Thank you for the kind comments. Grateful you took the time to say great things.
Bob
Thank you very much for the kind comments! Grateful!
Hello All,
Over the years I have read and analyzed this entire thread 2-3 times (can you tell that I’m an analytic?). Finally bought Gen II-TPC spkr. cables several months ago to replace AQ Slate cables. The improvement, even before break-in, was startling to me.
My equipment: Magneplanar 1.7s, 2 Rel T/9i, Rogue Perseus preamp (tubes), PS M700s, PS P12 regenerator, Cambridge 840C CD player, 15’ x 21’ foot room w/ 10’ ceiling. Always wondered: is my system was “resolving” enough, and even exactly what “resolving” sounded like? Should I replace the CD player? Now I know. The Generation II-TPC allow everything to be clearer, soundstage expanded. (And, my Iconoclasts are 25 feet long.)
A week after installing the Iconoclast I finally got up the nerve to tell my wife about the new cables. Over the last 30+ years she has tried to be patient, but her first question is always “how much did it cost?”. This time, all she said was “the music sounds much better”. She was listening from 2 rooms away in the kitchen. I pushed my luck to ask her if she wanted to know how much the new cables cost, and all she said was “It doesn’t matter. It sounds a lot better to me and you are happy” !!!
The bad news: 10-20% of my CDs are no longer listenable, because the system is now so much better with the Gen II-TPC spkr. cables that I cannot escape how poorly recorded they were. The good news: 80-90% of my CDs are so much more interesting to listen to. Clarity, detail, instrument and vocalist placement are revealed.
We are fortunate to frequently attend Philadelphia Orchestra concerts. I always came home afterward and lamented my system for the following week. Couldn’t even turn it on.
In a good concert hall, when the brass section “lets go”, the leading edge of the first notes are sharp, percussive, different than the following notes. For the first time, I now have that realism from my system. I can place each section of the orchestra. So, if the Concertgebouw places 2 of their instrument sections differently than the Philadelphia, I hear it. When Louis Armstrong moves his trumpet from side while playing, I can tell. The Beatles and Vangelis are revealed. Now I understand “resolving”.
Thank you Galen for your creation and Bob for your patience. Thank you to the contributors to this forum. My listening life is changed.
Jeffrey in Philadelphia
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When you have the poorly recorded CD’s playing just enjoy the music not the recording. One of my favorites is Deep Purple Machine Head and is a terrible recording but some of the best music to me.
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Sage advice Baldy. I’ll do it, although I will listen to those less often.
I have the same experience with my “Big Rig” now that it has reached a certain level of performance. In fact, there are a few recordings that just don’t really get played much. That said, @Baldy offers great advice: “…just enjoy the music not the recording…”
I also have found that these “poor recordings” sound pretty good at lower listening levels.
Again, enjoy the music.
Cheers.
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Or maybe with a little chemical indulgence of choice. Like the first time we listened to them. 
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I can’t speak to the augmentation value of chemical substances (late night sessions when the mood is right - sure) – I was a bit of a Tee Toataler in my youth.
Alternatively, I have found that some of those “bad” recordings are perfect for summer evening drives with the windows down and the volume up.
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Bwaha! You’ve read it more than I have… and I started it😂 Glad that you’ve joined “the family” of Iconoclast listeners. I had the same experience with my wife. She noticed the change immediately from another room. Good stuff.
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On bad stuff, Best of Hermin’s Hermits (
) that sounds like a ship in a bottle, a real little compressed ship, I’ve found your brain extract the best of what there is if I don’t use shuffle with other better sources. Every song has a re-set to the quality but one as big as Hermin’s Hermits upset the apple cart in a big way it is so different.
I just run that one through all the way and my head wraps around it enough that it sounds “good” by comparison to what it used to. Same for other odd ball sources. Don’t let that comparison happen!
Galen
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Listen to the performance not the gear, and be happy. Nice system BTW.
Congratulations. Sounds like you need I onoclst interconnects. It is possible to get the other 10 percent to sound amazing. But the cost exceeds the speaker cables at the UPOCC gen 2 level.
Thanks.
And good advice…
Thank you Jeffrey! We appreciate you sharing your experience!!
You didn’t tell everyone how close you live to the Philharmonic Orchestra!! You have ears to compare the real deal.
Bob
So Bob,
You want to out me, huh? Okay. Our home is 1-1/2 blocks from The Kimmel Center (the Lincoln Center of Philadelphia). In early December we also secured tix to the Berlin Staatskapelle. Here is a tip for everyone: Most modern halls sound better from the front row of the 2nd or 3rd balcony up, than from the orchestra. The hall mgmts. know their hall sounds better up there, but don’t try to fight the widely accepted perception that the best seats are on the orchestra floor.
Another great thing about Iconoclasts (Bob, you should put this in your advert material) is that they don’t try to unwrap a candy mid performance.
- Jeffrey in Phila.
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Most modern halls sound better from the front row of the 2nd or 3rd balcony up, than from the orchestra.
Oh man! You’ve just let the cat out of the bag!
I’ve always preferred the sonic characteristics as experienced from the balconies of the Lincoln Center theaters, here in NYC. All other smaller venue’s are dependent upon the size, make up and stage placement when deciding upon a seating choice. And if it’s a club, well, I find somewhere between the bar and the stage the best. 
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Will Glenn uses 30 footers. Here is the curiosity for cable. At RF the impedance is constant cross frequency. The easy Zo = 101670/ Vp *C equation doesn’t really let the AC out of the bag to describe why the is. We need to use the RF “reactive” equation, Zo = SQRT(L/C). Now we can see what’s going on at RF. The L and C is a constant ratio as L and C are essentially flat with frequency from DC (no L at DC) on up. The inductance does change some as the current moves to the outside at RF, and this slightly changes the inductance that is the distance of the current magnitude between wires. Capacitance isn’t effected as it is the reactive ground reference between conductors, and this is stable once the dielectric material is set. This also explains why there is capacitance at DC (we still have the ground plane) and not inductance (no current!).
At RF the impedance is flat, and this is because the Vp is FLAT! This is also why the RF impedance can be pure RESISTIVE at true RF. We can’t EVER, EVER get a flat impedance at analog audio because the cable is ALWAYS, AWLAYS reactive through analog. We don’t get a constant “ratio” of L and C describing impedance. The Zo = 101670/C*Vp equation hints at why. As Vp goes one way or the other impedance has to change, and it does through analog frequencies.
What to do? We can manage C and R to better flatten the impedance. But we can NEVER, NEVER, EVER make it flat with passive cable. Any suggestion to that is patently false as Vp changes from zero at DC by definition to the limiting Vp of the dielectric at RF (100% if the dielectric is a vacuum). No passive cable escapes that.
ICONOCLAST lowers the impedance to half a typical zip cords like 1313A. 1310A is star quad wired to also lower the low frequency impedanced. But1313A and 1310A can’t flatten the Vp, this is only possible with high DCR conductor paths insulated form each other and thus, complicated multi-wire designs to lowe DCR to be like a big fat wire.
Your 25’ runs will sound really good since the “impedance” will be constant at each frequency, but not flat across frequencies regardless of length. Every frequency will have it’s own impedance through analog. The Vp correction will also remain, and it is Length dependent where shorter is better, but some intervention to flatten the differences across frequencies is always nice to have in a design. All ICONOCLAST cable, IC or speaker, builds this into the designs.
This impact how the amplifiers feedback, damping factor and other properties are dynamically flat into reactive loads (cable + 8-ohm resistor) and is also part of what we hear. We test amplifier into eight-ohm resistors with a set “simulated speaker cable”. We don’t really test the AMP like it is used. This gives you a reference between amplifiers and is as good as we can do to be descriptive to some meaningful degree.
Best,
Galen
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We’ll I don’t want to brag, but…
Hello Galen,
I ALWAYS appreciate your detailed explanations to share understanding among us. Occasionally they are so far over my head, that I am unable to understand even after the 3rd reading and looking up all the electrical abbreviations. Would you kindly take pity on me and translate your last entry from “electricalese” to English?
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Hello DuneKidd, I began to realize this one night 40 years ago. I had seats in Avery Fisher Hall. They were so close to the ceiling I could almost jump up to touch it.
Another time was in Carnegie Hall. I snagged seats to the Berlin Philharmonic all the way up in nose bleed territory. It was so high up that in those days the elevator did not even go up that high. I had to walk up one more flight. I could barely see individual orchestra members. The sound, to my astonishment, was glorious. - Jeffrey in Philly
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