Cable Cooking/Burnin

I have a different view of cable break in. I find the less dielectric the better. Also I find that cables sound more detailed and less smeared with no break in, and only get worse with break in.

With break in, a cables dielectric has a chance to store a charge, that will recombine with the signal delayed in time. This smears detail.

I don't buy the cable makers claims that cables sound better with break in. In fact the more the sound changes with break in the worse the design IMO. The reason for the big change is because there is more dielectric to absorb a charge from the signal, and the more dielectric material the longer it takes to charge/ burn it in.

Something to think about.

11-08-15: Geoffkait
That's an interesting theory. How would you explain break in of cables with an air dielectric? Furthermore, how do you explain the barrage of testimonials regarding the break in of capacitors?

Hi Geoffkait, air dielectric? The closest you can get to an air dielectric in audio cables is putting bare wire into tubes of insulation. The wire will still touch the insulation in spots and is still surrounded by insulation. This also separates the wires more which will raise inductance. There is no free lunch.

As for capacitors, it's still the same concept except you need a specific capacitance. In cables we do not want excessive capacitance or inductance lest we change the frequency response.

I am not disputing that the sound does change with "break in" I am just suggesting that the sound changing is not necessarily a good thing. Yes that is contrary to what people report.

You are correct, it is just a theory but so are most of the other thoughts on the subject.

I have not had a chance to play with a cable burn in machine yet. I would like to, but find the price of admission a little steep. I have heard good reports from people I respect. From what I have heard reported about them, they do not use a music signal to break in cables. They use a higher voltage signal that I'm guessing does something else to the dielectric than a normal music signal does. This possibly takes the cable farther away from normal "break in". From what I've heard reported the effect does wear off. Requiring further burning on the machine. This simple fact leads me to believe it is doing something other than accelerating normal break in.

Just my 2 cents.

Geoff, Cotton and foam still have a higher dielectric constant than air. Ideally we would want to have the cables in a vacuum as air still has a dielectric constant of 1.0. Not likely to happen though. We just have to do the best we can that is practical to do.

Runnin, that is correct. Also the wires need to be separated enough to not short out with each other. Using some form of insulation is unavoidable.

Yping, On the subject of annealing, you need to get copper red hot in order to anneal it. Which is over 840 degrees F. If your cables are getting anywhere near 840 degress F in use or on a cable burn in machine you will have a fire and burn all the insulation off the wire. So please pick a more likely theory than finishing of the annealing process.