the below situation. Each cable is isolated from one another and we split the performance into what the separate amps can do, and what the cable’s can do.
As far as the load on the amp, nothing but watts delivered. What you are probably hearing is that the series II has more in phase energy and can be heard well at lower SPL. I adjusted my listening level from “65” to “63” on my pass Labs XP-30 as an example. When we add AC data, it can only lose from in-phase amplitude, never gain above it. If we maintain the ideal phase, we keep a higher average amplitude. This is the only explanation I have for the “louder” sound using the series II speaker cable. And yes, it does register on an SPL meter. All that detail you hear better is new information.
Look at it this way, a wire is a STRAW. In the series II case, a 28 AWG small straw. Blow through the straw. We senses a resistance. If we put more than one straw in our mouth and blow, we have less BULK resistance. Each straw’s resistance didn’t change any at all, but the BULK of them did lower the resistance. Capacitance is like putting air pressure at the end of the straws all connected to a balloon. The air pressure is distributed to ALL the straws. The more capacitance, the more resistance the capacitance adds to each wire. We have to push against the capacitance load AND the resistance of each straw.
Resistance is PER each straw, and the capacitance is across all the straws. BULK DCR is the parallel equivalent of as many straws as you put together…in our case 48 wires. The capacitance is the sum of all the capacitance in parallel as they ADD.
Best,
Galen
Ah! An explanation I can finally understand… 
Thanks Galen
Best wishes
I am now running my preamp at 39 was 41. Yes things seem louder. Especially the crowd noise on the live Eagles Recording at the end of Hotel CA. I did find watts climbing higher at lower volume settings. There is plenty surprises in this Series II upgrade. But I won’t lie it is so much fun. I think series Iii will bug you until you crack that code with a Eureka moment.
Until then thanks fir sharing your latest obsession and letting us in on it early. The change is way better than other cable chases. Though they all are easy to hear this one was a Rosetta stone in unleashing hidden audiophile information we all search for.
Guys, an idea for getting ICONOCLAST some (a little) publicity:
Contact prominent high-end audio reviewers on Youtube, suggest trying out the ICONOCLAST line and request doing a possible review if they feel it’s in place.
Now, I know there’s not that many. But there’s a handful of great reviewers with relatively a lot of views.
Imagine: reviewer posts video expressing shock and awe how the ICONOCLAST is competing with their 40k$ cables. And that is the expected outcome anyway!
As long as I don’t have to listen to an audio demo of the cables via youtube on someone else’s system.
Lol I’ll send you one by iphone via SMS
Can you send me a few names or links to some that you might think we should consider? Thank you!
Great weekend to all! Don’t forget your sweetie’s on “Monday!” You have been warned!
Cable are like cars, there are lots of ways to be good and also different. We need to try to be in the union of the set people feel is the best sound value around. That’s our target, not to be the best for 10 people, at any price, but most people.
Yes, that means realistic design and materials. We need to be aware of prices and the value an exotic brings to the table. Our true market isn’t interested in testing a new theory even though there are people who can afford to. That just isn’t who we are trying to be. We also can’t make a Ferrari and sell it less than a GTI. That simply can’t be done and yes, there are true Ferrari cables if you look real hard for the ones supported with true data. Last I checked, there are no Ferrari cars where I live out too often but there is no denying they are good.
Sure, we can compete with poorly designed $$$ cable, same as a badly made expensive car can’t beat a well-made cheaper one. But hey everyone, there are true real design options on the table if you want to pay for them. Just saying. Our audience wants consolidated expertise that is proven, works, and is affordable.
Best,
Galen
Galen, you pique my interest! Who, if I may ask, are among this group of Ferrari cable manufacturers?
Not that I could afford them, as for me the Iconoclasts themselves are at the edge of my spending limit. 
I won’t spoil the fun, so here is what to look for.
1.0 We use 30 AWG on the IC cable in the series II. Obviously there is smaller than that! Speaker cable uses 28 AWG and again, there is smaller than that!
2.0 We use AIR as the primary dielectric. Be wary of gas filler cables as helium and the usual suspect diffuse through plastic (it won’t stay in the cable!). This is why hardline cable is PRESSURIZED with Nitrogen instead. A gauge can measure leak-down. The pressurized gas pushes junk OUT and a vacuum pulls it all IN. Only a solid METAL vessel can hold gasses permanently. Gases like hydrogen can embrittle even metal.
3.0 Look for proper Vp analysis and how it is done and if it is done. For a $$$ cable EVERYTHING should be looked at and explained.
4.0 Ignore exotic materials that do the same thing as what they replace but just up the price. Carbon fiber wall outlet plates, really? Some cosmetic bling is nice but buy it for what it is.
5.0 Pay attention to symmetry in the signal path of all the conductors. It needs to be the same on ALL the wires in a passive cable. All those wires should act like ONE wire. The physical geometry should be firmly held in place. There is no good squisshy cable from an EM consistency standpoint. Physicals are the electrical. The cable should have ONE geometric cross-section all the time.
6.0 In speaker cable the inductance is important, but not at the expense of making the cable essentially a capacitor (yes, they are out there). Of course, a capacitor has low inductance. Amplifiers will oscillate into higher capacitance so BOTH L and C need to be low for that reason. In bad cases ZOBEL reactive offset networks (more components!) can be added to “fix” the mistake. IC cables are often the opposite, they are INDUCTORS that are touted as a cable! Of course, an inductor has low cap. L and C are ideally BOTH low with a shift to one side or the other based on the primary signal transfer function, voltage or current.
7.0 Look for the WHAT, WHY and HOW with proper data and the tech behind the R, L and C and how a cable’s natural non linearities are addresses. Are they? If they aren’t available, they probably aren’t what the right hand is showing you with the left behind their back.
8.0 Cable is like amplifiers, the way it is tuned and balanced changes the sound. There are many PROPER ways to do this, same as with amplifiers. As long as the methods are correct, you at least know what you are paying for. Nelson Pass tells it like it is on his amps, for instance, and why they sound the way they do and HOW he does it. There is no “correct” balance just the correct data to support your decisions and what was emphasized.
9.0 How many slices of goodness are they selling? Do you feel the quality of a cable’s sound can be sliced up with multiple different designs differentiated with just the materials and the random R, L and C they end up with? The fewer product the more likely they are using a consistent and meaningful design approach.
10.0 This is still AUDIO frequencies. Put everything in perspective. There are true changes in cables but the “C” values are still VERY fast (3E8 in a vacuum) in cable even at 10% Vp. Phrases like this dielectric is “fast” are somewhat misplaced as it is ALL fast. SHOULD the dielectric be “fast” and where to better time align the group delay of the signal?
When we adjust the dielectric DIMENSION it sets capacitance. Technically that adjusts the T=RC rise time voltage constant. You can get the same RC time constant with differing dielectrics based on the dimensions. Again, like an amplifier, there are lots of ways to build the sound you are after. A super- duper dielectric can be thinner and more efficient at a given capacitance, making a cable SMALLER and cheaper as everything builds on that. But it will ramp up the cost as that exotic choice isn’t cheap, it is just a cheaper expensive cable if the material is used right.
11.0 We want the signal to enter the cable at the same time, phase and amplitude, and arrive at the end in the same time, phase and amplitude across the spectrum. THAT would be the perfect cable. R, L and C says we can’t ever do that.
12.0 Numbers do matter. That a cable with proper design measurements can be different in use is still, to me, hard to translate from the paperwork. But cable has to measure and calculate better to be better, start there. How we hear things is still subjective to each of us, the data isn’t.
People ask for a crazy this or that cable. It is far harder to make a great cable at a low price. The design must leverage everything and get the most out of it. ICONOCLAST is that effort. We want to get you the best honest engineering, and a high level of measured performance, that most of us can afford. The differences between the cables are obvious and explained. We have a consistent approach to the “balance” of R, L and C. We sell the DATA and the calculations and measurements only. That is after all what you are buying. The sound follows the hard numbers, it has to. Once the cable is made, the sound remains the same every day. A new company theory won’t alter anything if the numbers don’t change.
Everything rides on the ratio of R, L and C. Even the unknowns that undoubtably work better on a most proper foundation. A new measurement won’t make R, L or C unimportant, they probably will make them MORE important!
Best,
Galen
What a wealth of unbiased shared scientific info you have made available to everyone even remotely interested in the what and why.
No smoke and mirrors when you explain anything sir.
Galen,
Congrats on the Series 2 loudspeaker cables becoming available for everyone to audition!
When will the Gen 3 analog signal cables (both unbalanced RCA and balanced XLR) become available, and which metallurgical choices will there be?
Well, if we keep working on the GTI it becomes a 911 and we all know what that means! Great for the few that can buy one. Our designs must use the absolute best designs possible to mitigate exotic materials so we can arrive at an affordable and good measuring design.
If we take that best case situation, the price can only go UP if we add exotics. By that I mean 1 atom wide copper wire (a few billion in parallel and we’ve got a great cable!) and things like that.
Notice we use TPC copper. Who else does that? Why do we do it? The better the design eclipses the copper. No one with the very good series I cables, speaker or IC, will not figure out that the series II sounds better with lesser copper. I’m not saying the copper influences are gone, but that the better design influences are bigger and offer more for the money.
Of course we do offer the practical advantages of CHOICE in copper but the main ingredient is the design. We won’t have the exotic material of the week to pick from, that’s not who we are.
ICONOCLAST is a pencil and paper design pure and maybe not so simple to do. I have to present the WHAT, WHY and HOW to you before a value can be assessed to consider buying or even trying the product. Isn’t that what we all really want?
The series III would have to be a better design, not an exotic material. That true design improvement is far, far harder to do and at a point is MORE expensive to make (there is an inflection point) not less. A new design is also new $$$ manufacturing equipment to reach the design’s final attrubutes and then we have to see if the audible bar is nudged enough to be any value at the price we’d have to charge for it. The loss to achieve that goal is far, fare bigger than a few cable samples.
Sure, a 911 (there are so many 911’s I don’t even know what a 911 is anymore, ugh) is great but we mostly turn our noses up at the price. It isn’t great enough for what it provides, and that’s the value question. It is still great, but the value is hard to drive home(ha! a pun).
We have to be loyal to what put ICONOCLAST on the map, good designs using affordable materials that exceed what would be expected at the price. We are for the true hobbiest and that means people with about a 10K set of speakers or so will see the products as a value. Not all but most. A 1:5 price ratio between a cable and a speaker seems to be the proper entry point. We all automatically calculate that in our heads, and we should.
Is my GTI $128,000/$35,000 times better than a Panamera? Even here I bought the BASE engine! I can’t use 650 HP anywhere. I can use 325 HP and still get 32-35 MPG on HWY. Oh, The brakes will last forever too, the car goes around corners just as fast…no braking needed! I can use the handling so that’s what I bought.
People with 2K-8K range speakers can’t see the value yet. There is a real benefit evaluation we make as customers. Don’t buy what you can’t leverage! But the TPC speaker cable can stay in a system a LONG time as you upgrade. I will say this, that entry price range has some VERY, VERY good speakers too. Don’t think for a second audio has gotten worse for the price paid. Compared to when I started, a pair of ADS 810’s was coinsidered top of the line stuff. Entry level speakers are WAY better than that now.
We do listen very hard to our customer base. We do want what you want and the cable products are made to fit what I want. Yes, I make them for me first as I want a value product that really works and we think you do too. The exotic stuff is fun, but the small advantage will be too expensive for most of us.
Best,
Galen
As a long-time hobbyist, I really believe we are living through a golden age of Hi-Fi and music.
Between the very active used market (in which you can buy well-cared-for kit that is just barely behind the SOTA curve for great prices) and music library/streaming software like Qobuz and Tidal (by which you can explore nearly all of the world’s music library at the touch of an icon), it is a great time to be a lover of music and Hi-Fi.
Regards.
After more run in and rerunning my RoomPerfect DSP calibration these Series II TPC speaker cables continue to amaze.
Such balance and extension. I have been listening to BJ Thomas The Living Room Sessions and Steely Dan albums Pretzel Logic, Two Against Nature, Gaucho, and now Aja. . I must say the ability to hear into the recording and the naturalness and ease is remarkable.
All can talk about lifting veils. The veil is gone the glassed wipe clean and then the window thrown away. If I think the vocal is sounding recessed. It is only because of the spaciousness of imaging. Press the remote volume one or two bumps. The closer all gets. Not overpowering. Less need for volume adjustments between track mix differences because you are no longer overpowering the listening space.
One has to get used to the extra info of the recording space now being offered up in complete and I mean clarity and transparency with the vocal. The complete blackness between tracks. I will say there was less happening in the series I Iconoclast playback. I will be interested to hear SPTPC in series II
Time to discover a symphony space or two. But Jazz at the PawnShop beckons first.
I got an extended chuckle on that one.
Finally! A cable that does windows. 