This is gold, Jerry! GOLD!!!
Cable Break In for the Naysayers
I still cannot believe that in this stage of Audio history there are still many who claim cable break in is imagined. They even go so far as claim it is our ears that break in to the new sound. Providing many studies in the way of scientific testing. Sigh...
I noticed such a recent discussion on the What’s Best Forum. So here is my response.
______________________________________________________________________________________________ I just experienced cable break in again firsthand. 10 Days ago, I bought a new set of the AudioQuest Thunderbird XLR 2M interconnects.
First impression, they sounded good, but then after about 30 hours of usage the music started sounding very closed in and with limited high frequencies. This continued until about 130 hours of music play time.
Then at this time, the cables started to open up and began to sound better and better each passing hour. I knew at the beginning they would come around because they sounded ok at first until the break in process started. But now they have way surpassed that original sound.
Now the soundstage has become huge with fantastic frequency extensions. Very pleased with the results. Scientifically I guess we can’t prove cable break in is real, but with good equipment, good ears, it is clearly a real event.
ozzy
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I am far from an expert on this, but for those that believe that science simply doesn’t support cable break-in, consider this: The electrical signal is a flow of free electrons in the valence shell of the copper (one example) atoms. It’s a physical flow of matter. Because electrons are free to move relative to the nucleus of the atom it’s not unreasonable to think that the flow of electrons could alter things in the cable. I am thinking that any interfaces in the cable could mesh/blend over time resulting in a different flow of electrons. The connections would be a place where this could matter most and why people experience a break-in period when reconnecting cables My experience with cable break-in is very limited, but this is a physical phenomenon that happens with cables. To quote myth busters, plausible at minimum.
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@ozzy , my new Audioquest Dragon Source cords (3) have just now reached the point where I cannot hear / perceive any difference between them and the fully burned-in demo cord I had on hand along the way. They have been cooking for just over 400 hours now. Prior to 360 hours, there was a blatantly discernible difference when I swapped in the single burned in demo cord, replacing just one of my three new cords in my system. Yes, the difference was night and day. I have to admit, even though I firmly believe in burn in from my past experiences (or perceptions if you prefer, I consider both terms to apply to my subjective experience), I had started to wonder if something else was at play that would explain the difference I was hearing between the new and burned in cord as of 360 hours and prior. I was wondering if maybe the design had changed, tolerances were coming into play, etc. But thankfully my new cord sounds equivalent to the burned in demo cord now. That is to say (here come the SUBJECTIVE descriptors) that it is more open and relaxed, the images are more solidly defined, there is a more relaxed soundstage which means that there is more depth and layering, and there is more unconstrained high frequency detail coming through, in a relaxed and gentle manner (e.g. decay on subtle cymbals are more defined now and trail off in a more 3D space without the sense that the brakes are being pumped). There is less of a sense of restraint overall, and also I am hearing more resolution, seemingly due to less noise. All in my head? I was on a hike on the weekend and we passed a guy who said to his companion “Point to a tree and I’ll prove to you that it doesn’t truly exist.” Not sure what the context was and unfortunately I didn’t stick around to hear his “proof”. But at a certain point I need to have faith in my subjective perception of the difference between the burned in and new power cords.
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