Do speaker cables need a burn in period?
@prof "May I ask (just in case you were serious): How in the world do you think a cable could cause "one note bass?" (That is a cable that wasn't flat out defective)." Seems we may have gotten to a " the rub " moment. So here is the thing, a note in very strict terms is simply pitch and duration. Things that could be seen as more or less just quantitative thingees. Which is something that even the cables you would most likely favour could easily transmit ( much like a wire can transmit something like a telegram signal ). The thing is, the stuff that folks who listen to with stereos is usually music, and music is much more complex than simple pitch and duration because it is the province of musical tone. And yeah musical tone is a close relative of the note but it has this qualitative aspect that is a critical difference. "Traditionally in Western music, a musical tone is a steady periodic sound. A musical tone is characterized by its duration, pitch, intensity (or loudness), and timbre (or quality).[1] The notes used in music can be more complex than musical tones, as they may include aperiodic aspects, such as attack transients, vibrato, and envelope modulation. A simple tone, or pure tone, has a sinusoidal waveform. A complex tone is a combination of two or more pure tones that have a periodic pattern of repetition, unless specified otherwise"A bog standard cable should at the very least be adept at transmitting something as simple as pitch and duration but dealing with more complex timbre, transient vibrato and envelope modulation is a much more difficult undertaking and requires something more refined than a bog standard cable because these qualitative items demand a better phase coherence and freedom from reactive elements such as skin effect than a bog standard cable can offer. And furthermore this ability has be applied to a very broad band signal whereas most cable tech/theory/application tends to concern itself with very narrow bandwidths ( a strategy which communication electronics uses to neatly avoid the problems that phase coherence and reactive elements bring to the table.). So....any cable can transmit a one note bass but not necessarily a musical tone which is the fine,tonally textured bass that Nonoise refers to and which musical lovers strive to hear as completely as possible when they listen to their systems.That requires something much more refined than bog standard ( which meets the existing theoretic specs and the attendant testing protocols but really sucks at presenting the qualitative aspects of music ). Btw we had a cable listening session the other day and just for giggles we plugged in a bog standard Belden based cable that we happen to have around ( it was from a company we all know but will not be mentioned here to protect the innocent, and the guilty ) Bottom line , it gave all the quantitative stuff you and your oscilloscope could hope for, but the qualitative stuff that draws you into the musical event was sadly missing. Read it was not involving, or fun, or foot tapping, it sucked ( and yeah that is seriously subjective and you will most likely scream bloody murder....but here is the thing....you can always go back to listen to telegraph wires....and we can go back to our subjective bliss... ). |
There is no way that speaker cables need a burn in. Anyone who says cables need a "Burn In" is out of their mind. All that a conductor does is allow a current path from point A to point B. The distance between the negative and positive conductors and the gauge of the cable does make a huge difference. The type of materials as in the conductor, how they are wound and insulator make a difference. As frequencies go through the speaker cable you have natural capacitive and Inductive reactances occurring as frequencies rise and fall over the wire length as they travel through the cable. The reactances can have slight frequency cancellations and as it will mimic a filter at the higher frequencies.
The higher the frequency rises the more frequency radiation off the speaker cable will happen.
A properly wound / spaced cable may sound slightly brighter because it will pass higher frequencies better.
The most noticeable difference in higher powered systems would be a current capability of the speaker wire. The current capability will be noticeable in the low end punch or majesty of the lows. The Power amp can better control the speaker back emf (Damping Factor) through a cable with a higher current capacity. Since there are no active components in a Speaker Cable there is nothing to burn in. It is simply an electrical conductor. Most people could not tell the sound difference from 10 Gauge speaker cable from Home Depot from a cable costing thousands from some esoteric speaker cable manufacturer. You would be best to concentrate your efforts on the active components of the system. Speakers, Pre-Amp, Power Amp or receiver. Room Acoustics and Speaker positioning have a much greater affect on sound considering you have large enough conductor from the PA to the speakers. (Distance matters because of increased resistance) Even having stands or floor isolation (Spikes) from tower speakers can help. Don't take anyone's word for it. Many people are out to make a fast buck. Go listen and decide if you can tell a difference and if the cost is worth the price mark up. I personally like my system with 10 Gauge speaker cable at 12ft length. Nothing expensive. |
Most people could not tell the sound difference from 10 Gauge speaker cable from Home Depot from a cable costing thousands from some esoteric speaker cable manufacturer. Most people probably can't tell the difference between different type of wine, coffee, music and so on. We are talking about high end audio. It takes a bit of experiences. |
