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Belden ICONOCLAST XLR Cable Review

Rate this cable

  • 1. Poor (headless panther)

    Votes: 152 53.9%
  • 2. Not terrible (postman panther)

    Votes: 86 30.5%
  • 3. Fine (happy panther)

    Votes: 21 7.4%
  • 4. Great (golfing panther)

    Votes: 23 8.2%

  • Total voters
    282
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I’m not super happy with Monoprice’s build quality. Build quality and durability are what guide my cable purchasing decisions. In that vein, my current go-to (for RCA cables) is Mogami cable with Switchcraft RCA’s. Cost is about $30-$40 pair.

And not like you will ever see them in the back of your equipment, but those Switchcraft jacks are beautiful.
Admittedly, their build quality on some things is meh, but for my particular circumstances, they've worked out fine. But I don't do much in the way of frequent disconnects/reconnects, moves, etc. - once things are hooked up, I leave it alone aside from occasional dusting with a technician vacuum.
 

Universal Cereal Bus

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I think is approach effectively is like others we've seen at least all the way back to MIT cables early on. Showing us better performance in the megahertz range. It simply has no bearing on audio. In this case he seems to imply settling and signal transfer times in a complete system.
I can't wait for Amir to start testing RF waveguides branded & marketed for audio. Genuinely surprised Audioquest hasn't taken a crack at it yet.
 

Billy Budapest

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Thank you. I found Glen's response. He's basically saying, yes, all Amir's measurements are spot on, however, we don't have the tests to properly measure the differences. Which then made me wonder......... if we can't measure the differences, how did he test and design for the same? Glen said the differences between the cables lies in "physics" that simply can't be measured. Hmmm....
Gareis was able to test and design for the *electrical* characteristics in the cable (L, C, R and then calculate the Vp of propagation) but couldn’t measure any audible differences (ie, what Amir measured).
 

DonH56

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Car analogies...

A: "I've invented the perfect tire! It is perfectly round to control spinning vibrations, the molecular composition makes it light and puncture-proof and yet is flexible to absorb bumps, and it saves gas because it is perfectly frictionless so a bit of power keeps it going forever!"

B: "How do you stop?"

What was this thread about again? Does anyone care? :)
 

CtheArgie

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Car analogies...

A: "I've invented the perfect tire! It is perfectly round to control spinning vibrations, the molecular composition makes it light and puncture-proof and yet is flexible to absorb bumps, and it saves gas because it is perfectly frictionless so a bit of power keeps it going forever!"

B: "How do you stop?"

What was this thread about again? Does anyone care? :)
Sounds like some marketing of bicycle tires….(except for the gas saving parts, replace with”more watts”)
 

Andysu

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belden cable i have bundles of it cheap as take-away fish and chips , that was mostly attached to the Dolby and THX equipment , but i think the price of it is too pricey and would still buy cheap grade amazon cable .
 

Universal Cereal Bus

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Sew ups anyone?
I think you mean...
giphy.gif
 

Jim Shaw

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Applying this to our man Galen, he claims that the artifacts that he can measure in the MHz range is audible. I say it is not. I could put $10,000 on it and I know Amir and others here would also put big money on it. This silliness (stupidity?) by these scam artists is over the top and we need to call them out at every chance. Speaking electrical nonsense and gobblygook trying to baffle people with BS even from someone who knows better still should not be tolerated. Well, that is my morning rant for today! :)
Mark Twain said it well:

“It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble.
It's what you know for sure that just ain't so.”

 

don'ttrustauthority

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((Hint Hint))

Somewhere I remember hearing....It is always up to the one making the spectacular "Claim", to prove what they say is true.....not the other way around.
I did prove it. I listened. I can prove it to you to. Listen.
 

don'ttrustauthority

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If you believe that they would measure the same in all relevant ways but still sound different, what would explain that? Magic?
What are 'all' the relevant measurements? The ones in this article? You're saying the 10 ga and 16 ga must measure differently according to Amir's criteria, or I didn't hear a difference and I made it up because I expected it (even though I expected them to be identical and was SHOCKED when I heard that .. so how does that bias even work? Negative effect bias?).
 

don'ttrustauthority

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((Hint Hint))

Somewhere I remember hearing....It is always up to the one making the spectacular "Claim", to prove what they say is true.....not the other way around.
I'm putting up $100. Anyone who wants this $100 is the one who has to prove it.
 

don'ttrustauthority

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I am not making this up....

There are guys into audio, on audio forums, that somehow believe, that there are "Things" that factor into sound, that we do not understand nor have any grasp of......Things that are somehow ABLE to be designed and pass audio frequencies, yet STILL defy measurement or common electrical principles and rules, and can skirt physics.

They lack the ability though, to understand that although this stuff can not be truly measured or understood, that somehow someone still can design it, based on simply some guys, saying they can hear things that most can not hear.
The reason we believe in these 'things' is because I can take two items that measure audibly identically, yet sound different. Take the iBasso dx300 and the Mojo2 on my desk, for example. Through DCA Stealth and ZMF Atrium headphones, they sound much different and yet measure beyond audibly transparent according to Amir's criteria. You explain that.
 

don'ttrustauthority

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16 AWG and 10 AWG cables will not measure the same. Resistance will be significantly lower for the 10 AWG cable, probably the biggest difference at audio frequencies for speaker cables.
Will they measure differently according to Amir's tests though, which is the pont.
 

don'ttrustauthority

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Of my top 50 audio playback issues needing attention, cables (including signal, power, and speaker) are 787, 788, and 789 on the list for funding. I may not be the most pointy fanged in the 'streak' of HiFi tigers, but I'm a musician (piano) and an engineer (Purdue). I am more inclined to spend my sock drawer savings on better recordings and a 2.2 DSP enhancement (a rat hole I'm hopeful of avoiding).
Cables better go higher than that. You run out of cables, all you get is silence my friend. Cables matter! Frankly, I put cables ahead of the actual music since without cables, none!
 
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