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Cable Cooking/Burnin

I read this on KLE Innovations, http://kleinnovations.com/kle-innovations-klei-products/essence-gzero-ic/, and wondered what your thoughts on Cable Cooking/Burnin might be ...

Burnin/Cooking Time

We believe that the Burnin/Cooking process can be thought of as an extension/finishing of the Annealing process.

This is a practice that can dramatically/drastically improve performance and has been gaining acceptance from HiFi enthusiasts :) Usually, any listener will be able to identify a marked change/improvement in audio component performance within the first 100 or more hours of use, whether it be a cable, connector, component or loudspeaker.

Burnin/Cooking time is the process whereby electrical signal/charge gradually settles/corrects/aligns dielectric, electromagnetic, and material (metal and non-metal) issues that occur/result during the construction process. These aspects are often and usually found in Cables/Connectors and usually results in a brittle, bright, muddy, non-cohesive sound that lacks the Detail, Resolution, Timbre, PRaT, Harmonic Texture, Organicness, Naturalness, and Staging which is desired for music reproduction. Burnin/Cooking Time improves the way that signal passes through the conductors and dielectrics and it is the resulting changes in signal transmission that refines and defines the performance of the audio cables.

While it is most important to implement Burnin/Cooking Time, upon purchase, routine maintenance is always important, also. Cables/Connectors that have not been played, or left unused, for long/prolonged periods of time, may become stagnant and again require Burnin/Cooking Time.
yping

Showing 7 responses by williewonka

williewonka
3,072 posts
 
Yping, in the last couple of years I have tried "cooked" and "uncooked" cables.

I've found that Cooking gets you to "end-state" much quicker, but actual usage still refines the SQ of cooked cables even further.

- E.g. even a well cooked cable sounded much better after 100 hours of playing - but it would have taken in excess of 500 hours to attain the same SQ without cooking
:-(

Most cookers do a very good job, so rather than trying to figure out which cooking method is better, may I suggest you just pick one.

The simple "plug-and-cook" solution sounds the easiest process to me - much less fussing

The time you will save allows you more time to enjoy the music :-)

Regards
williewonka
3,072 posts
 
Here's a purpose built DIY unit...

http://desirableaudio.blogspot.ca/2009/01/diy-kable-kooker.html

Regards...
williewonka
3,072 posts
 
Lak - a couple of questions on your post...

What happens if you "overdue" the time of the cooking?

Is the reversal of the overcook possible and what do you have to do?

Many Thanks
williewonka
3,072 posts
 
No - just a DIY cooker I found on the web

When I said...

"I've found that Cooking gets you to end-state" much quicker"

That was simply comparing the time it took the cooked gZero cables I've tried to reach end-state vs. the uncooked gZero cables.

I don't have a cooker - but this one looks pretty simple - and I already have half the components leftover from an old 12v power supply project.

Regards...
williewonka
3,072 posts
 
Geofkait - does that apply to ALL cables or just IC's ?
- since speaker cables are subject to much higher voltages

My personal approach, i.e. based on testing many cables of varying performance levels...
- cooking is a much faster route to attain "reasonable" SQ performance
- but there is still a level of refinement that can be acquired by simply playing music.

Some cables I have tested required some 300-400 hours of normal burn-in, but that was reduced to around 100 hours cooking and another 100 hours of playing for significantly better SQ and performance.

But that is on my system - others may experience different approaches work even better on their systems.

Also, from what I have read, it seems there is no "correct method", since this topic varies greatly even between different cable manufacturers.

Regards...
williewonka
3,072 posts
 
Geoffkait - it was during a burn-in I noticed this effect and I had music playing through the cables, but the amp was turns down.

Yping - I too heard of the saturation issue, but wondered if "overcooking" was the real issue - perhaps not

Definaitely some weird stuff :-)

Regards...
williewonka
3,072 posts
 
Lak - an observation derived from the link you provided...

Over-Cooking can reduce the performance, at least temporarily. The characteristics of this are a reduced or diminished soundstage and a dull, lifeless quality to the music. If this situation occurs, merely letting the cables physically rest, and settle, then putting them back in the music system to play for a few hours brings them back to their optimal performance level. Over-Cooking does NOT do any damage to the cabling whatsoever. Again, incremental Cooking-and-listening tests are highly recommended to avoid over-Cooking one’s cables.

A couple of months ago I was made aware that leaving a system powered on all the time will result in degraded SQ.

I tried with my own system and found that I could leave the system on for up to 5 days, but after day 6 the system suffered similar effects mentioned above.

Turning the system off overnight restored its performance.

So perhaps it could it be possible I was effectively "overcooking" my cables?

Hmmm... It certainly throws some light on something I had no explanation for :-)

Many Thanks
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