break-in--bane or boon ??

I'm afraid thing are even worse than we might assume since active burn in devices and burn in tracks on some Test CDs will further improve cables that have been in the system for many years. Infuriating' ain't it?

GK

Stalker Alert!

FWIW I just arranged for Audiodharma Cable Cooking service for my new interconnects and digital cable. I won't have a chance to listen to the new cables before I get them back from the cable cooker and thus won't be able to compare A and B. Is that wrong? ;-)

Mapman - Is it just me or did you just completely misconstrue Ivan's
comments to fit your "placebo effect explains it all away"
agenda. :-)

"Because it's what I choose to believe." - Dr. Elizabeth Shaw in
the movie, Prometheus

Mapman wrote,

""Mapman - Is it just me or did you just completely misconstrue Ivan's
comments to fit your "placebo effect explains it all away" comment?"" (Geoff's comment)

"Read what I said. I did not say any single thing explains anything away. I said that there can be many factors including an individuals variable perceptions, which is one often overlooked."

Geez, sorry, I must have been reacting to your snake oil industry comment. :-)

"geoff, I am not a vendor. You are. I have no vested interest in influencing people one way or another. Most vendors do and I would not exclude you."

I suspect everyone here on this forum wishes to influence people, why else would we take part in these discussions, and sometimes argue so strenuously? So, of course you have a vested interest in influencing people. And that is why you post so frequently on controversial topics, one assumes.

Ivan wrote,

"But, here’s the thing, if I understand it right and if I can manage to do
the concept any justice: what I also believe is happening in this response is
that the brain is also playing some additional roles in this in that, in effect
and to a degree, it begins subtly suppressing, or filtering out, sensory
perception in our consciousness. Mainly this is a survival mechanism,
which in effect may be an evolutionary advantage to help keep us from
losing the initiative (both in terms of instinctual decision making and in
terms of the differing brain functions that facilitate it) of our brains being
able to suddenly process a dramatically swift and near-global shift in our
state of consciousness from, say (among perhaps many other examples),
the state of our deep and extended (read: relaxed and open) involvement
with our connection to our immediate environment or surroundings to that
of the brain actively controlling and preparing virtually our entire body for
possible, all-out ‘war’ – the moment of the impending “fight-or-flight”
decision."

Exactly! And because the phenomenon - the mind picking up on external
stimulii like a radio receiver - is largely subconscious and automatic we
cannot control it consciously.

Mapman wrote,

"BTW I am an active practitioner of tai chi and other martial arts as well as yoga, meditation, and other rituals and practices that are not well understood by many but have proven effective over the years. Some might consider these, whether quantum in nature or not, snake oil as well. Some perhaps even placebos. I understand enough about them and see enough results to believe these things in particular work."

Ah, so you reserve your snake oil and placebo admonitions for things that you haven't any experience with, like fancy fuses and controversial or implausible tweaks. :-)

"Other rituals and practices"? Hmmmm, sounds interesting. Care to elucidate? Share, share.

GK

Fight or flight

Mapman wrote,

"I am a big believer in spirituality and how that affects how one
interacts with the world."

I don't doubt that you are a big believer or that spirituality affects how one
interacts with the world.  However, I'm not referring to spirituality any more
than I'm referring to new ageism, Zen, placebo effect, expectation bias,
group hypnosis, Magik, subliminal advertising or long distance healing.  
What I'm leading up to is the Idea that what we're hearing when we listen to
music on our stereo rigs is not really the sound that the system is
producing!  We cannot hear the real sound of the system, we only hear a
cardboard facsimile of it, a more distorted, compressed and uninvolving
version.  

The reason we cannot hear the real thing is because of many things in the
environment that produce stress or anxiety and degrade our sense of
hearing.  As Ivan described, the fight or flight syndrome reduces sensory
perceptions as more important biological procesess take over.  The
problem is that the fight or flight syndrome is always present because so
many things, even ordinary things,  in the modern world produce it. Since
the mind-matter interaction is primarily subconscious or autonomous we
are not aware of it and cannot control it.  Obviously, since everyone has
always been subject to this unfortunate circumstance we take it for granted.
We did not see this coming.  

Have you ever turned up the volume and found the sound to be way too
distorted?  That distortion you hear is not produced by the system, well a
little bit maybe.  The distortion you hear is actually produced by the reaction
to the fight or flight syndrome.  Because other biological functions have
priority the senses of hearing and vision degrade, so the distortion is a
manifestation of the degraded sense of hearing. The stress or anxiety is
produced by things that we interpret as threats.  Obviously not everything in
the environment is a real threat but since the subconscious mind cannot
always be absolutely sure, it sometimes over-reacts.  Better safe than
sorry.

An example of something that produces this effect is an ordinary telephone
book (of all things).  Taking all telephone books out of the house will usually
be audible when you go back and listen to the system.  Even if the
telephone books are in other rooms of the house, they should be removed.  
The telephone book is perceived as an intruder by virtue of the fact that it is
linked to a strong Field created by the tens or hundreds of thousands of
identical telephone books.  So, the link to that field can be eliminated by
removing the telephone books from the house, making the house Safe from
the telephone book "information field". That's enough
information for now, I suspect. :-)

All of this doesn't change the fact we still have the problem of deciding if or
how the same old things affect the sound, things like fuses, wire
directionality, burn-in, etc.

Nonoise wrote,

"Sounds like there's more than meets the ear."

I'm afraid things are worse than I have intimated so far. Much, much
worse. The fight or flight response is elicited by a great many things, most
of them what I would call unnatural shapes, materials, and links to global
information fields, that we sense as intruders or threats. Danger, danger,
Will Robinson! Examples? Long, thin shapes like electrical cords,
Venetian blind cords, audio cables. Thin, square shapes like windows and
doors. Materials like treated wood of furniture, speaker cabinets, hardwood
floors, but also metals like steel, aluminum and copper(!). All media -
books, magazines, CDs, LPs, cassettes, DVDs, newspapers, as well as
anything connected to the Internet or wideband transmission networks -
iPhones, iPads, computers, TVs, etc. An easy test to gauge the effect of
CDs or LPs in the room on our hearing, at least to some extent, is to listen
to a favorite track with all CDs and LPs in the room placed horizontally.
Then, listen again to the same track with all CDs and LPs in the room
stacked vertically. You should find that vertical is noticeably superior, along
the lines of putting in a set of expensive interconnects.

It's no wonder that many folks cannot get to the point of proving to
themselves that there's such a thing as break-in, fuse and wire
directionality, or the advantage of high end cables and power cords, or
even the advantage of high resolution formats over Red Book CD. Most
systems, even the most expensive and elaborate ones, are way down in
the noise floor. But the noise isn't coming from the system, but somewhere
else!

I return you back to your regularly scheduled programming. :-)

GK