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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

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Showing 2 responses by mclinnguy

mclinnguy's avatar
mclinnguy
273 posts
 

@raam 

That's good- thanks for sharing that. I would love it if you could post that at ASR, and see what kind of negative reactions come your way 😁

Not sure I have written about this here but I have plenty of experience in test gear use as spent 20 years in the US Navy as first a Data Systems Tech then it was merged with Fire Control Tech and re-titled that. The most complex gear I worked on, one out of two left still in use, no training on it, cannot say to much but it had a large number of critical circuits that the block diagram was 20 pages long. The most important aspect took 4 scope probes to look at and if dialed in according to specs which was very difficult and hugely time consuming to do, the whole system did not work well and it was absolutely critical to the operation of the whole battle group. What did work, tuning it by ear, then it was so good we broke ever record of reliability by a far margin. 

 

mclinnguy's avatar
mclinnguy
273 posts
 

Whenever i hear about a degree in X, Y, or Z in engineering or science…i wonder what they have contributed lately to understanding paired photons, the existence of a singularity in a rotating black hole, or even error correction in a quantum computer….. and…it’s crickets….

There are plenty of things we don’t yet fully understand….maybe copper wire…. which is never 100% copper….might….just…. be….one of them…..

It's not just a degree, or two, or a PhD or 20+ years of research after the PhD in a single field, they still don't know, and some we will never know, thankfully, but humanity will keep plugging along.

I saw a good show once about ten years ago about a humble guy, about science, and those who attempt to pretend to "know it" ; (I tried to look up his name but there are a few with the same credentials, apologies)

This aspring university student got a biology degree, decided he always loved honey bees, so dedicated his masters to honey bees, researched honey bees some more and submitted his dissertation on honey bees to earn his PhD. He researched honey bees again 50 hours a week for another 30 years, outside of unfortunately having to teach some lectures to be employed by the university. On the weekends for fun he researched honey bees. After retiring he started to focus on his great love and hobby- researching honey bees. Another 10 years later I believe he did some speeches on honey bees (for fun) and one of the questions was "you are one of the world's experts on honey bees, and have been for decades, how much more is there to possibly learn about honey bees?" He said "I have dedicated over 50 years of my life to honey bees, and I probably only know 1% of what there is to know about honey bees."

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