Cable Cooking/Burnin

I have a different view of cable break in. I find the less dielectric the better. Also I find that cables sound more detailed and less smeared with no break in, and only get worse with break in.

With break in, a cables dielectric has a chance to store a charge, that will recombine with the signal delayed in time. This smears detail.

I don't buy the cable makers claims that cables sound better with break in. In fact the more the sound changes with break in the worse the design IMO. The reason for the big change is because there is more dielectric to absorb a charge from the signal, and the more dielectric material the longer it takes to charge/ burn it in.

Something to think about.

That's an interesting theory. How would you explain break in of cables with an air dielectric? Furthermore, how do you explain the barrage of testimonials regarding the break in of capacitors?

I'm leaning towards agreeing with Sarcher30 on this. After removing the Herbies Big Foot dots from under my speaker and placing them directly (verboten!) on their sturdy maple stands, the sound improved in a big and positive way. More focus, better extension both ways, and a clearer soundstage.

This was with my newish Supra 3.4W speaker cables which I really liked. Just these past two days I tried some old Clear Day (24ga) and Tempo Electirc (16ga) silver speaker wire and thought I'd found audio nirvana, again. But both proved too much in the sense they spotlighted some parts and gave too sharp a presentation with some aft-shortening (did I just coin a phrase?) in the lower registers. Also, most of the romance of the Supras just disappeared.

In went my trusty old Mapleshade Double Helix and only then did I realize I was in audio nirvana for keeps. These thin walled copper speaker wires did all the things the solid core silver did without the spotlighting, aft-shortening, and romance killing. Delineation is pretty much spot on down low without the romantic bloat that the Surpa had and the highs are as detailed as the silver cables and exhibit none of the sharpness or etching.

I have just spent the better part of several hours judging the Mapleshades and find them lacking not a whit. Hello old friend. And these are very thin walled dielectric wires. Horses for courses, YMMV, but I'm back in the copper single core, thin coated dielectric camp, pitched tent and all.

All the best,
Nonoise

Sorry I have to disagree with you but then I cook my cables using an old CDP and an old 25watt integrated amp, where I can set the volume, into a 10watt 5.5R resistor using a couple of music CD's that I like for this process :)

I will have a search for the different cable cookers that are out there and post them :)

How do you make'em? Rare? Medium or Well-done?