2. cables
  3. 177583-11265

Can cables have a shelf life?

I have a combined HT/Stereo set-up I’ve been revamping for a month or so. New monitors/new center. Same brand but the center is a different family.

I had everything dialed in and sounding pretty darn good but I’ve made a move of my amps and some XLRs I’ve had tucked away due to length issues in a box for guessing 8 years? 9 years? Longer? And I pulled them out today and inserted them in after all these years. Honestly my XLRs I had in place might have sounded better. Particularly the center. But really need to let it ride a few days but was wondering about age (They work so should be no issues right?) After all these years to they require a mini break-in?

They are Kimber Select 1126. I had been using Kimber Hero. The 1126, in theory should be a decent perceived step up. I feel it’s a perceived step back (-:

But not sure if they need to settle in again, if the age may take into account or the build of new cables have gotten closer to these. They’ve kept the model number after all these years but these have to be a couple of recipes back my now.

Thanks

Rick

 

 

128x128dynguy
ghdprentice
6,408 posts
 

It always sounded crazy that moving or not using cables will need to be run in again. But I have heard it repeatedly. I hate it, everything matters.

 

I had some speaker cables (Transparent) tucked away for twenty years. I pulled them out and put them on after moving to a larger room. The sounded fantastic… and got better. Of course they were gone in a couple weeks as I upgraded to contemporary Transparent… wow, the new ones are tremendously better… technology moves on.

audioguy85's avatar
audioguy85
1,999 posts
 

No....except maybe exposed ends...which can of course be cleaned. Also, if cable has been twisted, bent or abused, than maybe yes...

subaruguru
1,369 posts
 

Here's a weird one I learned in the 70's when playing with uber-expensive molded PVDF for laboratory apparatus. Fluorocarbons, although damned inert, can have a stressed state from tooling or molding. This stress will be self-healing over perhaps a long time (a year+), or released with thermal treatment.  The costly evidence was when newly assembled Pipetman developed innocuous tiny stress cracks along their body faces after many months in service. The solution was simply to thermally treat (a standard autoclave cycle by the end user) again to stabilize the fluorocarbon mechanically. 

When I decided to be disruptive and provide inexpensive Teflon-sheather power cables, boxes, and PCKits to A'goners many years ago, I thermally treated the raw Teflon-sheather cable to fully "cook" them so there would be no perceived break-in period. No user (there were a few hundred of you) ever claimed they changed with time.  Hence I believe it's not the conductor metals that require, or can change with time marching on, but only the dielectrics used in or near contact with the conductors. So your "old" cables may indeed be especially nice!

fiesta75
1,378 posts
 

subaruguru - Thanks for the post, very interesting. 👍

nonoise's avatar
nonoise
10,573 posts
 

Mine didn't come with a use by date so I assume they're still good. 🤔

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