The Intellectual People Podcast - Galen Gareis (Former Belden Wire Designer)

While I appreciate the position Galen takes, and his bravery in actually putting design elements forward in cables, to me this is lose/lose position. Nothing to gain, as the two groups are firmly entrenched in their bunkers:

1) The measuremantilsts: no matter what measurements you show them, they will never buy anything more expensive than hardware store stuff. Period.

2) the subjective people: measurements mean nothing. Proof is in the pudding. Read: actual experience 

It was easy to imagine videos like this being made 30 to 40 years ago. Back in the late 1980's to early 1990's the idea of wire being an important component was rare and unusual. Stereo Review was after all one of the nations largest high end audio magazines, and their most respected reviewer and tester Julian Hirsch was a staunch proponent of measurement uber alles.   

According to old Julian, and all those unfortunates like myself who grew up reading him, wire gauge is all that matters. If they measure the same, they are the same. End of story. 

The story is of course a wet dream fantasy of all those thinking they can do high end on the cheap. Sorry, but your lamp cord just ain't a gonna cut it.  

Even back then we knew better. J Gordon Holt had been writing at the same time, only his view being the listener is the final arbiter of performance.  

We ran this race, Stereo Review came up a day late and a dollar short, literally- or maybe it was millions of dollars short. Stereo Review, deservedly defunct, can now be found archived on-line, having been dispatched to a much earned plot in the graveyard of bad ideas. 

What continues to astound me is here we are now approaching half a freaking century and yet still all these luddites and Rip Van Winkels are caught in a Rocky Horror Time Warp.  

Let's do the time warp again! Only this time maybe not get stuck in the past?

I have just submitted two weeks ago an in depth review of the Iconoclast by Belden top line IC (both RCA and XLR) and SC cables, and BAV (Belden Audio/Video) Power Cords to appear at Dagogo.com. I used them extensively with no less than six speaker systems of varying genres in a variety of configurations.

Briefly, these are the most impressive cables I have handled, and they are built according to a stringent set of criteria in terms of optimization of geometry, conductor material, AWG, etc., all vetted by measurement. They are the most serious effort at making a measurably idealized cable I have encountered.

Galen Gareis is a world-class authority (retired Principle Product Engineer from Belden) on cable properties. He is a humble man with an encyclopedic knowledge of cables, which becomes evident when you watch him discuss it. The Audiophile Society of San Francisco had a 3 hour video of Galen plowing through in-depth measurements, testing, etc. involved in Iconoclast cables; I believe it also is on Youtube. I encourage those interested in a cable suitable to build superior systems to pay special attention to Iconoclast by Belden Cables. I hope the community will enjoy my review. :)

Thanks for the feedback!

My Cabledyne Silver Virtuoso speaker cables were designed by an ex Belden engineer too, (worked there for over 20 years) and he didn't put out a video but they're some damn fine sounding cables. Maybe he should have. Maybe it was timing. Too bad the company is no more. 

All the best,
Nonoise