Man this is frustrating

Terry9 - good to know 

I have a friend who repairs electronics for Wal-Mart (phones, bar code scanners, etc.). Former Air Force Senior Airman in electronic warfare (AWACS). He has about 11 years of electronics / soldering experience under his belt and I'll likely have his help in putting together cabling. My soldering skills are limited to shop tools where the quality of the connection is approximately "that'll do it, she'll hold." However, I'm up for learning, and playing around with this stuff is more than half the fun of it. 

I'm using Audioquest Water RCA cables with the DBS system from tonearm to phono preamp. Would these cables still benefit from burn in on my old "Duotech cable enhancer"?

I tried many interconnects up to $400/pair and the best ones for turntable to phono stage connection are Valab solid core silver interconnects sold on eBay at around $100/pair, assuming you are using an MC cartridge.  They are superbly shielded and dead quiet, while at the same very vibrant-sounding.

Many vibrant silver cables are energetic yet lack solid bass foundation. Never mind BJ and AQ. You will do far better to contact Jason Terpstra for some giant killer Virtue Audio Nirvana cables.  I am using them side by side with the likes of Sablon, Transparent Ultra, and Stealth Varadig on Goldmund and latest bel canto electronics and Mark and Daniel and Jas Orsa and REL speakers. Once broken-in they are open, balanced, dynamic, extended and clear as a bell. Had I known sooner, I could have saved a LOT of money. 

gyne,

Phono cables only see a minute signal in normal use so never open up unless they are seasoned with a higher signal. I had one of those Duo-Tech things years ago. I can't remember if it was any good or not.

If you want to do it right, pay a cable manufacturer with a Audiokarma Cable Cooker to cook your phono ICs for a few days and then follow it up with playing them from a CD player or tuner set on static continuously for a week or so. If you are not willing to send them off, use your Duo-Tech and then do the CD player/tuner  thing for a week.

It will still take a while playing LPs even after that for them to fully settle.

Dave