Morrow IC's

I've been a solid core aficionado for years, mostly AQ stuff…I tried a pair of Morrow ICs last year as I thought the "use the same wire in everything but more or less of it depending on how guilty you want to consumer to feel" was interesting and now I'm hooked on the stuff, both balanced and RCA. They do take around 107 weeks to break in, but the "break in" pamphlet that comes with the cables is sort of hilarious.

You do understand that if you've disconnected your Morrows due to an amp upgrade you have to do a re-break in…March…they should be sounding good by March…late February maybe...

Regarding break-in, I find it interesting that anybody would pay for the cable manufacturer to do that for them instead of simply listening to your new cable to see if or how it changes over time. That’s what I do because, again, I find it interesting. With well made cables (various brands of which which I’ve enjoyed for decades) it’s unlikely you will hear the "extreme" changes described in detail in the Morrow pamphlet that comes with their cables, and unless the new cable simply sounds initially terrible (mine didn’t, either single ended or balanced) it’s just not that big of a deal. Morrow should offer the break-in free of charge as a selling point, but this might delay the shipping…still…based on their own claims it’s a strange business model…how hard would it be to sell pre-made cables that have already been tortured into their sonic potential? And if they lose that standard through shipping or not being connected to something, what’s the point of pre break-in? Note that having said all this, I was influenced initially by the Morrow claims and subjected my initial cable to hours of white noise having hooked it up to a tuner…didn't make much difference, if any.

I'm not certain that Morrow cables are the best thing out there or that they sound better than the solid core AQ cables I've been using for years, and this is mostly because when I bought the Morrows I was changing my amp/preamp setup and speakers so everything was in flux (and also because nobody is likely to send me every well regarded cable to test in my rig)…but since I needed to replace a few balanced cables with single ended, the inexpensive Morrow cable I bought (including one pair of balanced cables to actually see if they were as cool as my AQs) seems to do its job and my system sounds fabulous (enough time has passed that the Morrow stuff is all broken in).  The philosophy of using the same conducting wire albeit in varying amounts seems like a good idea, and is what prompted me to try it in the first place.

Comparing Morrow cables to others in some sort of "shoot out" seems like it could be a frustrating endeavor as disconnecting the Morrows is alleged to prompt "a day or two" of them recovering their mojo. This requires the cable reviewer to remember their subjective opinion of the cable "sound" (or, more accurately, the cable's "influence"), and after 50 plus years of this stuff I've learned to have some serious doubts about that sort of test. Well made cables should be ignorable, and if they're not (like the turntable cable that came with my Linn/Akito that picked up hum from everything from dimmers to whining strangers…replaced with a dead silent hum rejecting Jelco-Mogami solution…in hot pink no less), there is a serious bad design issue going on. I roll tubes, have a revealing system, and if the system responds to tube tone swaps I figure the cables are in sync…solid core, soft core, lava core, whatever…and the Morrows sound fine, or not at all…or something.

To Morrow or not to Morrow…that is the question. And what’s wrong with Indianapolis? (Rhetorical question…please do not respond). Also, I want to find the guy who bought Morrow cables when they were NOT on sale…who is that guy? In any case, cables that are made to order should be expensive, but these aren’t so much. Try to get Audioquest to make cables just for you, and get back to me on that. I don’t spend much time these days thinking about how my cables are working, or if they’re as good as something else that would maybe "focus my soundstage" more. I like noise rejecting items…bespoke-ish power supplies, humlessnessness…beyond that I can relax and enjoy my gear pile’s ability to put great sounding music in my face knowing people like Mike Morrow are making fine cables I can afford.

I want to know if the "break-in" process is reversible…if you prefer the sound of the cables before break-in, they will simply descend into the broken-in sound and there's nothing you can do to stop that except unplug them, at which point there can be a sort of disconnect.

It's possible to have too much detail. If that French Horn doesn't back off I'm driving to the venue with a tennis ball...

I like Morrow cables, and am currently breaking in a new 1.1 that is 1.5 meters (needed more room for my Schiit Loki) and it already seems to be working fine, although Morrow claims I need 400 more hours of break-in. They're giving away a free 1.1 IC now (Morrow did that before) with the purchase of, I think, anything, and I took advantage of that when I bought a pair of balanced ICs from them a while back. I also don't think purchasing their "break-in "service is as much fun as not as I like experiencing the "breaking of in" myself…a learning experience from which I've learned one thing: They're great sounding cables right out of the box…literally…they come in a box...