One of these days you had better come to the US for one of the shows and a visit! We would love to see you!!
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Agree with you, thanks.
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Back from AXPONA! It was great to see so many of you there- so many wonderful people and interesting conversations. @DrPain made my day as always with his kindness and generosity. My son was thrilled when I pulled out the card game from my bag- it was a favorite when he visits his friends house and now he has his own deck!
I will try to edit @rower30 / Galen’s presentation and have it posted online soon for those of you who were unable to attend. Got the audio off his lav mic this time so will be easier to listen to then last year’s video.
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Great to touch base with all of the Iconoclast Team as well.
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Great to see you all. After seeing Galen Friday morning and telling him I’d be at the session, then missing it, then seeing him Saturday morning - and missing that session (too many distractions at this year’s show! 
), I would love to see the presentation. Thank you Jeff.
And it was great to finally meet you in person, @BobBJC!
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Thank you Tony, it was great to meet you as well! Jeff does have the recording so sit tight and it will appear. Jeff does an amazing job of organizing these shows and somehow makes it all look easy. His herculean efforts took care of the set up and tear down of our venue before immediately moving over to assist Rich at Treehaus pack and load their complex and heavy audio system.
On 2-occasions Galen stepped up with his usual ad lib perfect delivery, this time, of the science of the “optimal length” for cables. There might not be a “perfect” length all cables because there are so many variables. No one decided to question. Stay tuned for the presentation.
Thank you to “all” who stopped by. It was great to finally get to meet some of you in person. What a special surprise to have Mr. Angen visit with me and to experience the kindness of Dr. Pain! It would take paragraphs to share all of the great experiences that I left with.
Every day is a gift my friends and we had a great 3-days of meeting audiophile friends. I must add, that with most things a little rain will fall. The Atlanta airport is like an emergency colonoscopy on steroids. I’m always amazed at the abuse airlines can provide for their customers and do it with total amunity.
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Thanks Galen, Jeff and Bob for the great presentation, wonderful advice, thought provoking conversation, and the opportunity to buy a great product like the BAV cables at the AXPONA show. I look forward to seeing you all again next year.
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Galen’s 2024 AXPONA presentation:
Pt. 1 - https://youtu.be/GGOu-1qsWoA
Pt. 2 - https://youtu.be/gImRFQ4xsM0
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Both halves of the presentation were realty informative and of course factual to a fault.
There is not one other cable manufacturer on the planet that is this open about explaining the whats and whys concerning the performance of cable design. This info of course applies to all manufacturers.
Some may even (or should) be embarrassed at what they didn’t know about what they are trying to market.
Thanks to everyone involved. 
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plus about a billion, Vern!
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There are still those that are desparate to apply RF cable properties to analog frequencies with pretty much disastrous applications. This is still one of the hardests things to get across. Speaker cables drive a near short circuit impedance (2-16 ohms on average). IC cables drive a near modeled infinity impedance (47Kohm reference). In either case will the cable ever match that termination load value. Worse, it can’t match the load impedance at ANY frequency except ONE in theory for a speaker cable or IC (you pick the frequency!). Just don’t try to build that impossible to make cable. We see a continuously changing cable impedance in our IC and speaker cable. It is what it is everyone. Speaker cables are a current transfer function design and IC are a voltage transfer function design. Neither analog cable can use RF 30-50 ohm power or 75 ohm and higher voltage design principals.
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That description is precisely why I trust your company to supply the highest performance for the money cables in every part of the stereo system from network router thru the speakers.
Great presentation and follow through. I only know the basics of electricity but could easily understand both descriptions.
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Don’t go by the presentation “clicks” number. I was using this to review questions on U-Tube and noticed the click counter, so screwed that all up! Sorry, I’ll use a different link from now on.
Galen
I go by the view count on Youtube- looking great there!
Hey Bob, what are your thoughts on the BJC x Hawthorne “Octoquad” compared to the BAV 1313A and Iconoclast series 2? Any insight is appreciated, thanks!
Here is the skinny on how the line is established…
- 1313A doesn’t attempt to improve the low frequency imopedance ot higher frequency Vp curve. 1313A just addresses the DCR for damping factor.
- 1310A with a star quad wire arrangenent adds a lower low frequency impedance but doesn’t adjust the higher frequeny Vp alignment (still uses fat low DCR wires).
- Series I ICONOCLAST uses 24 x 24 AWG insulated wires per polarity and lowers the low frequency impedance and also the Vp alignment at higher frequencies.
Series II ICONOCLAST uses 48 x 28 AWG insulated wires per polarity and lowers the low frequency impedance and further adjusts the higher frequency Vp alignment.
All the wires need to be insulated from each other to create a high DCR loop through each wire, but aggregate total DCR AWG is low with the wires in parallel. So that’s how the designs work, and why the complex ICONOCLAST weave to achieve lower capacitance while creating the higher DCR circuit paths.
Go to the web site and get the paper on parallel wire arrangements and this shows all the measurements in the actual arrangements (single and parallel bi-wire). - Technical Papers: Iconoclast Cable - Dual Bi-Wire and Single Wire Speaker Cables.
Best,
Galen
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Good morning, please forgive the very late response. BJC has been working to offer some level of “private label” products to the brick and mortar dealers and at least one online dealer. It was agreed and decided early on that the Iconoclast business model and pricing matrix would not include dealers for a variety of reasons. Of primary concern was the significant next level of cost to the customer that dealer representation adds to any and all products.
From inception, BJC offered direct pricing and tremendous value by not adding a double factor to their products for dealers.
Hawthorne’s octoquad is almost a “mirror” product of the Iconoclast/BAV line Belden 1310A star quad cable. Though it’s not assembled from Belden 1310A the Hawthorne cable is a nice assembly.
On Iconoclast site under and BAV, 1310A it is offered with a “choice” of connector options and at any custom length you desire.
If you really want better measurable performance and drastically noticeable sound quality improvement then try an Iconoclast speaker cable.
All Iconoclast and BAV products are offered “direct” with total customizability, performance guarantees, warranty and the knowledge that you are buying an American produced Belden product.
Then, you might compare the pricing on your own and consider the resale market if you ever decide to upgrade. Your call, your audio system and your wallet.
Thanks for asking.
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For some time we’ve worked to streamline and modernize the Iconoclast Neutrik XLR termination. A new label printer and Andrew’s persistence paid off. In years past we added printed shrink to identify + and -. We never seemed to make everyone happy with the look or the shrink colors. White and gray, black and gray then red and white and red and black and then simply printing +++ or — on a single color of shrink. What looked good on one color of cord didn’t necessarily look good on another. Andrew finally hit on what we think is the nicest and clean solution for terminating Gen 1 and Gen 2 XLR’s.
Here is a set that has been to the trade shows that I was able to get my hands on. I really like the look and the feel.
Happy Memorial Day. A day for reflection and for giving thanks.
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Oh yes, that looks as nice or nicer than the “preview” edition! Of course I get all the hand-me downs to control development costs but it all sounds the same!
Best,
Galen
Hi Bob,
I had the chance to try out a set of Inakustik Referenz XLR’s over the past couple of weeks as I was extremely interested in the air dielectric hand built construction but had not gotten a chance to compare.
I’m not sure what I was expecting to hear from them but they were disappointing for the expected increase in listening pleasure. They were simply not engaging or enjoyable to listen to for any period of time. I really can’t explain the issue but “thin sounding” is the best I can do in quasi audiophile terms.
I tried everything I knew of to make them play nicely in my system but in the end I put my trusty old Iconoclasts back in the system and now life can happily go on.
It is really unbelievable how much of a bargain the Iconoclast lineup is when comparing to other “world class” products. I’m glad I was able to compare them and was also happy to send the challengers back to the supplier.
Enjoy the Summer and thanks again for the guidance over the years!
Vern
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