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Cable Cooking/Burnin

I read this on KLE Innovations, http://kleinnovations.com/kle-innovations-klei-products/essence-gzero-ic/, and wondered what your thoughts on Cable Cooking/Burnin might be ...

Burnin/Cooking Time

We believe that the Burnin/Cooking process can be thought of as an extension/finishing of the Annealing process.

This is a practice that can dramatically/drastically improve performance and has been gaining acceptance from HiFi enthusiasts :) Usually, any listener will be able to identify a marked change/improvement in audio component performance within the first 100 or more hours of use, whether it be a cable, connector, component or loudspeaker.

Burnin/Cooking time is the process whereby electrical signal/charge gradually settles/corrects/aligns dielectric, electromagnetic, and material (metal and non-metal) issues that occur/result during the construction process. These aspects are often and usually found in Cables/Connectors and usually results in a brittle, bright, muddy, non-cohesive sound that lacks the Detail, Resolution, Timbre, PRaT, Harmonic Texture, Organicness, Naturalness, and Staging which is desired for music reproduction. Burnin/Cooking Time improves the way that signal passes through the conductors and dielectrics and it is the resulting changes in signal transmission that refines and defines the performance of the audio cables.

While it is most important to implement Burnin/Cooking Time, upon purchase, routine maintenance is always important, also. Cables/Connectors that have not been played, or left unused, for long/prolonged periods of time, may become stagnant and again require Burnin/Cooking Time.
yping
nonoise's avatar
nonoise
10,947 posts
 
One cable maker told me that he didn't believe in breaking in cables on a cable cooking device. Something about it not being a true audio signal and how it affects and uses the dielectric to the point where it becomes a constant, of sorts, playing a greater role in the sound of the cable than it should.

After cooking, the dielectric takes a long time to dissipate the conditioning effects before you get the true sound of the cable. He recommended just playing music until it breaks in.

I have no idea myself but felt the need to chime in with what I was told.

All the best,
Nonoise
yping OP
351 posts
 
That is interesting Nonoise
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
That's actually an old wives tale. The music signal is actually not enough to completely break in the cable. More, uh, drastic measures are required.
williewonka
3,082 posts
 
Geofkait - does that apply to ALL cables or just IC's ?
- since speaker cables are subject to much higher voltages

My personal approach, i.e. based on testing many cables of varying performance levels...
- cooking is a much faster route to attain "reasonable" SQ performance
- but there is still a level of refinement that can be acquired by simply playing music.

Some cables I have tested required some 300-400 hours of normal burn-in, but that was reduced to around 100 hours cooking and another 100 hours of playing for significantly better SQ and performance.

But that is on my system - others may experience different approaches work even better on their systems.

Also, from what I have read, it seems there is no "correct method", since this topic varies greatly even between different cable manufacturers.

Regards...
nonoise's avatar
nonoise
10,947 posts
 
It very well might be an old wife's tale but on his site he offers cable cooking if the customer asks for it but told me he doesn't believe in it base on what he hears.

As for my self, I've gotten used to the routine of just playing music and witnessing the process. The biggest and nicest surprises come long after I think it's broken in and then it opens up another notch.

All the best,
Nonoise.
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