Question regarding burn-in

Most likely yes. If turned on, the amp will act like a load to the preamp so signal will flow from the preamp to the amp. Just make sure you turn the volume up on the preamp to produce enough signal to "form" the dielectric on the interconnects. That is what burn-in is, forming the dielectric surrounding the conductor.

George Cardas thinks there is no need to have everything on. Please go to the following link and click Cable Use on the right hand side for more details.

http://www.cardas.com/faqs/index.html

Personally, I never purposely burn in cables. I just let music take care of it during normal listening.

with small signal it's impossible to burn-in.
if you apply some high voltage 300...400V than your interconnect may work as fuse and will eventually burn ...in.

The power amp does not need to be on.
The power amp needs to be on when you are burning in speaker cables. IMO.

LAK is right about this. That's one of the nice thing about breaking-in cables other than speaker cables since you don't need to shut anything off at night,or during other quiet times.
Let the pre-amp fly!!!

I have a question about the duration and method of burning in speaker cables. I was on the Zu Audio website and saw their new Mission line of speaker cables. I'm very interested in them. I read that they require 200-400 hours of break/burn-in. My dad gave me an old receiver that I really don't care about along with some cheap speakers awhile ago. I was going to connect the receiver to the speakers with the Mission speaker cables and let the receiver play music from misc radio stations 24/7 for 10-17 days straight at a low volume so I don't disturb my family. This way I'll know the Mission speaker cables are broken in when I fully audition them and I can make a timely decision on them and if necessary return them within their 60 day time frame.

Would this properly break-in the speaker cables? Does the volume need to be turned up to a certain level to ensure the speaker wire is getting enough current passed through it so that it is being broken in? I'm hoping I can leave it at a low volume. I read some where some time ago certain cable manufacturer breaks-in cables via their burn in devices they do 8 hours on and then 8 hours off for a couple of days. I was wondering if I should do the same.

Thanks in advance everyone.

LAK is correct, regarding burning of interconnects, because the input impedence(LOAD) is the same, whether the power amp is turned on or off. re: Speaker cables- The more volume and bass; the faster the burn-in. If you connect one speaker out of phase with the other(reverse +/- at the speaker terminals), face them at each other, and place them close together; some of the sound will be cancelled out. A receiver will work fine. Do it 24/7, with a Rap station(if you can stand it), with the bass control on the receiver turned up. 200 hours does it for most cables/interconnects.

Rodman99999

Thanks for the assist. I had to put in my own spin on your burn-in tip. I couldn't take listening to rap or hop hop stations by me. I had it on for a couple of hours but I'm just not a fan of the rappers out there. Plus they play Eminem over and over and over. I like some of his stuff but to hear it constantly wasn't for me.

I found some Drum and Bass CDs as well as some Ministry of Sound and MixMag club CDs I've been playing 24/7. I've got another couple of hours to go before I'm above 200 then I'll put the speaker cables I was burning in into my main system.

Thanks again.