Another Cable Burn-in Question

Can't use my tuner as it only has RCA outs and my new ic is XLR. I have an XLO test and burn-in CD with demagnetizing and burn-in tracks. Would there be any advantage in terms of burn-in time to use this instead of a music CD? Thanks for your responses.

Cyclonicman- the new cable is the Signal Cable silver resolution. I have been using this cable from pre to amp for over a year and for the money it is excellent, better than the AQ Jaguar here imo. I was curious whether using the same cable to connect the CD player to pre would best my current wireworld gold eclipse ($$) and wondered whether there might be a synergistic effect of having all Signal interconnects in my system except for the speaker cables which are AQ Everest biwire. I also realize that cables are very system dependent. I have read that the Signal cable needs in excess of 100 hours to really settle down and open up. After only about 20 hours of burn-in, the Signal cable already bested the WW in low frequency extension and control (articulation) and the highs were also more extended but not quite as smooth as the WW but may improve with additional break-in time. The mids aren't fully fleshed out yet and the soundstage still needs to open up (more). However, these are characteristics which potentially improve with additional cable break-in time. To be fair, I will reserve further comparison with my WW until after I'm confident that the break-in period is complete. However, I will say that in my system the Signal cable is seriously good especially for the money.

Glory- I'd almost be inclined to hand deliver them just to hear your system! I'll give it until next week and then I might take you up on that generous offer. Thanks.

Yes, except I have no other components besides another decent CD player that has balanced outs other wise I'd obviously use a less expensive source. But you reply confirms that there is no consensus of opinion as to whether the pre needs to be powered up (see my original post).

Thank you!

I now have over 100 hours on the Signal SR i/c (see original post) and while the top end has smoothed out it is still just a tad strident for my taste. While this may improve with additional burn in time, I'm not so sure the midrange warmth which gives vocals body will ever emerge. Maybe I have too much silver wire in my system or maybe it's something else but I may need to try a different i/c. The low end of the Signal cable siver resolution is to die for in my system. Just superb rhythm, speed and articulation. I'll give it more time.

Perhaps. I guess I want it all and for less than $200 for half a meter. I might ask Frank (of Signal Cable) for their copper cable to try.

This will be my final post on the Signal Cable. I made one significant change and all the issues I had with the Signal Cable resolved. Before I tell you what change that was, let me remind you that I have Signal silver resolution ic running from my pre to amp and have been happy with it. I had wireworld gold eclipse from cd player to pre and wondered whether replacing it with the much less expensive Signal cable would yield improvements (synergy?). It's important to point out that I use a Furman pf-15 line conditioner. With the wireworld ic I had found that there was glare in the upper-mids when my CD player was connected to the Furman so I left the CD player connected directly to the wall outlet. I kept my pre and amp connected to the Furman. If you read back in this thread, I commented on some of the changes I heard as the Signal was breaking in. The lows were outstanding from the start, the highs were extended and smoothed out over time, the mids seemed to be lacking warmth but there was something that just did not sound right and I was beginning to think that the new Signal cable was just not going to work for me. I had a hard time figuring out what the problem was- too much high end? not enough warmth? And then, just for the heck of it, I connected my CD player up to the Furman and like magic, everything became clearer, more musical and better balanced top to bottom. This is the best my system has ever sounded by far (wife agreed and she has better ears), so easy to listen to and the music sounds so right. I don't know why but with the wireworld and using the furman there was glare and with the Signal cable and the furman it goes away. In the context of my total system, the signal cable silver resolution is a truly great cable regardless of price but it took some experimenting to get everything to work well together. It was well worth it.

OP here. I did not have a component other than 2 CD players with balanced outs to break-in the cables otherwise I would have used my tuner. I left the preamp off during most of the burn-in but occasionally listened to music I was very familiar with. The cable changed over the course of 100+ hours and as it became more listenable I continued the burn-in by playing CDs and listening to music. I can no longer detect changes in the sound therefore I feel I have a pretty good idea about the character of the cables in the context of my system and set-up. This thread wasn't intended to be a review but I will say that the Signal silver resolution cables do some things extremely well and overall, for the money, I think they are a bargain. I thank all those who posted above for a very interesting discussion.