I know I’m a piker compared to some of this forum’s members when it comes to the amount of cash I’ve invested in building my system over many years, but I think my rig sounds pretty good. It’s not eye-wateringly expensive, but it’d cost me $80K or $90K to replace in a lump sum if it spontaneously combusted. I really didn’t know what it was actually capable of, though, until I replaced my speaker cables and XLRs with Iconoclast stuff. When all is said and done, I’ll have spent considerably less than $10K for an improvement I’ll describe below.
I read Galen’s design papers on the Iconoclast website and I was intrigued, seeing as how I’m a physics-and-science kind of guy. I’d asked Galen on this forum what he’d recommend to bi-wire my Vandersteen 5A Carbons, and he told me along with explaining why. Bob Howard from Iconoclast saw my question and reached out to see if he could help. I ended up ordering a bi-wire set of speaker cables per Galen’s recommendation and, at my request, Bob graciously sent along a couple of sets of XLRs with different copper grades as well.
Sadly, I had to return the speaker cables, un-listened-to, to have the speaker-side connectors replaced. The XLRs, however, upgraded the sound in a way very similar to that of the PMG 512 DAC, but heaped on top of the 512’s improvements. Bass was obviously punchier and everything was more articulate and just plain cleaner, as though sounds had been bleeding together at their perimeters but no longer were. A sort of fatiguing hash in the treble was gone, even though I hadn’t realized it was there until it wasn’t. I could listen much longer without getting weary ears. Instrumental timbre was improved over even what the 512 had brought to my system.
I emailed Bob with my positive impressions, and Galen jumped in to say, and I’m paraphrasing, “The speaker cables will bring even more of an improvement. The interconnects are relatively easier to design given the expected and tame 47KΩ load, compared to designing speaker cables that have to interface with an unknown, highly reactive load.” Bob told me I was “less than half way there” with just the interconnects.
My re-connectorized speaker cables came today. I spent some time listening through my old cables, then swapped in the Iconoclast cables. Given the build-up from both Galen and Bob, I expected to hear an improvement, though I couldn’t imagine where and to what extent. I am not exaggerating when I say I was astonished. My system now sounds like I spent at least $50K upgrading stuff. As the saying goes, I sh*t you not. It’s ridiculously better. Gloriously better. It doesn’t sound like my rig anymore; it sounds like someone else’s crazy expensive one.
I may, at some point, ask Bob to send a set of speaker cables loaded with SPTPC conductors to compare with my TPC set. Iconoclast, like many high-end concerns, allows you to return your cables for any reason within 30 days for a refund. What’s really great is that you can upgrade to a version with niftier copper within 90 days and get full credit for your original cables against the purchase price, and 75% credit after 90 days.
No, I don’t work for Iconoclast, they didn’t give or promise me anything, or pay me, or coerce me, or drug me. I’m just ecstatic, so I had to say something. This is one of those quantum-leap upgrades you usually get by dropping some serious money on a new component. If your gear can deliver the goods, Iconoclast cables will provide the mechanism. Given Galen’s designs, the cables don’t do anything to “improve” the audio signal. Instead, they’re intentionally designed to get out of the way as much as possible, letting your expensive gear do what it was designed to do without your constantly having to tweak stuff to overcome the tone controls and frequency shifts and reactance imposed by even some expensive, esoteric cables.
— Chris
