Silver cables - Great price!!

I received a pair of Homegrown's Super Silver 1.0m interconnects yesterday and am in the process of breaking them in. Out of the box they sounded horrible, no bass, sibilance on female vocals, tiny soundstage (again the bass), fuzzy HF and a total lack of musical involvement (on my part) during my midnight hour long listening session. Since there is very little written on the products I thought it necessary to share this dismal picture. Anyway, I placed a Berlioz CD on play/repeat and went to bed. I continued to listen to Berlioz this morning at a higher volume and the change that has taken place during the eight hour (a total of fourteen hours including yesterday afternoons' play time) burn in is like "night and day". I just listened to cuts from "Ry Cooder - Bop", "Kepa Junkera(a CD of Basque music that is my Holy Grail for testing new gear)" and "Paul Winter - Celtic Solstice (recorded at St. John's Cathedral, NY)" All of the gremlins experienced out of the box are gone with the exception of the low-mid bass, which has improved but is still hindering the fullness of the sounstage and my total involvement in the music. They still sound a little thin compared to the Radio Shack Gold and the (Bryston?) cables that I have been using. I was given cables and told that they were from Bryston though they are not marked so. I wish I knew more about the break in period for these cables, but if the LF increases I will be very happy with the product. They are processing a CAL Icon Mk II which is no lightweight in the bass department, but my amplifier (Musical Fidelity) and speakers (Castle) are not considered to be "bass kings". These are my first pair of (maybe) high quality cables. I will report back (the short version I promise) if there are any improvements in the bass and soundstage department. Anyone else using Homegrown cables? Please let us know your opinions on this affordable cable.

Gallaine. You mentioned 200+ hours break in on the Homegrown cables. Is there an easier way for me to do this? I have been using them on the main stereo, but do not want to listen to them in this state and have already started switching back and forth with my old cables. Do speakers have to be connected in the line when breaking them in? Can I hook the Homegrown up to a source out from a second mini system that we have and run them to an aux. line in on my main preamp with the same results? I would "not" place the preamp selector to the Homegrown source so that I could continue to listen to the old cables and my CD source. Does this make any sense? Any suggestions? It took over 150 hours to break my speakers in, I had no idea that silver cables would take so long. I just want to listen to music.

Gallaine. I had completely overlooked the VCR as a source to run the cables from. My wife came home half an hour ago and wanted to know what in the "H" was wrong with our three month old stereo (I had the new cables hooked up to take a listen). Double thanks for an easy solution.

Monroemed. Kevin @ Homegrown emailed this evening and Gallaine's method of breaking in cables is sound and will work fine. Kevin also noted that there should be a significant improvement in the sound at around the 50 hour mark. Since everything is kind of on auto pilot right now, I think that I will run them the full 200 hours or seven more days. I really know nothing about the fine points of (or more importantly what's even possible with) the new interconnects (I took fifteen years off from this hobby). This is only the third pair that I will have heard at home and one of those pairs is from RS. If they sound good with my Castle/MF gear I will post next week. If they don't I expect that it will be due to the lighter LF of my current system and will then try something copper or carbon within my budget, whatever that is, I seem to have lost track at this point. Mapleshades also look interesting and affordable, but the endorsements are a little too orgasmic to take seriously. I thank everyone for their help.

I like the Homegrown Super Silver cables in my system. They now have approx. 225 hours on them. I found them unlistenable up to the 150 hour mark, but after that they have balanced out nicely. They have an extremely detailed sound. The sound from small hollow percussives that are struck shoots out, as it does in a live performance, the same with rimshots etc.. The sound is clear and detailed (cymbals, strings, brass, voices and piano sound right) and the decay is realistic. I do not notice any added sibilance at this stage, other than what my speakers are already known for in professional reviews. A known defect of my CD player (CAL Icon MKII) which is a reverb quality in the midrange is more noticeable, but I can live with it, and it is not a fault of the cable. My only slight disappointment is in the bass response. The copper cables that I have been using seem to be more to my liking in this area with less of a one note bass and a more realistic (though somewhat fuzzier) portrayal of kick drums. A friend who now uses very expensive custom silver cable (and that has tried many silver cables) has told me that this area does improve much longer down the breakin line on most silver cable. My speakers are also underpowered for the size of our living room and I will soon be bi-amping them. Hopefully this will take care of it. I do not think that I can now go back to less detail than these cables offer, even for added warmth in the LF. Though it did take 4-5 hours to adjust to the new sound. I also moved my speakers around a bit to adjust for the additional HF information that I am now receiving. I do not wish to spend four times this amount for cable. I am keeping the Homegrowns and will order a .5 meter pair to hook up the mono amps that should be arriving by the end of the month. I would be interested in seeing reviews of these cables by people that have full range speakers in their systems. Mine are Castle Isis without a subwoofer.

Addendum to most recent posting. Right after I posted the follow up on Homegrown Audio's Super Silver cables this morning UPS delivered my new (used) Harmonic Tech. Pro AC11 powercord. I replaced the stock cord on my CAL Icon MKII and (what else) began listening immediatley. I have gone through most of the cuts that I felt had some LF problems with the new interconnects and now do not have any complaints regarding their portrayal of the LF's. It seems that I have now gained another half octave (from the source) of useable bass and the interconnects produce it well. By improving the source the LF got better, much better (the previous lack of warmth was not the fault of the interconnects). Even bass lines from Buena Vista Social Clubs CD's are not only realistic but are also much more defined (would someone please fly to Cuba and overhall that gentleman's bass amp). The kick drums are also more beleivable and everthing else is just as it should be. There are many other areas that have improved with the addition of the PC, but as far as the Super Silver cables go, try them.

Gallaine - You write a very informative review. I wish that I could express my thoughts as clearly. The sibilance seemed to start dropping out at a little over 200 hours on my pair and was not a problem past 225. I do not know how long you have been running them in. I started them out on the VCR but switched them to our mini system for the past few days playing the soundtrack to "Stuart Little" on repeat (it's the only CD that we have with techno bass on it). If I didn't mention it before my speakers are Castle Acoustic Isis (which I doubt anyone has heard since they were not widely distributed in the US). The amp is a Musical Fidelity X-A1, soon to bi-amped with X-A50's. The cables really make the MF shine. I am not familiar with your equipment. I hope that they work out in your system. Wouldn't it be nice to have generally accepted top notch cables at this price point? The industry would go scrambling. They have been very nice at Homegrown with all of my stupid questions regarding break in and how to avoid listening to it, etc.. Even though I use a power conditioner I still have sound fluctuations throughout the day. I cant wait to give them another listen around midnight.

Gallaine: Do you have the opportunity to do critical listening - say after midnight? My system still sounds a lot better/smoother in the late/early hours with or without my cheap Monster HTS2000. This is something that I need to address before I spend more on the other equipment. We live in a an apartment building which limits my choices. I have also been using my 0.5 meter pair of Homegrown's while Carl is auditioning the 1.0 meter pair and it "seems" that they are even a little more smooth, however with a slight loss of detail. Would the length make a difference? I won't know for sure intil I A/B them.