Does Power Cord Require Burn-In To Sound Good?

Burn in is necessary.  Do not judge the cable after 5 hours.  Wait 200 hours and decide.  You will find that it will fluctuate and the bass will settle last.  I found burn in required for every new component.  In addition cables needs settling in. If I remove my cables and re connect after a few hours I need to wait at least 24 hours 

This is purely my own experience and it may drastically differ from yours. In my experience power cables do have a burn-in period, it is real, it lasts several hundreds of hours, sometimes much less, but they don’t change dramatically, the changes in fact are very small (apart from a mandatory short period of a temporary "lost bass" with some cables, why on earth does it happen, I have no idea, but it almost always does. Saying that, with some cables/systems I can hear no changes at all). The sound signature is here from the start, and the new cable should sound great from the word go, just give it half an hour to settle. If it does not, then don’t waste your time hoping for a miracle and trying to convince yourself that it is getting better. P.e. if you think that the voices are thin, there is not enough body, or there is too much bass, or sibilance etc. etc. no burn-in will change it. You may somehow adjust to it and start believing that it is better now, but you won’t fool yourself for more than a very brief period, eventually it will leave you disappointed. You need to bear in mind 4 factors that can affect the sound during the burn-in: 1. The physical changes in the cable that do affect the sound (don’t ask) 2. Power line/supply quality fluctuations that may make your system sound better/worse 3. Cold/warm condition of your gear 4.Your own condition and your hearing/adjusting to the new sound: first the differences pop up, you hear something new and concentrate on these new details and accents, then it blends with the whole pic and you can’t recognise it as easily if at all, and after a while the new balance/signature starts revealing itself with different kinds of recordings and you realise that yes there is a difference that matters. At this stage you put the old cable back and immediately recognise the old familiar sound signature that was gone with the new one. That’s how it almost always works with me. YMMV.

I actually sort of envy people who can't tell the difference between lamp cord and a given $1500 power cable. Fortunately for me, I can't seem to tell the difference between the $1500 and the $5000 cable (except the price) of the same brand and similar construction. I guess you can count me as a reluctant believer that cables (and yes, break-in) might make a difference for you. Just listen and decide for yourself.

I say might, because what struggling through this pathetic thread illustrates is that many people can't - or perhaps won't - hear the difference. And they're apparently pissed off about it.

(The Cable Company will let you borrow cables to try so that you don't get stuck with something you can't use and can't return. And I'm just a happy customer of theirs, no business interest.)

@audio2design-      "Not sure who you think you are fooling with this?"      "....with some hard numbers what your claimed dielectric impacts would be on a power cord....."       Are you actually that obtuse?       I’ve, "claimed" nothing (hence: nothing to prove).       I’ve only pointed out that POSSIBILITIES exist, regarding those scientifically established (measurable and repeatable) changes that dielectrics go through, when an electric field is introduced.      Obviously; you’ve a serious problem with comprehension.     Then again: it’s probably that fevered, religious fervor, that has has your uneducated brain in turmoil.

You know what happens when we were recording and we detected a faulty power cord? We replaced it then shut the studio down for 2 weeks.

Sorry bit of professional humor. We replaced it. No one noticed. Usually it was replaced due to damage/safety not actually failing and we replaced with new. Generally heavy duty as they took a lot of abuse. Then again could be just that the artist forgot the power cord to their amp, synth, etc. Never once do I remember them insisting they had to run/fly home and get their own cord (or let it sit for several days).


Now obviously recording and playback are not the same but the people who make your music don’t fret over this, don’t even give it a thought actually (except hum and noise). For live recordings the equipment including orders of magnitude more sensitive microphone cables were probably set up that day or if lucky the day before and no one gave any thought to the power cords on mic preamps, mixer boards, amps, etc.

Oh, contacts ... That's where problems existed most of the time. Contact cleaner/enhancer is your friend and sometimes tools to fix a bent pin.