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Cable "burn in"

I understand that before coming to conclusions about the sound of an interrconnect in your system, the cable must be "burnt in" for some degree of time.

My questions is -- can I do this "burning in" simply by hooking the interconnect up to, say, an FM tuner and the preamp, turning the turner on and letting it "play" while the preamp is turned off. If not why would turning the preamp (or the rest of the system) on during the "burn in" make any difference??
jackcob

Showing 2 responses by bob_bundus

bob_bundus
1,834 posts
 
the preamp doesn't usually have to be energized, but the input that you have those "cooking" cables connected to needs to be selected in order for signal current to be traveling through the cables of interest. If there's no load termination at the end of those cables, then no signal current flows & hence no breakin is occuring.
Most (rotary switch selector design) preamps terminate whatever input is selected, whether the pre is on or not. However if it's a relay-driven logic toplolgy, then power must be turned on to energize that input selector relay.
If in any doubt then checking the load termination with an ohmmeter will verify.
bob_bundus
1,834 posts
 
Steve great idea. This would acually be similar to the Mobie cable burner, which passes a large amplitude square wave through the interconnects into a dummy load box. I got my Mobie from Music Direct in Chicago; list price $250, I think I got about 10% off, but I had to beg for it.
Laz this Mobie is what Sean recommended to me, but it only cooks interconnects, no speaker cables nor AC cords. He recommends 30 days for best results, but even one day reportedly helps.
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