Cable burn in

My main system was using rca IC's Nordost Blue Heaven which  I have always enjoyed even if they are for my taste and pocket a bit pricey. My amp got wiped out and I brought in a old Bryston 9B ST amp to substitute the same. When I looked over the connectors the BRYSTON besides RCA  had balanced connectors. I purchased two sets of balanced cables and paid around $50.00 for each pair. One is GOTHAM GAC Ultra Pro Cables and the other one is MOGAMI  I used one to connect my DAC a Denafrips Aries II to the FREYA + PREAMP. then from the pre to the amp  Substituted the Blue Heaven cables with these new cables and surprise, surprise the system went up in clarity, resolution and soundstage. What Im trying to bring across is that you have to hear your system with the cables that you have and then try a couple other ones. Some will surprise favorably others won't but you wont know until you do ty it out. Start inexpensive and the go trying others. You'll find the trip worthy. Good luck.

Hahaha! It's always a good topic to bring out the sour pusses dining on sour grapes. My experience in audio has been enriched by listening and trusting my ears. My experience and ears don't match everyone's I listen, or am in contact, with and I can only speak to my experience:  the very large number of audiophiles I've had contact with, am in touch with and have sat together and listened  on each other's systems pretty much all agree that everything can make a difference - and that cables are, and should be treated as, components. They to take burn in much like other pieces of gear. Trust your ears - you're on the right path in that you are listening and taking stock. Keep an open mind and experiment.

Cary gear tends to be a bit warm in their house sound and that can be heightened by cabling so it depends on the sonic landscape you enjoy. Keep listening and enjoy the tunes!

"Had my interconnect cables custom made to be 10’3.47” long….mathematically this is the perfect length as all the distortion has plenty of room to disperse."

Well that is true for one specific wire manufactured in a particular way. The math changes when you vary construction and gauge and strand thickness.

Cable cooking and freezing can change the math when it alters the metallurgical structure.of the conductor.

 You can reverse the cable and the math will change. Wire has a best way for proper electron flow.

 Avoid laying speaker cables on a bare floor as wood will change the flow of electrons and render your mathematically precise calculated wire to then be incorrect. Ceramic tile will not unless you have tile with heavy iron content. Also avoid finer wool carpets as they are prone to static electricity buildup which can effect your outcome too.

Sarc now off.

The AC based audio signal degausses any residual polarization that might be attributed to cable break in.  Sorry about that. 

Spend a hundred dollars and get a LCR meter.  Measure your cables.  You will then discover where your harshness comes from.

 

Had my interconnect cables custom made to be 10’3.47” long….mathematically this is the perfect length as all the distortion has plenty of room to disperse.

Of course: anything the Church of Denyin'tology's popes can't fathom, they'll summarily dismiss (uneducated twits that they are).

"As I already mentioned, this characterization doesn't apply to me. I'm an educated professional in a relevant field."

+1 @fair 

Quite the condescending statement "uneducated twits that they are" typical around here. I don't deny the need for quality cables in a system, however the point of diminishing returns is reached very quickly. As I stated earlier, a professional grade cable that has been tested and proven to meet it's design specs to perform audio signal transfer is all one really needs. They perform their duties in virtually every aspect of recorded music production. Engineers are listening to studio monitors via signal that is transferred and amplified through such cables. In a home listening environment, the same types of cables produce optimum results. Noise rejection and faithful, neutral signal delivery due to intelligent design, high quality wire, insulation and jacket along with quality end terminations. Now take the same 3.00 per foot bulk cabling and install say 20.00 in termination hardware and you have at most a 60.00 pair of 2 meter interconnects. That's a professional grade, studio quality pair used by industry pros who record the music you listen too. I make them all the time in RCA and XLR configurations. Now they wouldn't appeal to the audiophile masses at that price point in that physical appearance. Put a thicker than necessary insulation over the wire with pretty colored braided sheath and a 1500.00 price tag, then the upper tier deep pocketed ones will buy the clever marketing hype. In this real world, professional experience based example >60.00 is your point of diminishing return.

@felixa

 

 

A cable is a mechanical system that needs burn-in. Every material subject to an electrical field creates a dipole. For non conducting material this dipole is at the atom level so that electrons are more to the side of nucleus that randomly around.

^that^ almost sounds like magnetism?

 

The overall charge of the material remains neutral. The electrons having a mass (very very light), moving them around amounts to a mechanical action.

A charge moving around a coil also produces a magnetic field.

 

 

The atoms in the cable insulation get organized in a dipole one way or the other, when ever there is signal traveling in the wires. As the burn in progress the atoms dipoles get organized from a random state, so that less energy is extracted from the signal and more of it reaches the next component in the chain.

What happens in an AC signal, the the polarity flips 180?

Or if I wire the speakers in reverse polarity, then do they need a long time to reform?

@chiadrum leave your BlueJeans cables alone for now and let them settle.

Before you embark on the cable shopping spree, I would recommend addressing the upgrades in the following order:

1. Components and speakers - make sure that is taken care of and you have the best possible components you can afford

2. Room acoustics - at least minimal acoustic treatment (bass traps, first reflection points, area rug, etc)

3. Speaker cables, power cords, interconnects, ethernet cable - after your room acoustics are in order.
Everything matters. Don’t expect sonic miracles from low end cables (you get what you pay for) just like you wouldn’t from low level components

Going crazy with cables not having properly matched components and room acoustics taken care of will put you on a cable and component mary-go-round.

 

     Many new electrical facts have been established in the past 100 years, that support audible differences, between various cables, etc.

I agree. Even though, the facts may be not at all what the proponents of hyper-expensive cable offer as explanations for the alleged superior performance of their products.

     It does, however, emphasize/demonstrate how Electrical Theory has progressed, since the 1800s:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGJqykotjog

Yes, a university 101 Quantum Mechanics course usually includes exactly such a discussion. The corresponding theory was mostly built by 1930.

 https://www.quora.com/Are-photons-involved-in-all-forms-of-electricity-for-example-when-it-flows-through-wires?utm_medium=organic&utm_source=google_rich_qa&utm_campaign=google_rich_qa

https://van.physics.illinois.edu/ask/listing/2348

Here we advance to a university Quantum Electrodynamics course level. Yes, photons are considered field carriers of electromagnetic force. The contemporary theory was formulated by early 1960s.

     It's an established (measured) fact that an electromagnetic wave's propagation and speed, are dependent on the materials of which the transmission line (cable) are made (ie: Dielectric Constant/permittivity).     The better (lower) the Dielectric Constant the better the flow and the longer it takes for that material, to become polarized.

   There are no traveling waves in the case of an audio-frequency signal encoded as electric potential applied to a cable.  

A crude analogy: take a piece of rope suspended at one end, and start slowly moving its free end. You will observe no traveling waves. Only a gradual movement of the rope as a whole. 

Now keep increasing the frequency of periodic movements of the free end. At some point you may reach a characteristic frequency, and observe a wave that appears to be traveling.

One reason anything that comprises an RLC circuit (ie: capacitors, cables, PC boards), takes time to, "form" or, "break/burn-in".*  

                        *Something that makes the Denyin'tologists apoplectic.  

https://resources.pcb.cadence.com/blog/2019-dielectric-constant-of-pcb-substrate-

materials-and-signal-integrity

Yes, this is very important, yet once again, for significantly higher frequencies than the ones present in an audio signal.

              and (note: frequency figures in EVERY equation and our typical music signal is comprised of a VERY complex mix of information/frequencies, potentially lending to multiple time smears, if not handled correctly):

       https://unlcms.unl.edu/cas/physics/tsymbal/teaching/EM-914/section5-Guided_Waves.pdf

On page 4 of this paper, you'll find a criterium for a wave propagation. Non-propagating waves are referred to as "cutoff modes or evanescent modes". For more details in a more accessible format, please see: 

 

     Even the most inane (regarding the Sciences) must admit; braiding and twisting wires eliminates/reduces EMI interference.

                  That, of a necessity, lends credence to various cable geometries.

Yes, shielding from electromagnetic interference is crucial. Even when the frequency of such interference is not in the audible range, it can create intermodulation effects in active amplification components.

A competent audio cable designer would follow official guidelines to ensure the cable  rejection of common EMI, to the degree acceptable for a cable class.

Professional-grade cables terminated with XLR connectors would require to pass a higher EMI rejection threshold compared to a home-use audio cable terminated by RCA connectors.

     That better dielectrics enhance the propagation of electromagnetic waves (ie: your music signal), lends the same credence to choosing cables with better materials (ie: Polypropylene, Teflon, air, etc).

Since there are no actually propagating waves at the audio frequencies in a commonly used audio cables, this argument doesn't apply. In fact, perhaps surprisingly, a better "cable" could be made of two non-insulated thick wires not touching each other, provided that no significant EMI sources are present in its vicinity.

     Of course: anything the Church of Denyin'tology's popes can't fathom, they'll summarily dismiss (uneducated twits that they are).

As I already mentioned, this characterization doesn't apply to me. I'm an educated professional in a relevant field.

      I (personally) know of no one that listens to test signals, via their home audio system and (as alluded to above*):

That's a loss for those who don't measure an audio system output on test signals. I lot could be learned from that.

there's MUCH MORE involved when attempting to reproduce the complexity of music in a reverberant environment (ie: various voices instrumental, vocal, their separation/placement and ambient information).

Agreed. But electromagnetic properties of competently designed practical cables have little, if any, influence on that.

      Happy listening and (as Richard Feynman would often encourage): NEVER STOP LEARNING!

What would help here is learning about active amplification elements reaction to changes in their temperature. Bipolar transistors, especially, exhibit strong temperature-dependent effects.

A thick cable made of premium materials may, under certain circumstances, serve as an auxiliary heat sink, shifting down the equilibrium working temperature of transistors and other components in an electronic device.

But then again, a similar, or even stronger, effect may be achieved through proper installation and active ventilation of said electronic devices. Buy a 12"-18" electric regulated fan and operate it on a silent/slow setting.

Observe sound quality changes, if any, over 15-30 minutes since the fan was turned on or off. Be aware that specific temperature-related changes in audio devices performance may or may not be preferred by a particular listener.

+1 to @richopp , as I have a personal autograph from Eddy Electron. Rich my tag to you is only in regards to Eddy as I appreciated your share. Eddys the man ! To the rest , We’ve all voiced our opinions and I respect everyone here. My personal experience is I’ve heard SQ differences more times than not with wire. I’ve experienced SQ changes related to “ break in “ most of the time. For example my Morrow cables took significantly longer to settle in Vs my Anti Cables. Back when I was hanging out with Eddy Electron in the early 70’s I had the cheap plastic red, white, yellow IC’s and bought bulk 120v lamp cord for speaker wire. Then I built some insulated IC’s with shielded coax. There was a noise rejection improvement, especially with my TT. Now today I believe in cables, but I’m cautious of marketing BS and diminishing returns on mega expensive gear. I just don’t have the income to support the exotic aspect of this hobby. So I run mid level Morrow and mid Level Audioquest, because that’s all I can afford. But my ears don’t lie, and I don’t project my OPINION, only my experience. I’m not an electrical engineer, but I had 4 years of electronics In JR/ High school. I’ve built numerous stereo kits, tube and SS, as well as speaker enclosures. I’m not as smart as most of you, but I’m willing to experiment and trust my ears. Happy Listening my brothers and thanks for sharing. 

I think step 1 is to understand that recordings and the delivery systems are like fingerprints, no 2 alike. They are all different. I think with streaming the problem is there is no way to know where the source implemented is coming from or who was responsible for the mastering. At least with cd's and vinyl, there is path to find out: Usually if a name like, Doug Sax, Steve Hoffmann, Bob Ludwig, Professor Johnson Shawn Briiton, or Bernie Grundman are attached and the source is guaranteed to be from an original master tape, the results, from my experience should be uniformly excellent. My advice would to seek out music from these masters of audio & use these recordings in your evaluations: Anything else, you are wasting your time and worrying about nothing. Good luck & try to enjoy the music without getting to obsessed with cables. I cannot give a definitive answer about cable burn but I do think the brain needs burn when a change is inserted in middle of your system. 

Well, I repeat again, EVERY electron I ever interviewed had very specific attitudes about how they chose to travel on top of wires that WENT THE WRONG WAY, or were NEW, or were made of out materials mined in Communist countries.

You should not take my word for it.  Interview the electrons traveling on top of the metal in YOUR cables and see what THEY say.

Cheers!

A cable is a mechanical system that needs burn-in. Every material subject to an electrical field creates a dipole. For non conducting material this dipole is at the atom level so that electrons are more to the side of nucleus that randomly around. The overall charge of the material remains neutral.  The electrons having a mass (very very light), moving them around amounts to a mechanical action.

The atoms in the cable insulation get organized in a dipole one way or the other, when ever there is signal traveling in the wires. As the burn in progress the atoms dipoles get organized from a random state, so that less energy is extracted from the signal and more of it reaches the next component in the chain.

 

Now there’s a pile of blah blah yes typical accessible copy/paste. Great debate format… meaning nothing. Yes we’ve learned a thing or two in the last 100 years Producing a cell phone then might’ve had you stoned for witchcraft. Yes finding someone with wave form papers Stapled to his ears might be rare, easier to find 99999….or so that can’t hear the mythical differences. Agreed, Facts have no expiration date… let’s ‘Hear’ some !!  Burn in blow hard aside this was fun. 😂

And the FACT is that when a cable is intelligently designed and manufactured with quality raw materials and meets the purpose of transmitting the audio signal as transparently as possible while faithfully reproducing the recorded signal through the audible band, nothing more is required. Professional recording studio technicians are after neutrality in the cable's signal path. Anything other than that is coloration of the signal. Pretty simple really. As a technician and a lover of music reproduction in my listening room, I want as neutral and pure reproduction of the recorded music as possible. Some of us listen to and enjoy the music first and foremost, not the equipment being the tools delivering it.

      Anyone needing a rationale for experimenting with new cables in their system and/or feeling dissuaded by the Church of Denyin'tology's antiquated electrical doctrines: take heart!

     Many new electrical facts have been established in the past 100 years, that support audible differences, between various cables, etc.

     I couldn't find anything like, "Updated Electrical Theory For Idiots", but- did manage to find something resembling a cartoon, that even a child could follow.  It neither mentions AC/sinusoidal waves in wires, nor does it go into the photon propagation of electromagnetic waves.   It does, however, emphasize/demonstrate how Electrical Theory has progressed, since the 1800s:                                                             https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGJqykotjog

     The following presupposes a certain amount of knowledge, in the field of modern Electrical Theory.    Click, "more" in the first link's first answer, to get it's entirety.    Note how it mentions the OLD,  "... commonly held misconception that the flow of electricity through a wire resembles a tube filled with ping pong balls...", to which most Denyin'tologists fervently adhere: 

 https://www.quora.com/Are-photons-involved-in-all-forms-of-electricity-for-example-when-it-flows-through-wires?utm_medium=organic&utm_source=google_rich_qa&utm_campaign=google_rich_qa

                                                       and:

                   https://van.physics.illinois.edu/ask/listing/2348

     It's an established (measured) fact that an electromagnetic wave's propagation and speed, are dependent on the materials of which the transmission line (cable) are made (ie: Dielectric Constant/permittivity).     The better (lower) the Dielectric Constant the better the flow and the longer it takes for that material, to become polarized.     One reason anything that comprises an RLC circuit (ie: capacitors, cables, PC boards), takes time to, "form" or, "break/burn-in".*  

                        *Something that makes the Denyin'tologists apoplectic.  

https://resources.pcb.cadence.com/blog/2019-dielectric-constant-of-pcb-substrate-

materials-and-signal-integrity

              and (note: frequency figures in EVERY equation and our typical music signal is comprised of a VERY complex mix of information/frequencies, potentially lending to multiple time smears, if not handled correctly):

       https://unlcms.unl.edu/cas/physics/tsymbal/teaching/EM-914/section5-Guided_Waves.pdf

     Even the most inane (regarding the Sciences) must admit; braiding and twisting wires eliminates/reduces EMI interference.

                  That, of a necessity, lends credence to various cable geometries.

     That better dielectrics enhance the propagation of electromagnetic waves (ie: your music signal), lends the same credence to choosing cables with better materials (ie: Polypropylene, Teflon, air, etc).

     Of course: anything the Church of Denyin'tology's popes can't fathom, they'll summarily dismiss (uneducated twits that they are).

 I'd recommend buying a sound volume meter, and matching the output to at least half a decibel at a fixed frequency, let's say 1 KHz, before making any comparisons.

Youtube has plenty of suitable test signals.

      I (personally) know of no one that listens to test signals, via their home audio system and (as alluded to above*): there's MUCH MORE involved when attempting to reproduce the complexity of music in a reverberant environment (ie: various voices instrumental, vocal, their separation/placement and ambient information).

      YES: the better part of the above is a copy/paste of a previous post.

                                  FACTS have no expiration date!

      Happy listening and (as Richard Feynman would often encourage): NEVER STOP LEARNING!   

      .   

     

@chiadrum 

Mogami is high quality cable, in one word transparent the way any cable should be. Its use in many professional recording and broadcast studios speaks to the quality. These are environments where the BS and sales hype of overpriced cables have no influence, only sound and material quality that gets the job done matters. Anything more is fluff marketed at those with more money and ego than practical wisdom and common sense, like most here.

Nordost article on cable burn in:

I found what they write on potential electrical effects of cable burn-in not overly convincing. Graduate degree in automation of physics experiments, and consequent experience of working in two national labs, makes me skeptical toward such claims. What I heard from a music college professor is easier for me to believe.

The professor attended a cable presentation at his local audio show. The rep giving the presentation was swapping the cables from generic to expensive to more expensive to very expensive to outrageously expensive. Each time, the sound quality of the same fragment of music noticeably improved.

Little did the rep know that the professor was covertly using a sound volume meter. Each time the rep swapped a cable, somehow, volume went up about 2db. Apparently, simultaneously with swapping the cable, the rep was slightly nudging up the volume control.

Duped once by such a trick, a person may then honestly believe that cables make a big difference, and such prior conditioning helps finding such differences later on. I'd recommend buying a sound volume meter, and matching the output to at least half a decibel at a fixed frequency, let's say 1 KHz, before making any comparisons.

Youtube has plenty of suitable test signals.

JasonBourne52 I see you're still as dumb as a fence post if you think that wires don't make a difference in sound different and obviously the equipment you have is not very good LOL quit spewing lies to people you have no idea what you're talking about.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I put my cables in the oven to burn them in. Slow cooking, 3 hours at 90 degrees C, turns out to give the best results. Amazing sound stage, deep lows and warm yet crisp highs. Sounds even better with my eyes closed and after 2 glasses of wine.

OK, pun intended. But if such a thing as ’burn in’ of cables really exists (meaning the chemical / mechanical properties change in the first hours of usage, influencing the electrical properties), then the probability of the sound getting worse is as high as that of the sound getting better. 50/50 ... the OP apparently fell in the ’it got worse’ 50%.

I have a few Morrow cables and the longest it took for burn-in was 367 hours and 10 minutes. Once the cables are "burned" everything changes...food tastes better, colors are brighter, people are suddenly gathered on the street to hear a bit of my rig if I open the front door or something...plants grow faster...and I am comforted in knowing I'm now a somewhat better person in all ways.

Nordost article on cable burn in:

 

@jasonbourne52  I generally agree with your opinion re cables.  My current system runs Morrow interconnects preamp to amps, and Fidelium speaker cables.  I recently purchased some Furutech knock offs.  The construction was very good.  Installed them and the sound was noticeably worse.  Narrow soundstage and flat.  Switched back to my regular cables and the sound popped back.  It's not what I expected but it changed my opinion about cables.  

For interconnects I have used Cullen Cables and Morrow Audio both RCA and XLR interconnects, and have no desire to upgrade. The Cullen Cables took about 100 hours to settle in. The Morrow Audio took up to 300 hours, but I purchased them with 240 hours already burned in from Morrow.

Speaker cables are AntiCables 3.1 cables (again no need to change) took a bit over 200 hours

For ethernet and USB, I use Supra Audio cables, and for I2S HDMI use Audioquest Vodka 48 cables. I have several others that I roll in and out (WireWorld, Oyaide, other Supra).....these signal cables usually didn't need more than a week to break in

So yeah I should have mentioned my sources are Qobuz and a USB attached SSD drive with CD’s ripped using Jriver. 
Thanks again for all the great feedback. 

wow i experienced exactly that with morrow audio cables. now its settled in the middle and things sound pretty smooth. 

Have you ordered the Audio Envy Cables? I think you should give them a try they are fantastic 😃 Good luck

@chiadrum 

The Audioquest Monsoon power cord is a good place to start. It’s $495 for a 2m cord and there’s one for sale here on Agon for $299, make offer.  I know I’ve seen them for $250 delivered not to long ago.

All the best.

I have found both better speaker cables (audio envy) and interconnects (morrow audio) made significant improvements to my DAC and streamer sound quality.  Customer service is excellent at both companies

Take speaker cable for example. All frequencies need to be transmitted equally without any timing changes and transients need to arrive at the speaker without change. Hmm, I'm wondering it house mains wire would be suitable. I think not.

Yes mains wire would work for speakers.
One can try it themselves to verify it.

 

The wire’s conductor does not know, or predict the frequencies… and it just lets the electrical field do its thing, thereby just pushing along the electrons... or not. The electric field propagates along largely irrespective of the impedance and current.

That electric field is not a timing and transcients thing. For all intents and purposes it runs at the speed of light, or some fraction thereof.

 

Qobuz (and I imagine most others) uses lossless compression and high quality streamers use buffering… so the file received will be the same. Obviously, from then on… it is all streamer dependent.

Is the OP using Qobuz or something similar?
Do they all work the same, or are some of the services lossy?
And if so, which ones are lossy or not lossy?

Do your research, this topic has been beaten to death for ever. The only rule of thumb.., Companies will charge whatever the market will bare. There are mechanical facts, there is a lot of BS with plenty a blow-hard. In short a person has to believe their own musical hearing. 
 

Cheers 

Burn in, as a pattern..tends to go:

an initially dirty upper mid range glare and a subtle mono-ish effect,

then down to cleaner stereo but muted/darker/soft,

then slowly back up to cleaner, more evenly balanced dynamic stereo.

 

This, over a 100 hr period of playing a new cable, or component - with line level signals.

I find it hard to believe the claim that "changing a piece of wire" will not produced an improvement.

If it were at all true then all that's need is a thin fuse wire provided it can handle the current. A bit like claiming digital is just 0's and 1's and nothing else matters.

Take speaker cable for example. All frequencies need to be transmitted equally without any timing changes and transients need to arrive at the speaker without change. Hmm, I'm wondering it house mains wire would be suitable. I think not.

 

Qobuz (and I imagine most others) uses lossless compression and high quality streamers use buffering… so the file received will be the same. Obviously, from then on… it is all streamer dependent.

I think variable compression would imply active software on both sides, broadcast and receive. More importantly I think it would imply the compression was not lossless and to make a dent in bandwidth you would need to be lossy. So I doubt it.

 

Do streamer always play the same song? Or does the compression go up and down with internet bandwidth that is available?

Like varying compression versus time of day?

@pehare 

what a coincidence. I was just watching a positive review on Mogami. Pro audio makes a lot of sense. I  imagine they have power cables as well. 
Where are you located?

I’m in Apex NC. 

Hey chiadrum I have a Cary DMS-600 I bought used as a trade-in from Cary and am enjoying it immensely.  I asked Cary if it was a truly balanced circuit (conforms to AES-48 standard) via XLR's and they said yes (?).  I run the Cary direct into balanced Atma-Sphere class D monos via Mogami Neglex Studio Gold XLR's I bought from Sweetwater Music for about $120 pair.  At some point I may try something better just to compare but doubt they can be topped much in a truly balanced circuit from what I've researched.  Cheers and enjoy!

  I’ve experienced cable burn/ break in time varies depending on the particular cable. The Morrow IC’s I have took 400 hrs, which is significantly longer than most. And as much as I respect others opinions , I’ve had significant changes in SQ by swapping cables, most effective being IC’s. Saying it doesn’t make a difference is like saying “ tube rolling doesn’t change anything “. I have changed cables and power conditioning methods and had zero improvement, but I’ve also had improvement too. So for me , I try it and see what happens, and I encourage others to experiment. And I also understand the concept of diminishing returns. Eeyore won’t even try , an audiophile will take the risk, Now go raid the honey jar . Enjoy the journey, Mike B. 

@soix 

+1

There is no definitive answer to what would be best in your system… it is dependent on your whole system, venue, and your values. I can attest to the fact that cables, interconnects and power cords can make a very substantial difference. 
 

I also cannot be sure what different brands will sound like in your system, but I will say Blue Jeans are at the very budget end, I tried a couple pair just for fun and they compared well with what comes free with low fi electronics and I have used DHLabs as my default interconnect to start with. DHLabs has always performed well for the price and is appropriate in price for your system. 
 

A very general rule of thumb is about 10% or so on interconnects. Widely different % work for different people. But just for your interest. 
 

A well constructed power cord designed for both shielding and high current is likely to improve the sound of your DSM… I would look carefully at AudioQuest. 

Some tracks sounded almost muddy. The sparkle was diminished in an obvious way. I am guessing that once burn is complete the sound will settle happily in the middle somewhere. Is that a reasonable assumption?

That has not been my experience with cable burn-in.  Once they go in a certain direction they do not tend to go back from where they came.  Just my experience FWIW, but you seem to have good ears so just trust them because, in the end, that’s all that matters.  DH Labs would be a good cable to try if the Blue Jeans don’t settle in to your tastes as they tend to sound neutral with good detail and without breaking the bank.  Best of luck. 

Only mechanical things need a bit of run-in - speakers and phono cartridges.

Electronic gear also needs to burn in before it stabilizes. Amps, Preamps, tubes, CD players, anything that builds heat. 

Sorry, my mind rad Cary as the amp.  

@audphile1 +1, I agree, get the components and the room sorted out first and yes, in the end you get what you pay for.

I responded about break in. See above. 
Everything matters…type of materials used, level of quality. 
I like OCC copper for interconnects and speaker cables. 
Remember though in the end you get what you pay for. 

I wouldn’t be wasting time on $40 speaker cables. Get your components straightened out first, then invest in good quality cables. 

Also, if the cheapest cables end up sounding best to me, they will remain. I plan on trying Steve Huff's $40 speaker cable recommendation as well. If I can sell my Audioquest and still be happy, that will be done. This is not about $$$ or bragging rights. In the end, the cheapo RCA cables may win. I initially heard magic with those cables and I will certainly give them a long listen again.

My DAC was mentioned. The Cary Audio DMS-650. It does have an output volume feature, I can play with that. Doing a direct A/B swap, the difference is not at all small. Other people have concurred. In my mind, and maybe that is the key, it makes perfect sense that various material choices, shielding, insulation and other design elements could certainly make a difference. Why burn in does not apply also does not make sense to me. Metallic elements are in play, the same as amps and speakers. Louis Armstrong singing Ssss's went from unbearable to not an issue. Granted there are many questionable things going on in my mind, but I doubt that such a stark difference in tonality is one of them. I would imagine that it is possible that high quality-ow dollar vs high quality- high dollar would be negligible. But the notion that there is no difference at all, especially since I initially went in with the "I'm NOT spending big on cables"  mindset is a tough pill to swallow. I am talking about spending hundreds, not thousands. I carefully chose my components under the bang for buck mantra. In summary, I guess that I'll just ask what the believers think about burn in. No need for the "you are a looney tune" crowd to keep chiming in. There is enough of that going on in the world regarding many other contentious topics.Thanks.

Every new cable I ever bought needed time to break in.
Usually between 100-200hrs is enough to get an idea of what it will sound like and most will settle at around 200hr mark.
Used cables that were out of the system for few days take between few to 24 hrs to settle.
That’s been my experience.

BlueJeans are very decent cables but they’re obviously not end game.

In addition to upgrading your interconnects, look into improving the power cord for the Cary. 

Harshness isn’t in cables. Good cables can reveal harshness but don’t go back to bad calbles to mask it. Fix the source. You didn’t mention your DAC.

Also your tolerance for harshness can change. I fought harshness for a while with an amp. Sometimes it would disappear and life would be great. But it would come back.

Internet radio may be low res and thus you get rid of harshness.

So I’ll say harshness is a sign of progress toward a resolving system.

One thing you can investigaate is can you turn down the output voltage on your dac. Some good dacs have this feature.

Jerry

It would be a wonderful world if changing a piece of wire produced an improvement. Alas, that is not Reality!