You are right Jackcob....get burning. "Breaking in" a cable has everything to do with the insulation - not the wire itself. The insulation or dielectric will absorb energy from the conductor when a current is flowing (music). This energy absorption causes the dielectric's molecules to re-arrange themselves from random to uniform order. When re-arranged the dielectric will absorb less energy and consequently cause less distortion. The cable is now broken-in and sound improves. To ensure the cable stays broken-in it must remain connected and the components left on. If no signal is present in the cable the molecules will re-arrange into a random state and break-in will have to be repeated. Length of break-in varies from 100-500 hours.
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??
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??