I have heard the difference between new and broken-in cabling nearly all my audiophile life. Even when I had my first real audiophile system I was able to tell the difference between the new and broken-in cabling. I recently purchased Iconoclast speaker cables and while they sounded good right out of the box, after about 100-hours of music played, they really smoothed out. It's challenging to describe the differences in sound, however it improved notably from first listens. I believe that is true for components as well. I remember changing the output capacitors in my preamp from Jenzens to Duelund CAST and boy I didn't care for the initial sound ! Hard and cold is how I'd describe it but after a good deal of playing, the transformation was amazing. I'm glad the designer said to just wait. The sound will change. He was right. I don't think it was the metallurgy but break-in of the dielectric that I believe made the difference. So, I'm a definite believer of the effect of break-in on the sound.
Cable Break In for the Naysayers
I still cannot believe that in this stage of Audio history there are still many who claim cable break in is imagined. They even go so far as claim it is our ears that break in to the new sound. Providing many studies in the way of scientific testing. Sigh...
I noticed such a recent discussion on the What’s Best Forum. So here is my response.
______________________________________________________________________________________________ I just experienced cable break in again firsthand. 10 Days ago, I bought a new set of the AudioQuest Thunderbird XLR 2M interconnects.
First impression, they sounded good, but then after about 30 hours of usage the music started sounding very closed in and with limited high frequencies. This continued until about 130 hours of music play time.
Then at this time, the cables started to open up and began to sound better and better each passing hour. I knew at the beginning they would come around because they sounded ok at first until the break in process started. But now they have way surpassed that original sound.
Now the soundstage has become huge with fantastic frequency extensions. Very pleased with the results. Scientifically I guess we can’t prove cable break in is real, but with good equipment, good ears, it is clearly a real event.
ozzy