Belden ICONOCLAST Interconnects and Speaker Cabling

We forgot a classic one…

art.nevermind

OK now on the inductor thing. We can measure a worst case looped cable and see what the inductance does above ~ 0.08 uH/foot reference. But it is a distance thing between the wires. If you loosely place the coils away from each other with a couple inch separator, the magnetic coupling won’t do much.

Galen

5 Likes

@BobBJC, you doin’ okay up around that Big Bend area? :crossed_fingers: I see Debby turned into a CAT1 up there.

How about you Tony, any local flooding?

1 Like

Nope. Just a lot of rain.

1 Like

Thank you for asking Tony! For the last few storms Pensacola has been far enough west to have no effects. Nice breezy, sunny, HOT day! How’d you make out? Just rain?

1 Like

Yes. Nothing to worry about. Winds gusted up to maybe 40-45 MPH for a while.

1 Like

I just received a pair of OFE Gen 1 XLR cables for use between my VPI turntable and phono stage. As usual, fast turnaround on the order, excellent construction, and great sound. I really appreciate the new labeling on the connectors. My system is all Iconoclast now, so not looking to upgrade any time soon, but I did see a recent video from BJC about lack of orders that that I hope doesn’t indicate trouble on the horizon.

JohnK

How about posting a link to the referenced video?

JohnK

Sad. Summer doldrums possibly? Seems to be a rather odd method to drum up business. Some outfits offer a tareted sale to draw attention to the brand and to boost sales. Just a thought.

I do get the impression there has been the beginning of a belt tightening from the end of April going forward. Current stock market conditions could possibly be at play as well. If we are going in to a protracted recession manufacturers may be in for an extended dry spell.

2 Likes

That video is Blue Jeans which seems odd given all the very reasonably priced and great performance for the pice cables they offer. I could see this happening with Iconoclast given the higher price and much smaller market. I might need an ethernet cable or two but that won’t help much …

1 Like

My understanding is downmarket items tend to get hit first should the economy be heading towards a recession.

I was surprised as well, considering the value offered for BJC.

1 Like

I think a link to the aforementioned sales within this thread would be appreciated by many. It just may initiate a purchase or two.

Will Iconoclast/BJC be represented at the September Pacific Audio Fest?

With time things will come around.

BTW a nice little sale.

Blue Jeans Cable - Summer Sale

1 Like

A question for Galen: I am considering getting a Gen 1 XLR cable to use for digital AES/EBU. When used for digital, is the difference in copper significant? A single 5 ft. ETPC cable is $250, OFE $400 and Ohno $975. That’s a huge difference between coppers and I don’t want to overspend when the usage will be for digital rather than analog. Thanks.

Good afternoon, Galen is out somewhere running errands. Most audiophiles will find that for an AES/EBU application, the Gen 1 TPC copper is the perfect choice and indiscernible from the more costly coppers. Analog is an all together different story.

1 Like

Kurt from BJC here; I’m out of the office due to COVID and just saw Jeff’s video. I didn’t know he’d posted such a video until I was alerted to it a few minutes ago.

There is NO question of BJC’s viability going forward. Things are indeed very slow right now. That’s partly because it’s just the worst time of year, partly because there appears to be some general downturn in discretionary spending. But we are well and we’re not going away anytime soon. We’re not a company that goes around burdened by large amounts of debt, and we are extremely stable.

18 Likes

For AES/EBU on XLR I use the series I TPC between my PS Audio memory player and the T+A SD3100 HV DAC. Digital does not look directly at the copper per say like analog. The signal is re-conditioned at the input so anything that was “shaping” the signal is stripped away and redone from the ground up.

We are listening to the AD and DA conversion (the “A” analog part) process and that’s what “shapes” the digital. If we alter the analog the digital is altered, not the otherway around. The copper seeing analog signals is impacted by any non linearity in the copper or the AD and DA filter errors / ringing decisions. Once the 0’s and 1’s are decided in the AD and DA process, that’s it in the “D” domain. What happens in the middle digitally is essentially nothing. I say essentially because you can go too far and lose the ability to scrape-up the digital signal properly.

There are limits, but in home audio…not usually a problem at all. You can have a lot of noise on the USB from a PC, though. I block that possibility with an Audio Quest Dragon fly FMV (Full Metal Jacket). It isolates the ground from line-level noise paths. I’d save your money and if you use USB, stick one of those on the PC’s USB output. Probably a better “upgrade” and cheaper.

Anyway, this is why digital can go around the globe and still be perfect. At the right stages, the signal is re-done from the ground up by the extenders. A signal can be on the ragged edge of the error correction and it won’t matter, it comes out like brand new. And even my typos remain PERFECT!

Best
Galen

1 Like

No, I’m having fun putting miles on my two Guzzies. Went to Celina to feed Seagulls and raise a ruckus. Today it was like 68F @ 9:30AM so off I went again. Too good to pass up. The big Guzzi does great when it is cooler, the 850 is way better if it goes over 80 much. So no errands at all, just goofing off. I will put heated grips on the 850 V7 tomorrow so I can keep goofing off when it gets colder. 50 F or up and I’m still off on one of the bikes.

Galen

5 Likes

I am using Belden cable in my system, recommend 1313A for speaker, 1694A for coax digital and 1694F for coax analog, 1419A for USB. But those are raw cable, you must have somebody to make connector for you.

1 Like