Good qeuestion, had to search as it was too long ago since I ripped them and was done.
Try this. http://cinema-therapy.de/wp-content/downloads/OPPO_BDP10x_IP_Remote_Control_Protocol_v2.0.pdf
I wish my memory was that good. This tool is safe to download and install. I’ve used their products for decades. Use 10minutemail.com if you don’t want to use yours.
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@bret66 - works great, thanks…
Galen, in your Rs with respect to frequency chart all five cables measured appear to have a knee at 20,000Hz where milli-ohms of resistance increases more rapidly.
Why is this? What happens at 20,000Hz? Is this skin effect?
Elk,
The swept resistance is a superposition of attenuation, skin depth and proximity effect;
“In a conductor carrying alternating current, if currents are flowing through one or more other nearby conductors, such as within a closely wound coil of wire, the distribution of current within the first conductor will be constrained to smaller regions.” - WILKI
PROXIMITY EFFECT makes a wire’s cross section less useful with frequency much like skin depth. The trace does not separate out which of the three variables are most influential, but to be aware of the issue and mitigate it with actual measurement. Like it or not, all three issues are real, and need to be considered. All three variables get worse with higher frequencies.
The graphs are point measurements using a precision R, L and C meter and are very consistent for a given design.
Galen Gareis
Very cool, fascinating stuff.
Thanks!
Absolute phase is something that is rarely achieved with todays multi miked multi track and mixed recordings. The chance of getting it right increase with a two microphone binaural recording and they are few and far between. Yes the two positions can and do sound different but figuring out which is correct is more a product of person choice.
Yes, it is not absolute phase in real literal terms but what you happen to prefer on a given recording.
I am so grateful that Kurt took time and communicated so well to what I knew would ultimately be debated or questioned numerous times in the coming months. As we begin to market and spread the word about Iconoclast and the marriage with Blue Jeans Cables there will be those who question what might first appear a reversal in the basic underlying BJC philosophy concerning exotic cables and materials. Kurt presented his thoughts in a most forthright and honest manner. The sequence of events over the last several years I believe blended Kurt’s seemingly pragmatic approach to his business to forming maxims predicated on theoretically reasoned principles. As Galen has shown, there is science to this. Kurt’s discussions with Steve Lampen and Galen, visiting our Belden facilities in Richmond, reading Galen’s work and design notes and listening to the numerous comments from customers must have had some affect in substantiating that “there must be something to this.” All the while he used his experience and excellence in building cable assemblies to produce a beautifully handcrafted/terminated Iconoclast product. The current state is a marriage “made in Heaven.” Let me add.
Steve Lampen was also, at first, a many year’s sceptic of “high-end” cables. I know Steve quite well and spent a lot of time with him traveling, walking trade shows, having fine meals, drinking fine wine and discussing where technology was taking us. Steve was always more than knowledgeable able to fry my small brain in an instant, just like Galen! In the end he too, at least to some extent, joined the “dark side.” You can purchase Steven H. Lampen’s book “Wire, Cable, and Fiber Optics for Video and Audio Engineers” on Amazon. Much of Galen’s writing is “free” and soon to be available on our website. Steve’s career spanned nearly as long as Galen’s. Steve was the “world-wide, traveling, cable and technology guru,” the spokesman at Belden. His popularity with and respect from, from the broadcast, motion picture and Ham radio worlds is unmatched. He was on the outside and a very fine speaker. As a BAV sales engineer I used to sometimes offer to sponsor an area “Society of Broadcast Engineers” monthly luncheon. The price for me paying for lunch was that they had to listen to my presentation on new Belden products or promotions. I considered attendance above 15 a well-attended event. A couple of times I was able to promote Steve Lampen as a guest speaker at one of those luncheons. Both times, well over 150 showed up causing major overload for my expense account. While Steve promoted Belden to the world, Galen stayed in the laboratory and created leading edge, push the envelope, state of the art cable products. No one, and I will say it again, no one, has contributed more to the world of wire than Galen. It would take a chapter to tell you about the products he designed. Now Belden has “no one” to design and “no one” to present.
Self-admitted, Kurt is not an audiophile. This is something that I expect will change as time progresses. It’s hard not to catch the disease when properly exposed. Not really looking for a personality change but rather a broadening of horizons. We have all agreed to keep Iconoclast separate with its own identity and website. We will not be in the business of selling snake oil, bashing competitor’s products or arguing with those who do not understand just how much cables can and do make in an audio system. Do you have to have speakers and a turntable that cost more than most cars to notice the difference? No. In fact I have seen and heard cables radically improve modest systems making the cables perhaps one of the most “cost effective” improvements in a system. If you can’t hear the difference between Belen 1313A, 5T00UP and Iconoclast SPTPC speaker leads then I can’t help you. 5T00UP was designed to carry the high current amperage needed to drive a speaker array at a NASCAR track or NFL stadium. It takes massive current to reach outrageous SPL levels in a vast arena. 1313A was design to meet the needs of commercial AV applications from board-rooms to you name it. And these Belden products are among the best commercially available speaker wires on the market.
If you are like me, you can hear “major” differences between cables in every aspect of the musical experience and coherence of the material. Not between “all” cables but between a bad, good and great cable. I personally own and lived with 1313A and 5T00UP leads terminated with the original ICM “compression” (RGSPU bodies and either RGSPB and RGSPL tips) connectors. The day I got my hands on a pair of Iconoclast SPTPC leads was the day my jaw hit the floor. I had just removed the 5T00UP. I cannot go back!
Iconoclast was designed to push the envelope to deliver the most accurate, detailed and coherent audio experience available. Galen did not develop Iconoclast to go to market but rather for himself. Quite selfish in the beginning. I’m grateful he decided to share!
Even with over 3-decades of cable design experience under his belt at Belden, Galen spent well over 2-years experimenting with both the known but also often unconsidered variables in cable design before finalizing on the early prototypes. He hand constructed, tested and listened to over 70 different designs. He wrote everything down in great detail to later be included in the patents. The predominate factor for moving a design forward was not in the R/L & C measurement but in “how it sounded.” Many combinations of variables were meticulously blended to achieve what is now Iconoclast. Just “ some ” of Galen’s design considerations included;
• CONDUCTORS–How many, what size, what material, weave?
• DIELECTRIC MATERIAL
• DIELECTRIC GEOMETRY ( Air Dielectric?)
• GLASS BEADING
• SHIELD MATERIAL AND DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS
• JACKET MATERIAL AND DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS
• SKIN DEPTH
• TIME/PHASE AT FREQUENCY
• DURABILITY, FLEXIBILITY AND SUITABLITY FOR THE APPLICATION
• MUST BE VERAFIABLE AND SUBSTANTIATED
Patented, yes. Every Iconoclast design is patented. There were no machines in existence that could be used to construct the sophisticated and unique design in the speaker cables. The machines had to be fabricated and built from scratch.
An audio cable is to neither add nor detractfrom the signal. In other words, get out of the way! Unfortunately, many cables can be found that are unnervingly bright, lifelessly dull, sibilant and fatiguing. Almost all place “some level” of masking over program material. Cables that may fall within widely accepted R/L & C ranges do not always perform well. Are there good cables out there? Of course, albeit most at the cost of a new car! Production 10 –16 AWG speaker/lamp cord cable has no place in an “audiophile” environment! Neither does bling coated shiny jewelry belong on cables.
Lastly, in my life I have always made purchases of costly products based on the factor of “diminishing returns.” I wanted a Lexus but when I realized that the Toyota had the same frame, engine and drive train as the Lexus at $15k less, I bought the Avalon. If you have to spend 50% more to obtain a 10% performance gain then you need to think about what is important. I believe that Iconoclast is the pinnacle of value based on diminishing returns. I recently had a well-established Jacksonville, FL, audio dealer tell me to keep my damn cables away from his store. It seems he enjoyed selling cables for $15k+ cables and wanted no part of a cable that would trounce his brand name at 5-times+ less cost. This is not diminishing returns.
How many years did I walk the rooms at Alexis Park on Harmon Avenue at CES or each floor at the Waldorf Astoria in search of that perfect pair of speakers or a new amp? The hunt is a part of a truly enjoyable process of being an audiophile. No sales pitch here. Just a challenge. Try it, you’ll like it!
Thank you again Kurt for communicating why Iconoclast makes sense as a companion to the BJC business model. We are a complement in every way to the very fine reputation you have earned in the industry. I look forward to walking one of the shows with Kurt in the future, “shopping” for his new system!
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Well, the INITIAL machines were made from scratch…and they didn’t WORK well enough. That was am awkward, “do I tell my boss this” moment! But, we reversed course and took the issues we saw in the prototype machine, and stole some time on a $$$ super super duper high-end weaver and made it work BETTER. Not that a set of near infinite settings was available to stall the project was any help. I have a few bullet holes in my back from manufacturing shooting the engineer on those trials.
The series II was a slog through process expenses. Yes, I can “see” the right way to go in CAD, but the machines initially were blind to my ambitions at production speeds. We broke the production cost barriers a year later and series II is here for ANALOG interconnects.
We want a superior design approach to eclipse simple material science as the major denominator in the measured performance. To my ear, and these were really made for me alone, it has shown that it is indeed the case. It is far CHEAPER, and BETTER than poorly managed high cost materials.
Yes, ICONOCLAST is still expensive to make, but we can show and tell you exactly WHY that is so, and also WHY you should listen to a set. Through production improvements and now a larger market through Blue Jeans we trimmed the prices to a model we hope to reach.
Oh, has anyone priced an S-parameter set of coaxial cables from HP lately? ICONOCLAST isn’t THAT expensive…OUCH!
Galen Gareis
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Thank you Bob and Galen. Great stuff!
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Ok, forgive me for not having read every post on this thread, but…
How much are these speaker cables, and when/where can I get them? I don’t see them on BJC yet.
We don’t have them on a “public” part of the site yet as this isn’t yet the “official” launch, but there is a bare-bones “just buy them” page at www.bluejeanscable.com/store/iconoclast/buy.htm – there’s literally nothing on the page about them except the ordering interface, so if you have questions, let me or Bob or Galen know. And presently the website will charge you something for shipping, but ignore that – we’ll ship free via FedEx Express Saver (and refund your shipping charge) and can quote faster methods as well if needed.
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Please feel free to give me a call at 850-860-0940. Thank you for your interest.
Bob
Thanks so much for your response. I think these cables are a little out of my price range at the moment, but I will definitely keep them in mind as my system progresses.
Just ordered my Iconoclast TPC speaker cables 7ft. Excited to hear them on the BHK 300s! Have ordered many cables from Blue Jeans so I know the quality of their terminations- will be a good home for Galen and his wunderkind.
Congratulations on the new cables.
Any word on when the version 2’s will be available?
Are there any recommendations for spade vs banana?