digital and interconnect cables burn in

OK for speaker cables you have several options. You can play the system continuously at rather high levels when no one is home; allow for some consideration if you have pets though. You can use a break-in box, but the caveat here is to use caution if you have MIT or similarly terminated cables, because (some) breakin boxes apply DC, which will blow up the terminations, per MIT. You can setup a cheap garage or basement system & play the radio; face the speakers together & wire them out of phase to cancel some of the racket. You can make yourself a 4-ohm or 8-ohm dummy load out of some power resistors (must know ohm's law of series-parallel resistances to do this) or maybe just get 2ea. (1 per channel) 5 ohm or 10 ohm 20 watt power resistors, whatever is readily available, and some healthy-gauge clip leads. Cliplead the dummy loads to the ends of your speaker cables that you are breaking in, & absolutely use some electrical tape to ensure against short circuits! Death to your PA if you're not careful... Crank up the power partway & check the loads at intervals to ensure against overheating the resistors. They can be allowed to get nice & warm, but not blistering hot. Don't burn yourself, & don't look here for liability if you mess up (this is only my disclaimer for self-protection, even though it's free advice). The question regarding digital interconnects is a bit different. You must repeat-play the CD player, but it's not necessary to listen, or have anything other then your outboard DAC connected as a load termination. DAC power may be on or off - matters not.

Thanks Bob.

 

Hi Bob, I just want to burn in my new RCA Digital Cable. So as you have mentionned to bmpnyc, I should power on my CD transport, that is connected to my integrated amp, that is equiped with a built in DAC. So I would select the CD Transport on my integrated amp. My integrated amp would it be better to power it On, with No volume, or just a little volume; or let it on Stand By would be OK too ? Do you think that 100 hours would be a good burning period ? Thank you.

      For a way to burn in interconnects; I've found a cheapo DVD/CD player and the 'Irrational But Efficacious' CD,  set to play repeatedly, a good way to accomplish the task.     Especially: since my CDP has six Siemens CCa valves, in it's output section, that don't need the hours.

                                                    ie:

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=dvd+player&crid=2Y3NNE9FWZKHZ&sprefix=dvd+player%2Caps%2C298&ref=nb_sb_ss_ts-doa-p_1_10

                                                   and:

https://www.amazon.com/Cardas-Acoustics-Irrational-Efficacious-Burn/product-reviews/B00OY8UXME

                                           Happy listening!

Talk about resurrecting old threads; 24 years! 

I don't understand why people don't want to hear the changes the cables impart on the sound as it goes through this settling period, I think it makes the brain believe that the cable sounds even better by comparison to the inferior sound one can get as it breaks in, and it is good for ear training- it is a fun part of being an audiophile!

If one doesn't like to listen to music as components burn in, and wishes to burn in as quickly as possible, on Qobuz there are some burn in albums available: search Bunker Analog. There is a 48 min. burn in track on one of their albums, where maybe 100 hours with this burn in track accomplishes the same as 200 hours of random music?