Burn your power cables in PROPERLY with Haglabs Frycorder

Extracted from a thread “Cable Burn-In - Myth or Fact?” at Audio Science Review that Hagerman started about this equipment:

“What are the physics behind burn-in? I don't actually know, never been able to figure it out. I have some ideas, but not the chops to dig deep enough into the underlying mechanics to prove anything.”
 

To summarize, the engineer is basing his concept for the effectiveness of his “cable burn-in’ers” on his customer feedback. Customer feedback is not a suitable sole means of validation for design efficacy, which has been understood to the point of our planet having legal infrastructure against it for decades in other industries.

IOW, there is literally no scientific process or evidence whatsoever to support what these devices allegedly do. Please understand, this is not advocacy for the pseudoscientific stance of “no measurements = no difference” - I do not think this way nor do I agree with the stance that “if it cannot presently be measured then it cannot exist.” Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. In this case, the issue is both the engineer and consumer appear to not understand, or not acknowledge, what constitutes evidence.

Engineering must be based on the scientific method, and in these products, science is being disregarded. At least the designer is somewhat up front about it. I admire someone who publishes his schematics in this day of nearly unchecked IP theft. However, in the case of this particular “IP,” I’m not sure how much there is to protect.

Link to the whole aforementioned thread for any user / would-be user of this product:

@retiredfarmer that’s not inaccurate but I think you might be misapplying the sentiment in this case. In the absence of tractable metrics for a process/device like this, anyone with a reasonable understanding of experimental design (and/or psychology) will acknowledge the only option is a properly controlled preference study.

No reputable university will train people to base their understandings on anecdotes, no matter how abundant an online community may profess the anecdotes to be. Understanding comes from factual evidence. Belief comes from personal experience and/or unquantifiable anecdotes. Anecdotes are not evidence, but evidence of audible difference can be sought with properly controlled preference studies, even in the absence of digital test protocol/equipment.
So it’s left up to the purveyors of such devices as “cable burn-in’ers” to test (for consumer preference). The question “Why don’t they just do it?” is begged, the true answers probably being:

(1) it’s not free of time, money and other resources,

(2) it’s possible that less-than-favorable results may be had, and

(3) why invest (1) and risk (2) if sales occur without due diligence (1 and 2)?

Yeah - who likes it when a question is used to answer another question, right? 😉

One question about consistency of design philosophy, given the alleged importance of such things as cable burn-in being sufficient to warrant Hagerman Labs developing multiple devices for the purpose, … how does burn-in affect the cheap switching power supply for the rave-reviews-phono stage Hagerman designed - the current 3rd gen model that replaced the previous inbuilt PSU-versions of the Trumpet? Advocating a flagship phono stage that’s powered by a Chinese wall wart to the same folks you’re selling “cable burn-in’ers” seems to me a double standard. What am I missing?

Disclaimer: there’s little skepticism in my mind that the Hagerman phono stage is probably great (I’m particularly partial to certain 12AX7’s, so bias be had!), and I’m not one to assume a properly matched switching PSU will audibly degrade all stereo playback components. What’s curious to me is that I usually see a pattern of folks who say (A) LPS is a must for everything x cables / burn-in is real. Folks who hold (B) cheap switching wall warts for an analogue stage being fine x cables need unmeasurable burn-in, to be simultaneous truths would, in theory, be a rare breed indeed, no?

Overthinking this, surely, but, I like to know the process behind patterns I sense. Lest the patterns not be real patterns at all. 😆