Time trial for YOUR cable to break in.

[gjpham]

Please compare your interconnect rca cable when you first have it to now. How long did it take to break in and what brand, how much?

Best regards,

[Resident Loser]

Please compare your interconnect rca cable when you first have it to now. How long did it take to break in and what brand, how much?

Best regards,

...and arduous process...I purchased my ICs consisting of DiscWasher Gold-ens and TEAC Lo-cap offerings, just before winter...Leaving them in the packaging, they were left outdoors on my deck for the entire season, subjected to the freezing nights and blowing snow, alternating with exposure to the winter's sun during the day...As the spring thaws arrived, my Labrador retrieved them. They were then placed in doubled, zip closure bags with packages of silica-gel dessicant...At the summer solstice, I deftfully unpackaged the items and gave them a thorough visual inspection and put them in my oven, whose only source of heat was the pilot light, achieving approx. 100deg F...After a fortnight, I subjected them to a battery of electrical tests to determine their matching characterisitics...Then and only then, they were connected to my system...

Into each umbilical was passed broadband pink noise followed by 1/3 octave sine, square and sawtooth waves of varying amplitudes followed by a week of Edith Piaf recordings...no difference was noted...

Nor should there be, the only thing that "breaks-in" will be your ears as they get used to them, and that's assuming there actually is any real, perceptible difference in the first place that's not attributable to gauge, etc....

imHJJ(...which as of this minute has never been proven in any controlled listening tests...)

[JohnMichael]

I use Alpha Core MicroPurls and they use minimal insulation. The least amount of dielectric the quicker the break in period. I think a couple of hours was all it took. They are $78 for a one meter pair.

[GMichael]

...and arduous process...I purchased my ICs consisting of DiscWasher Gold-ens and TEAC Lo-cap offerings, just before winter...Leaving them in the packaging, they were left outdoors on my deck for the entire season, subjected to the freezing nights and blowing snow, alternating with exposure to the winter's sun during the day...As the spring thaws arrived, my Labrador retrieved them. They were then placed in doubled, zip closure bags with packages of silica-gel dessicant...At the summer solstice, I deftfully unpackaged the items and gave them a thorough visual inspection and put them in my oven, whose only source of heat was the pilot light, achieving approx. 100deg F...After a fortnight, I subjected them to a battery of electrical tests to determine their matching characterisitics...Then and only then, they were connected to my system...

Into each umbilical was passed broadband pink noise followed by 1/3 octave sine, square and sawtooth waves of varying amplitudes followed by a week of Edith Piaf recordings...no difference was noted...

Nor should there be, the only thing that "breaks-in" will be your ears as they get used to them, and that's assuming there actually is any real, perceptible difference in the first place that's not attributable to gauge, etc....

imHJJ(...which as of this minute has never been proven in any controlled listening tests...)

Now now. There are people out there who might not get that this is a joke. What if some poor fool actually stuck their cables in the microwave to speed up the proccess? Wouldn't you feel bad? No? I didn't think so.
Oh, by the way... BUWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA....

[Feanor]

...
the only thing that "breaks-in" will be your ears as they get used to them, and that's assuming there actually is any real, perceptible difference in the first place that's not attributable to gauge, etc....

imHJJ(...which as of this minute has never been proven in any controlled listening tests...)

Like so many "differences" in audio, cable burn-in is mostly accustomization -- or imagination.

[Dusty Chalk]

blah blah blah -- the naysayers will never skip the opportunity to bray loudly how little they can hear the difference.

Notice the topic of conversation was not "whether or not", but "how long".

[GMichael]

blah blah blah -- the naysayers will never skip the opportunity to bray loudly how little they can hear the difference.

Notice the topic of conversation was not "whether or not", but "how long".

Geez... poke a little fun and the world ends.

[Dusty Chalk]

Geez... poke a little fun and the world ends.

I don't have any problem with the humorous aspects of the posts above. I do have a problem with the thread being derailed into the usual territory.

[Smokey]

blah blah blah -- the naysayers will never skip the opportunity to bray loudly how little they can hear the difference.

I am not a naysayer

Hi Dust

If you really think about, one doesn’t need to hear differences in cable break-in in order to realize that cable breakin is fundamentally a flawed concept.

If a cable need a break-in to perform its best, then theoretically it means that cable’s performance is not stable and shift over time. Now if a cable exhibit such a behavior in a test condition, it will labeled as undesirable and discarded.

So if anybody said that their cable need break-in to sound their best, then in reality they’re saying they have a defective cable

[Dusty Chalk]

Unless the break-in is asymptotic. Then it's like the opposite of planned obsolesence -- it's taking into account the fact that things change, and setting up the optimal scenario for the maximum enjoyment. Put that in your pipe and smoke it.

I am not a naysayer

Yes you are!

That joke never gets old.

[superdougiefreshness]

Check out http://www.cableburner.com/ and let people decide or vote; as you will. That my friends is the American way, unless you live in Florida or Ohio......LOL..........

[Feanor]

blah blah blah -- the naysayers will never skip the opportunity to bray loudly how little they can hear the difference.

Notice the topic of conversation was not "whether or not", but "how long".

I'm not a naysayer, nor do I have any objection to the concept of cable burn-in, I simply don't think I've heard a difference over time.

On the other hand, I'm reasonably sure I've heard differences between different cables although they were quite small.

[jrhymeammo]

How long?

Not sure, cuz I get sick of certain sound(cable) after about a year. I think it's hard to say, cuz when people switch cables, they are usually messing with different speaker positions and such. It's about time I got something different... not wires though.

JRA

[Resident Loser]

blah blah blah -- the naysayers will never skip the opportunity to bray loudly how little they can hear the difference.

Notice the topic of conversation was not "whether or not", but "how long"....

....I don't have any problem with the humorous aspects of the posts above. I do have a problem with the thread being derailed into the usual territory...

...both topics seem inexorably intertwined...I've brought this up many times before; any wire that changes it's characteristics over time is a puzzlement...I agree with the smokester...If you need to somehow coax a wire to a level of stasis, how do you actually know when you have arrived at that point? And when you do arrive at it, given the potential for flux in said wire, how long will this optimum state last?...After going through a break-in period, logic dictates that at some point it will begin a break-down period...

There are so many recipes for this break-in scheme, of varying time frames and methodology re: test tones, applications of varying voltages and use of types of music, that it makes little or no sense...

For example, buying cables which are cryogenically treated, and paying a premium for that service, only to then connect them to a cable cooker...???????????????

There was a poster some time ago who was convinced that he had been breaking in his speaker cables by letting his system play non-stop, at high output levels for hundreds of hours...Unfortunately for him, it was pointed out that if anything at all was to happen, he would need to have his loudspeakers connected to complete the circuit, a factor he completely overlooked in heeding the info he got from "somewhere"...He was adamant until enough responses, including some wire afficionados, convinced him of this error...the mythology continues...

This kind of stuff is rampant on the 'net...Can wires sound different?...A qualified "Yes", but if you have to spend some prerequisite number of hours (in most cases way beyond the length of the return privileges) listening for a progression of subtle improvements, I am of the opinion you are just listening more carefully and possibly (perhaps unconciously) in an effort to justify the expenditure...

jimHJJ(...If I'm droppin' some greenbacks now, I want results now and I want them to be dramatic...)

[FLZapped]

Please compare your interconnect rca cable when you first have it to now. How long did it take to break in and what brand, how much?

Best regards,

From the time I pressed the power button until the Amp speaker protection timer ran out and connected the speakers.

-Bruce

[FLZapped]

After going through a break-in period, logic dictates that at some point it will begin a break-down period...

Suppose it depends on how big the bathtub is.....

-Bruce

[markw]

And, coincidentially, they all seem to sound like the source and the speakers.

But, when it comes down to it, shouldn't your ears tell you when break-in has been accomplished? If you need someone to tell you when it's done, I must really question the audiability of this phenomona. When you reach that magical point, does it all sound better?

But, I often wonder, at what point does a cable go from "broke in" to "broken"?

[texlle]

I got my Wireworld's about 4 years ago and they weren't too harsh when I first got them. They have polypropylene insulation but not thick layer, so they took about 20 hours of listening to break in, I'd say. After about 15-20 hours, the highs started to shimmer, the mids became more lush, and the bass tightened, and the soundstaging broadened in width and depth. Granted these were all minimal improvements. I love my wireworld's, they have superior build quality. Each metal male connector feels like it weighs about a pound each (almost, hehe). They retailed for $120 I believe but were half off on audioadvisor.com who unfortunately has dropped WW from their list.

And yes, I believe cables require burn-in time, as do speakers. Call me crazy and may Andre Marie Ampere have mercy on my soul.

[FLZapped]

I got my Wireworld's about 4 years ago and they weren't too harsh when I first got them. They have polypropylene insulation but not thick layer, so they took about 20 hours of listening to break in, I'd say. After about 15-20 hours, the highs started to shimmer, the mids became more lush, and the bass tightened, and the soundstaging broadened in width and depth. Granted these were all minimal improvements. I love my wireworld's, they have superior build quality. Each metal male connector feels like it weighs about a pound each (almost, hehe). They retailed for $120 I believe but were half off on audioadvisor.com who unfortunately has dropped WW from their list.

And yes, I believe cables require burn-in time, as do speakers. Call me crazy and may Andre Marie Ampere have mercy on my soul.

OKAY!

YOU'RE CRAZY!