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Sound of cables breaking in?

When I try cables, of various types, I find that when I first put them in, they give me a little taste of what they will sound like after they are broken in. Then, things get strange, and the sound can vary all over the place, until they finally settle in.

Who else has similar experience? I'm thinking people sometimes give up on a particular cable during this volatile period, and never get to what it really sounds like.
tommylion
tommylion OP
874 posts
 
pc997,

Assuming the cables don't have any obvious problems with the quality of construction or materials used,

If you’re talking about properties that are measurable with test equipment, I am not aware of any that are really useful for this purpose, but they may exist.

If you are talking about measurable with your ears, then there are many. The most important one, in my opinion, is; how much are you enjoying the music?
inna
7,296 posts
 
My experience with Purist cables is very similar to the OP's.
But my experience with Tchernov cables is different. They kept improving more or less in a linear fashion and never sounded bad. Both Purist Neptune and Tchernov Reference MK II RCAs required about 275 hours to fully open up.
Often, the better the cables the longer burn-in period. More complex dialectric needs more time.
chayro
2,996 posts
 
This thread reads like an RSD support group! I am currently breaking in a pair of Gabriel Gold ICs and it is a miserable process.  All of the things noted above, but it is about 2 months now and I am hearing some very good things.  
cerrot's avatar
cerrot
1,700 posts
 
Same here.  I have 2 pair of tara labs the one speaker cables (I bi amp) and they sounded 'okay' from the start (just ok should not cut it for $5k cables, each) BUT after a few hundred hours, they really started standing out to where, after 500-600 hours, they shaped my soundstage into an incredible display.  
lak's avatar
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lak
4,642 posts
 
I don't disagree with the posts above, most of us have been there, other than the naysayers.
My point is that's why I invested (several years ago) in the Audiodharma Cable Cooker Anniversary Edition 33.5 CCGR. Power cords, Interconnects, Digital cables, Speaker cables, AC outlets, etc all that gets cooked first which has saved me a ton of time. Not for everyone but it works for me.
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