Any scientific data on cable burn-in?

One point in Justacoder's article that i was not aware of is that the "experts" agree that it is the dialectric and not the conductor that is broken in. The dielectric of choice?---Teflon. I have always liked teflon capacitors and also wire but for other reasons (or so I thought.)

Marakenetz's diode argument comes from Ben Duncan, no? I could never really but that one. He argues this is the reason not to use stranded cable. Copper-oxide forms between the strands and encourages non-linear conduction (little mV diodes.)

It just gets curiouser and more curiouser all the time.

I remain,

Read Rolf Hummell, The Electrical Properties of Materials as he touches on break-in....Some manufacturers do break in signal wires fully (30 days 24/7) before delivery....Once broken-in fully the wires do not revert BTW.......

Bob Crump
TG Audio/CTC Builders/DDR Mfg

One, true scientific observation of cable break-in is if you pass too much electrcity through a piece of metal/wire it will burn-up/disintegrate/melt. Put 500v through some bubble gum wrapper....poof.

There is an interesting article on cable break in on lat international,s website.

I've been posting on that issue quite a while ago here and shortly saying there is a micro-diode theory of all conductors. It means that there are impurities of semi-conductive nature that reside inside the chrystalic structure with one-way conductivity i.e. micro-diodes. As to all semiconductive(one-way) elements(n or p) they have a break-in voltage when resistance of reverse connection becomes small or zero in ideal case.

These impurities if "connected" along the signal path have zero resistance and that's wy have almost no impact on transfering signal. The impurities that are oppisite the signal path have infinite resistance and the signal have to bypass them (like passing a double-parked vehicle on your line throu the parallel line) meaning that in this case the active resistance increases. But certainly the active resistance deviation isn't only an issue since such micro-diodes also act like non-linear elements i.e. time and freequency depended devices(even on as advertised pure conductors 99.99999%...) having some mutual and self reactances.

So, to generalize, when we apply signal to a wire we break-in some of micro-diodes depending on time and the amplitude of the input signal. Some inner micro-diodes may require larger amplitudes than we usually apply during audio playback and will theoretically never be broken-in. That's why a real break-in happens when you apply AC voltage(with proper load) onto the speaker wire or interconnects.

The micro-diode structure can only be visualized under the electronic microscope.

I kissed 5 minutes goodbye reading the linked article. That stuff would make the Brothers Grimm jealous!

Pbb, Sean had some of my cables cooked on his modified Mobie. I got them back less than a week ago and the difference is stunning. I know, because I had identical sets uncooked for comparison. Given all the Voodoo behind cables, it is a better deal to make one's interconnects and get a cooker...

my understanding is that after a cable is broken in and it sits for a while unused it needs to be broken in again, if this is true, then it would benefit Nordost or anycompany to pre-break in their cables since they have no idea how long a cable will sit before it is sold

cd

This just refreshed my failing memory as to why I no longer participate is these forums and why I seldom bother to read this stuff anymore. There is no scientific basis for the high end. Period. Full Stop. That's the beauty of it: it is what you hear, or more precisely, what you can be conned into, or what you can con yourself into, believing you are hearing. Why not read up on music and study it. You will hear a lot more than wondering about ludicrous "cable cookers" and the like. Someone, somewhere must be laughing as I write...

I understand Nordost is selling its own cable cooker. But if they really believed it works, why not just cook all their cables as part of the production process before sending them to the dealer? The per unit cost of cooking a cable would be much cheaper to the consumer than if the consumer bought a cooker. The resulting product would then have a competitive advantage against other brands. Then, if the market works, other manufacturers would produce and advertise pre-cooked cables (kind of like pre-shrunk clothing) and the consumer would not have to spend hundreds of dollars for the gadget.

Bomarc, Bomarc, Bomarc. What we gonna do with you?

Just THINK it, man. Don't SAY it.

grinning will

Muchos gracias amigo.

Of course not. But Justacoder's link is good for a laugh.

Here is a long article with interviews with leading cable manufacturering scientists/engineers/representitives/pontificators:

http://www.soundstage.com/yfiles/yfiles200005.htm

Hope this 'helps'.... ;-)