Cable Burn In


I'm new here and new to the audiophile world. I recently acquired what seems to be a really high end system that is about 15 years old. Love it. Starting to head down the audiophile rabbit hole I'm afraid.

But, I have to laugh (quietly) at some of what I'm learning and hearing about high fidelity.

The system has really nice cables throughout but I needed another set of RCA cables. I bit the bullet and bought what seems to be a good pair from World's Best Cables. I'm sure they're not the best you can get and don't look as beefy as the Transparent RCA cables that were also with this system. But, no sense bringing a nice system down to save $10 on a set of RCA cables, I guess.

Anyway, in a big white card on the front of the package there was this note: In big red letters "Attention!". Below that "Please Allow 175 hours of Burn-in Time for optimal performance."

I know I'm showing my ignorance but this struck me as funny. I could just see one audiophile showing off his new $15k system to another audiophile and saying "Well, I know it sounds like crap now but its just that my RCA cables aren't burned-in yet. Just come back in 7.29 days and it will sound awesome."
n80

Showing 7 responses by ieales

@n80 Check out http://ielogical.com/Audio/#ConnectorCleansing and  http://ielogical.com/Audio/WinterBlues.php for just some of the things that can affect systems on a day to day basis.

The universe runs on math.

If I have a preamp with a 1KΩ output impedance driving an amp with 10KΩ input impedance does that mean I need 10x as long if I drive an amp with 100KΩ input impedance.

What happens if I use DC coupled vs AC?

Music varies greatly in frequency content. Will burn-in playing Joe Bonamassa sound different than if I play Birth of the Cool? The electrical energy vastly different so if playing in has any validity, content must matter. Burn-in with Pink / White / Brown noise should affect the sound IF there is any validity to burn-in requirements.

Cable direction, other than cables with networks, is nonsense.
Cable burn-in is most probably 100% nonsense.


If you hear no difference after time passes, you've lost nothing.  If you do perceive an improvement in the openness of your sound then yippee!
Riddle me this, Batmen: How do you know it's the cables?

Hearing changes all the time. Fatigue, stimulants, temperature and pressure all affect hearing.
Loudspeakers change with temperature and pressure.
Amplifiers can sound markedly different with temperature.
Contact pressure increase with temperature.

It's not possible to isolate 'improvements' to burn-in. It's equally as likely that degradation could result if changes exacerbate inherent system distortions.

The one constant with a HiFi system is there isn't

If burn-in valid, then materials cannot be inert. If the materials are not inert, then they must always be affected. If the materials are affected, then a cable that's had thousands of hours of playing should have measurable deltas to its twin that sat on the shelf in the same environment for those same thousands of hours.

Technology exists to measure femto values, so it should be possible to measure deltas.

It is possible, per Heisenberg, that measuring may negate the change. By the same token, different program must also affect change. In that case, change is constant and therefore indeterminate.

Many years ago BAS reported on the results of test at UWatterloo with Linn's Ivor Tiefenbrun who gave rise the 80's single speaker in the room gospel. 

The day began with two brief tests of the Tiefenbrun claim that undriven transducers (digital alarm watches, telephones, headphones, or other loudspeakers) in the same room audibly degrade the sound quality - a claim which forms the rationale behind their "single speaker" demonstration demand. Firstly, a digital alarm watch with piezoelectric "beeper" was held about 500 mm behind Tiefenbrun's head while he listened to the loudspeaker reproduction from his stereo seat on the couch, with the watch either fully exposed or clasped firmly between the palms of my hands. We were assured that the latter artifice would muffle any deleterious effects. This was thus a single-blind test: The testee did not know the covered/uncovered status of the watch at each trial, but the tester did know. A random series of 20 trials was conducted while Remington cued up the turntable (playing a female vocalist) on each occasion, as he did throughout the day. Tiefenbrun's result: 10 correct responses in 20 trials, an outcome which shows no ability to discriminate between the two situations.

The second test, also single-blind, used a Linn "Kan" loudspeaker as the undriven transducer. Again the female vocalist was used as source material. The loudspeaker lay on the thickly-carpeted floor behind the listening couch. It was placed either on its side (the "uncovered" condition) or on its face (the "covered" condition) according to a random series of choices. Ten trials were conducted during which Tiefenbrun achieved a score of 5 correct out of 10. Again, this demonstrates no discrimination ability beyond what one would expect purely on the basis of chance.

from https://www.bostonaudiosociety.org/bas_speaker/abx_testing2.htm

Someday cable burn-in maybe similarly debunked.
Detailed just emphasizes the leading edge of notes.
And just, pray tell, how does a wire emphasize the leading edge of notes? That makes as much sense as saying that some ethernet cables italicize while others CAPITALIZE

The electrical signal is a continuously changing value which when transduced to moving air, our brain decodes into 'music'

Cables are equalizers and just as they may emphasize upper frequencies and sound 'detailed' they may just as readily roll the top and sound 'warmer'.

What any cable does when is utterly system dependent. See http://192.168.1.160/Audio/CableSnakeOil.php/ 

In over half a century of listening, EVERYTHING ascribed to cable burn in has been found to be connector related. See http://ielogical.com/Audio/#ConnectorCleansing
In TBCBI [Time Before Cable Burn In] we experienced everything attributed to it.

What primitives we were putting it down to weather, connector outgas & pollutant contamination, electronic variability, diet, rest, ad nauseum.

Riddle me this, Batmen: How does a cable 'know when to stop' burning in?
The scientific method allows changing only one variable at a time.
So all the CBI fans listen in climate controlled inert environments, always eat the identical menu, always get 8.5 hours of sleep, listen at precisely the same time and the same level, stop electronic and speaker aging, have their own power generation... ALL systems are a collection constantly changing variables.

CBI is about the MOST Unscientific topic in audio.

@andy2 
First, cables are just more than resistance.
Preaching to the choir. See http://ielogical.com/Audio/CableSnakeOil.php
Please don't regurgitate that which you don't comprehend.


@elizabeth & CBI proponents

How do you know it's the cable and not everything else, all of which are measurable?