Do Interconnects need to "warm up"?


My system is left on most of the time and sometimes on standby. I noticed that when I first start to listen the sound is a bit bright. All of my IC's are balanced and single ended Silver Streaks, the components are Krell. It seems to take almost a half hour before the system seems to calm down where it then sounds smooth and sweet. So I was wondering, is it possible that IC's may need to warm up as some equipment does - your thoughts? Thanks!
rpg

Showing 7 responses by mceljo

Use another set of interconnects for a warm up and then switch to the cold interconnects and see if the system sounds "cold." It shouldn't matter what interconnect you use so I'm sure you have something that would work.
I always try to let my system warm up for an hour or so when people come over to listen. Rather I'm there or not for the warm up, the system always sounds better.

I would expect that the speakers are the main component that benefit from a warm up, but I can see how the components could have internal parts that need to reach an equilibrium.
Audiofeil - I would take what Dave_b to mean that silver is not the most musical conductor material all other things being equal. While this may be a difficult claim to make since it's unlikely to find identical cables, your response about geometry, purity and deilectrics have nothing to do with a claim about a material choice being superior. What is your experience with, say, silver vs. copper conductors?
Wolf_garcia - How do you know it was the cold temperatures and not the shielding that made the difference in sound. I'd suggest pulling the plug on the freezer all together to find out. Maybe dorm refrigerators will become an audio tweek.
Ted_d - What is it that changes in a warmed up cable that would be "doubly" important compared to say, speakers and amplifiers?

I'd like to hear from the OP after warming up his system with an alternate interconnect and then swapping in his main one while the rest of the system is warm.
I would think that any difference in tonal characteristics would vary more as a particular battery was drained than from using different brands, but who am I to judge since I admittedly can't hear that level of detail.
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