Belden ICONOCLAST XLR Cable Review

[Doodski]

Amir even mentioned it in his review.

These stallion's dong sized cables are well known for breaking things, by the service community.

I've repaired hundreds of units with broken solder joints at the RCA connectors and with bent ground connectors. They just kept coming and I just kept billing for them. Great money maker I figured.

 

[Deleted member 46664]

I must have missed that, thank you for pointing that out.
It sucks if our devices break just because of such an avoidable design like that.

Which is exactly why your casual endorsement of this ridiculous cable is a bad idea.

 

[pkane]

Thank you for the test and especially for introducing @pkane 's wonderful DeltaWave.

My naive question is that wouldn't the very big difference in Correlated Null dbA mean something? It's 126 vs 106, a 20 dB difference. Isn't that a meaningful metric? @pkane can you tell more about that value?

View attachment 206438

Correlated null is similar to RMS difference, but with more weight given to the errors near the peaks of the waveform. In this way, it measures more of the "peak" error, or maximum error that gives a very sensitive indicator of whether DeltaWave has done a good job of aligning the two waveforms (level, delay, and clock-drift removal).

 

[Deleted member 46664]

I've repaired hundreds of units with broken solder joints at the RCA connectors and with bent ground connectors. They just kept coming and I just kept billing for them. Great money maker I figured.

I've seen the locking RCA connectors pull the whole shield assembly right out of the back of the device.

Something that is not well known: RCA connectors were never designed to be supported by the shield ring. They are intended to be supported by the centre pin.

 

[Count Arthur]

- Ooh, they look nice, how much?



- meh, not that nice.

 

[Labjr]

I'm really disappointed that Belden and BJC would be trying to sell way overpriced waveguide for audio. Needs a bend over panther!

 

[jtwrace]

More about Galen here

 

[pkane]

Once under electricity not all atoms on different materials react identically. Silver atoms need longer to get aligned, other don't but lose their structure sooner once desconnected. This could translate into different listening experiences. Or at least other kind of measurements than what Amir is doing.

Wait... so I need to give a silver cable time to warm up, to give the atoms a chance to align themselves? How long? And if I pause the music, how long will they stay aligned with no current flowing? Asking for a friend who's using a silver cable

 

[kschmit2]

maybe this paper is of interest here:

http://boson.physics.sc.edu/~kunchur/papers/Interconnect-cable-measurements--Kunchur.pdf

(it's a new paper by Kunchur - so take it for what it is)

 

[Nango]

Wait... so I need to give a silver cable time to warm up, to give the atoms a chance to align themselves? How long? And if I pause the music, how long will they stay aligned with no current flowing? Asking for a friend who's using a silver cable

It is common knowledge that silver needs longer than others. So you are really asking for the exact amount of time? Not serious. As I said, I leave this discussion right now and feel free to further test on 100 more cables that are different but deliver always the same results. But don't call it science.

 

[BDWoody]

Could this different behaviour of the cristalline structure of cables/materials translate into however which but different sound experience or measurements? Think this should be the question to get focused on.

All you need to do is find anyone, anywhere that can demonstrate that they can differentiate between them under controlled conditions. At that point, which will never happen, let's revisit what is missing.

 

[Nango]

All you need to do is find anyone, anywhere that can demonstrate that they can differentiate between them under controlled conditions. At that point, which will never happen, let's revisit what is missing.

Test on further 100 different cables with always the same results and do not wonder about it.

 

[BDWoody]

Test on further 100 different cables with always the same results and don't wonder about it.

I don't know what that means.

If you disagree with Amir about what his tests show, prove him wrong. Should be very simple with slow silver atom alignment and all.

Until then, we can stop with the rest.

 

[FrantzM]

It is common knowledge that silver needs longer than others. So you are really asking for the exact amount of time? Not serious. As I said, I leave this discussion right now and feel free to further test on 100 more cables that are different but deliver always the same results. But don't call it science.

It is common knowledge that you are mistaken..

How's that for a retort ?

 

[nyxnyxnyx]

Which is exactly why your casual endorsement of this ridiculous cable is a bad idea.

Fair point. I'm glad the already cheap and working budget cables don't usually share that characteristic. I've been blessed with break-free cables the whole time and did not appreciate it properly.

 

[Deleted member 46664]

Fair point. I'm glad the already cheap and working budget cables don't usually share that characteristic. I've been blessed with break-free cables the whole time and did not appreciate it properly.

Okay one more time ... it's not the cables that are breaking ... it's the connectors on amplifiers, dacs, pre-amps etc. that are being broken by the weight and stiffness of these cables.

 

[nyxnyxnyx]

Okay one more time ... it's not the cables that are breaking ... it's the connectors on amplifiers, dacs, pre-amps etc. that are being broken by the weight and stiffness of these cables.

Oh sorry Douglas, I understood your point but I phrased it wrongly.
I mean I'm glad most cables don't and should not strain or break devices connectors. I took that for granted for years based on my experience (using typical cables). Never really considered there are designs that could harm and burden the devices connectors/sockets like that.

 

[pkane]

It is common knowledge that silver needs longer than others. So you are really asking for the exact amount of time? Not serious. As I said, I leave this discussion right now and feel free to further test on 100 more cables that are different but deliver always the same results. But don't call it science.

FYI -- "common knowledge" is not "science".

 

[johnhopfensperger]

There was another post about XLR cables that got promoted to the front page, where a user stress-tested the RF insulation by running the cable over some chargers. My cables absolutely are crammed behind the TV stand, next to a wifi router and a bunch of power bricks, so that type of test would be more relevant to me. Same thing with DACs, to be honest. Put them next to a bunch of other RF emitting electronics, and see if they still give you 120db SNR.

 

[raif71]