These cords put to use very simple and commonly understood factors of electrical conductivity. Why other companies have such a hard time of doing or understanding this, i don't know. There are ways to improve the design of this cable even further, and i've discussed some of this with Chris. Having said that and at this price point on the commercial market, they are a very good basic power cord.
As far as break in goes, you have to draw very high levels of current for an extended period of time. Most of what we are "breaking in" is the actual dielectric of the cable. This occurs primarily from thermal stress but may also be somewhat influenced by the electron interaction itself. I'm not a metalurgist though and i don't play one on TV either : )
With the above in mind, finding a device that pulls very sizable amounts of steady state current on a regular basis, and one that actually cycles off and on, can provide a viable alternative to just hooking it to your system and forgetting about it.
Personally, i think that a long and strong current draw should be applied to the cabling being "broken in". After a period of time, the current load should be cycled off an on at random intervals. This causes the dielectric to shift and stabilize to what should be its final settling point. That is, unless further thermal stress greater than the stress already applied is encountered.
Personally, I have electronic devices that pull in excess of 150 amps of current. Given that i can regulate the current draw of these devices, i can vary the amount of current that i want to pass through the cabling feeding it. The set-up that i have makes it easy for me to use a PC to feed these items, whether singularly or daisy chained together. Setting the component to draw a steady 10 - 20 amps when it can dissipate 150+ amps places no thermal stress on the component itself whereas PC's are "cooked" quite thoroughly in a short period of time. After all, power cords connected to a standard audio component, even on amps, only supply current as it is needed. This is typically quite low in level and varies on a dynamic basis, making the process take quite a long time. Ramming current through it on a steady state basis is equivalent to hundreds of hours of dynamic current draw that one would encounter during listening sessions.
After doing this a few times and checking various cables, the very obvious weak point in all of those that i've checked has been the actual IEC and AC plug connections. Due to the lack of conductivity where the cables join the connectors at both ends, there is a LOT of thermal loss ( heat ) generated at those points. If one can improve the connections and conductivity, it stands to gain that the performance of the cable should improve on the whole. Bob Crump has made mention of this in some of his posts and spoken of soldering the connections rather than relying on the crimping or clamping action that most cables make use of. Those that are into DIY'ing and / or adventurous with their "expensive" after-market cords might want to experiment with this a bit. Sean
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As far as break in goes, you have to draw very high levels of current for an extended period of time. Most of what we are "breaking in" is the actual dielectric of the cable. This occurs primarily from thermal stress but may also be somewhat influenced by the electron interaction itself. I'm not a metalurgist though and i don't play one on TV either : )
With the above in mind, finding a device that pulls very sizable amounts of steady state current on a regular basis, and one that actually cycles off and on, can provide a viable alternative to just hooking it to your system and forgetting about it.
Personally, i think that a long and strong current draw should be applied to the cabling being "broken in". After a period of time, the current load should be cycled off an on at random intervals. This causes the dielectric to shift and stabilize to what should be its final settling point. That is, unless further thermal stress greater than the stress already applied is encountered.
Personally, I have electronic devices that pull in excess of 150 amps of current. Given that i can regulate the current draw of these devices, i can vary the amount of current that i want to pass through the cabling feeding it. The set-up that i have makes it easy for me to use a PC to feed these items, whether singularly or daisy chained together. Setting the component to draw a steady 10 - 20 amps when it can dissipate 150+ amps places no thermal stress on the component itself whereas PC's are "cooked" quite thoroughly in a short period of time. After all, power cords connected to a standard audio component, even on amps, only supply current as it is needed. This is typically quite low in level and varies on a dynamic basis, making the process take quite a long time. Ramming current through it on a steady state basis is equivalent to hundreds of hours of dynamic current draw that one would encounter during listening sessions.
After doing this a few times and checking various cables, the very obvious weak point in all of those that i've checked has been the actual IEC and AC plug connections. Due to the lack of conductivity where the cables join the connectors at both ends, there is a LOT of thermal loss ( heat ) generated at those points. If one can improve the connections and conductivity, it stands to gain that the performance of the cable should improve on the whole. Bob Crump has made mention of this in some of his posts and spoken of soldering the connections rather than relying on the crimping or clamping action that most cables make use of. Those that are into DIY'ing and / or adventurous with their "expensive" after-market cords might want to experiment with this a bit. Sean
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