Do speaker cables need a burn in period?

taras22,

Thanks for the invite.  I might be at the Toronto show (hope to go).

No worries, I'm not a leafs fan (not a hockey fan - I'm a bad Canadian that way).   Oh, and I don't take any of these discussions seriously in terms of personalities or holding any animosity at all.  Nothing on an audio discussion forum is worth that. 

Cheers!

blueranger,

Do any of the nasayers believe in equipment break in? Tube break in? Speaker break in?

To be clear: I'm not a "naysayer" in the sense I claim cable burn in doesn't happen.  I've just found the arguments I encounter FOR it aren't very convincing.  As well,  I've never heard any equipment I've ever bought, cables or otherwise, "burn in."  Doesn't mean it doesn't happen.

As for burn-in of tubes:  I don't know.  (I actually have a brand new pair of tubes I'm going to be putting in my CJ pre-amp.  Unfortunately, even in as a casual test of burned in vs non-burned in tubes, it wouldn't work in my situation.  The reason I'm replacing my tubes in the first place is that the old ones have become more noisy, hiss coming through my speakers, so there ought to be an obvious change when I put in the new ones. I hope there is!)

Burn in of speakers:  Much more plausible than what's been offered for cables.   But there seems very, very little hard data on the subject.  And analysis by the people who have tried measuring speaker burn in - e.g. drivers burning in - generally seem to point out if it happens the audible results would tend to be very subtle, and that any likely audible difference in break in happens fairly quickly, vs the hundreds of hours one often hears about in high end audio.

Burn in of speakers: Much more plausible than what's been offered for cables.

Just go to : www.diy.com and you'll see people measure speakers drivers and they changed after burn in.  

stevecharm - What makes you such an expert?  I've been a beta tester for cables for two decades and have had at my disposal a dozen major manufacturers cables to compare.  You are correct only if comparing cables which do not have great resolution-I couldn't tell if they burned-in or not. 

Well made, high resolution cables, burn-in at different rates depending on the materials and design.  The high resolution IC cables I've tested take a minimum of 24 hours, A/C and speaker cables longer.  I've already stated that I've compared many cables new to cables with 24 hours to one week use on them and concluded there is a DEFINITE, SIGNIFICANT difference in high end cables before and after burn-in.  

What cables, stevecharm, have you tested before and after use, to make the profound claim that cable burn-in does not exist?   

What I have experienced is when you put the new cables you will notice that your amp runs cool some days and warm some days as the cable burns in but once it is properly settled and burned you will notice the music is free flowing and your amps do not run as warm as they did while burn in and stays at normal temperature