Hey decided to join this thread after lurking for a while. I am looking to upgrade my interconnects from the Chord Shawline series and am considering AudioEnvy, Iconoclast or the previous Silversmith Palladium series. Does anyone have any experience with comparing these 3 against each other? All 3 brands seem to be generating an enormous amount of buzz at the price points they sell at, along with their commitment to innovation.
Unfortunately, only you can decide with your system, your room, your music and your biases. Audition with a money back gurantee is the best approach. Also, contact The Cable Company. They have an immense lending stock for audition.
I have a pair of the Iconoclast 4x4 UP-OCC XLR interconnects for those who are in Singapore who are interested in auditioning them - please PM me!
I'll add my vote as another impressed Iconoclast customer. While I've always thought that cables can make a positive impact on system SQ, I've rarely felt that the price of more-expensive cables was worth it relative to other equipment upgrades.
My current system requires fairly lengthy 7M balanced cables between my preamp and monoblock power amps. I tried several different cables - mostly DIY since it's hard to trial long cables - and wasn't complete satisfied. They all sounded a bit different, and I felt if I could combine the best characteristics of each, I'd be golden.
Iconoclast was one of the few companies that offered a home-trial even for custom lengths. That combined with their detailed explanations of design philosophy and construction specifics convinced me to give them a try. Also, these cables were pretty pricey, but not as bad as other premium cables for long lengths.
Well, they far exceeded my expectations. I don't think I've ever done a cable swap where the improvement was as immediate and significant. Sometimes a new component upgrade sounds great on first install, but after listening for a while you start to hear the flaws. Not the case here. I'm liking my system more and more then longer I've had these.
I still have one other analog interconnect in my system (DAC to Pre) that I plan to upgrade, and I want to give the Icononclast speaker cables a try as well. I never thought I'd be spending this kind of money on cables, but IMO, these are well worth it.
Everyone says that you have to match the cable to the system. I'm sure there is some truth to that, and it's possible that this is what is happening here, but I think it may just be that a really well designed and manufactured cable will improve almost any resolving system.
My current system requires fairly lengthy 7M balanced cables between my preamp and monoblock power amps. I tried several different cables - mostly DIY since it's hard to trial long cables - and wasn't complete satisfied. They all sounded a bit different, and I felt if I could combine the best characteristics of each, I'd be golden.
Iconoclast was one of the few companies that offered a home-trial even for custom lengths. That combined with their detailed explanations of design philosophy and construction specifics convinced me to give them a try. Also, these cables were pretty pricey, but not as bad as other premium cables for long lengths.
Well, they far exceeded my expectations. I don't think I've ever done a cable swap where the improvement was as immediate and significant. Sometimes a new component upgrade sounds great on first install, but after listening for a while you start to hear the flaws. Not the case here. I'm liking my system more and more then longer I've had these.
I still have one other analog interconnect in my system (DAC to Pre) that I plan to upgrade, and I want to give the Icononclast speaker cables a try as well. I never thought I'd be spending this kind of money on cables, but IMO, these are well worth it.
Everyone says that you have to match the cable to the system. I'm sure there is some truth to that, and it's possible that this is what is happening here, but I think it may just be that a really well designed and manufactured cable will improve almost any resolving system.
I am trying several signal and speaker cables, so I took a look at this thread. I looked at the review mentioned in post #51 and ended up skimming it. What I did not see in the Dagogo review nor in this thread is any exposition of "what I heard" or description of listening to any particular piece of music with this Belden cable. Did I miss that?
I'm not very good at explaining what I hear, but I'll give it a shot. These cables provided an overall improvement in clarity and pace, and specifically sharper transients and more natural decay. This made it easier to isolate individual instruments. On instruments like double-bass, guitar, piano, bells, etc. the notes faded smoothly to silence instead of abruptly ending. I hadn't really noticed this latter artifact until I heard the more natural decay, but it makes the music sound more natural and engaging.
I listen mostly to jazz, folk, and light rock, with an emphasis on vocals and acoustic instruments. I like detail and a somewhat more forward sound as long as it doesn't sacrifice sound-stage depth. These cables delivered for me.
As I mentioned, the cables I tried previously were more modestly priced and mostly DIY. These included Mogami Gold (DIY), Canare star quad (BJC), DH Labs Pro Studio (DIY), Parts Connexion "The Natural" (DIY), and Neotech NEI-3001 Mk III (DIY). Of these, the Mogami and DH Labs cables were my favorites, but no comparison to the Iconoclast.
Thanks. Without listening and some sense of sonic virtue, all the other stuff doesn't mean much.
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