@rower30 Thanks Galen for the ultra quick reply! I am waiting on my amp this week, so now would be as good a time as any, is there a charge for the retermination? I’ll check out the other set in the meantime. Now I am all worried!
Thanks,
Veneet
EDIT: Just checked, it is just the one, so I would send that pair back.
Gary, to my ears and to those of most who compare, UPOCC and TPC are light years apart in terms of sound. It is true that OFE is a warmer sounding copper than either of the others. Depending on your speakers and your room, OFE can be a strong benefit to the system. The speaker cables seem to present the copper differences much stronger than the IC’s.
Vaneet,
No worries, we’ll take care of you. No charge for retermination other than the shipping to Blue Jeans. Sometimes we learn the hard way like knocking the chin of the Ferrari into the parking bumper! It happens.
ICONOCLAST is different as it is a 100% sound first design. I made the cables so I’ve made all the mistakes, too, but once you know the DESIGN, no more problems. Hook them up and leave nice radius bends and forget about them an enjoy the sound.
Removing the clear heat shrink can improve the min bend prior to kinking, but normally enough radius should be there to make it unnecessary. It is there to keep the print nice…nothing sticks to FEP!
Move your rack out a touch, it will also improve cooling.
Best,
Galen Gareis
Vmax,
Electrical differences on the lengths, normalized to per foot, are measurement variation and NOT significant real differences in the lengths used. You won’t hear differences that small.
All interconnects verses speaker cables will act differently as the LOAD is not the same between them. Interconnect see 47k-ohm or higher, speaker cable see 2-16 ohms. The two won’t follow the same magnitude of differences, with speaker cable being more variable as the speakers load is not the same across the frequency range.
My system will not sound like yours, as the coloration we all try to remove are in different locations in the chain. What one feels is “not important” is very important to the next person. Yes, you should try the UP OCC so you KNOW what is important to you.
Galen
How is the BAV as a single 75 ohm coax streamer? What is the copper in the BAV? They might be the reasonable choice for my HT runs too.
Thanks for the advice on the XLR. When will UPOCC 4 by 4s be available for trial?
Vmax,
The UP OCC XLR are in manufracture now. These are a SLOW process to make, so I expect end of month.
Galen
The BAV RCA use TPC copper, and are 100 ohm nominal as they are derived from the XLR for 100 ohm AES/EBU applications. Both share the same reactive electrical for analog, and are impedance specialized for pro digital with the XLR.
We have MANY who use the 100 ohm BAV analog RCA and also the 1x1 ICONOCLAST RCA for S/PDIF, which is 75 ohm RCA WITH NO ISSUES as runs have to be pretty long to see the impedance match become a issue.
For home audio, the series II XLR and RCA are closer to 75 ohm, and the RCA digital is typically S/PDIF 75 ohm standard that marches the RCA impedance. If digital is used with the XLR, see what the impedance format is and select to that requirement.
You can’t make BOTH cable properly and have one be 75 ohm and the other 100 ohm if analog performance is important. The designs are biased to each digital application that works best in the intended market 100 ohm 4x1 XLR for digital pro use, and 75 ohm 1x4 RCA for home use.
Galen
I received the BAV to replace 4x4 TPC Gen2 XLR earlier in the week. My setup consists of streamer and dac in another room adjacent to the listening room where the preamp lives. The cables go through a shared wall. The Gen2 stuff was simply too stiff and the bend radius too great to fit in my setup though they sounded great and I enjoyed the level of clarity and cohesion they brought to my system.
The BAV is essentially the same diameter but vastly more flexible. Unfortunately, I’ve had an ear infection all week and haven’t been able to hear them yet. I didn’t keep the Gen2 for AB comparison as they simply won’t work for me so what’s the point of the torture. It’s simply the case where I have to be happy with 2nd best though I’m sure BAV is outstanding, I’ve just not been able to hear it myself, yet.
Huge props to Kurt, Bob, and Andrew for going above and beyond to find a workable solution. BJC and PS Audio set a customer satisfaction standard few companies meet.
When your ears recover and you are finally able to listen to the BAV cables, please let us know how they sound and whether they have a particular sonic signature.
So, even though I was expecting some stiffness with the speaker cables, it proved more challenging than expected to connect them to my speakers…binding posts are low enough to the ground that I have to affix from above. This results in a bend from the weight of the cable.
Question is: Is this bend ok in the long term, or should I entertain retermination in bananas?
Thanks!
I have the same iconoclast speaker cables with banana plugs and they work beautifully. Because of their stiffer nature they float nicely from my speakers onto the wire supports. I can’t send picture right now but I can definitely recommend it.
Yeah…that’s what I am thinking.
Good Morning, your connection looks fine and is well within the acceptable bend ratio of the cable. Banana’s would take some of the stress from the binding post and eliminate that large arch now incurred from connecting from the top.
I am using some mini camera tripods to float the cables and provide a little
strain relief. These are $22 on Amazon for 4. They get the wires 4 to 8 inches
higher. Can’t show an image now.
Yes… I have thought about strain relief strategies like this. I currently have some ceramic cable elevators, but they barely support the cable at its deepest point between speaker and amplifier. One of my issues is that I have a pair of Vizslas (dogs) that love to jump over everything - including these cables. One misstep and there will be a permanent bend.
Sent an email to Bob to explore options, so we’ll see.
Thanks to everyone for responses!
Hi, I cannot find an email from you. Please resend to bhoward@iconoclastcable.com or give me a call at 850-564-4952.
Oops… think I used the wrong email address. My bad. Re-sent!
JSYK Bob, I left you a message days ago on that phone number, and have not heard back. Last Thursday, actually.
