Cable Burn In


I'm new here and new to the audiophile world. I recently acquired what seems to be a really high end system that is about 15 years old. Love it. Starting to head down the audiophile rabbit hole I'm afraid.

But, I have to laugh (quietly) at some of what I'm learning and hearing about high fidelity.

The system has really nice cables throughout but I needed another set of RCA cables. I bit the bullet and bought what seems to be a good pair from World's Best Cables. I'm sure they're not the best you can get and don't look as beefy as the Transparent RCA cables that were also with this system. But, no sense bringing a nice system down to save $10 on a set of RCA cables, I guess.

Anyway, in a big white card on the front of the package there was this note: In big red letters "Attention!". Below that "Please Allow 175 hours of Burn-in Time for optimal performance."

I know I'm showing my ignorance but this struck me as funny. I could just see one audiophile showing off his new $15k system to another audiophile and saying "Well, I know it sounds like crap now but its just that my RCA cables aren't burned-in yet. Just come back in 7.29 days and it will sound awesome."
n80

hifiman5,

OP - shadorne and the other measurers insist that if you can't measure it you won't hear it...you might convince yourself you did, but what the hell do your ears know?  I mean really who are your ears to tell your brain what sounds are entering them.  Much better to have a man-made device measure sounds which your inferior organic listening devices can not perceive.  Sheesh!


I assume you wouldn't scoff at the idea of a carbon monoxide detector for use in your home, on similar grounds? "My senses have served me fine, I mean who is your nose to tell your brain what substances are entering them?"   (But of course, carbon monoxide detectors are there because your senses WON'T likely detect odorless Carbon Monoxide in your environment).

Obviously, we invent measurement devices because our senses are limited at detecting what is actually there.  The same goes for our hearing.  So we know we can measure many things we can't sense, including that we can't hear.   We can know "something is there" even if our senses can't detect it.  And of course we can also measure plenty that we hear.

If you are suggesting you can hear things that can't be measured, the question is:  how do you know?


The reply "Well...I heard it!" doesn't take in to account how your perception can be mistaken.

Also, think of it this way:  Expensive, boutique audiophile cables purport to "fix" problems found in other cables.  But if instruments can't detect those problems...how would you know they are there in the first place?

Notice that most cable companies start of with TECHNICAL claims about a problem, alluding to phenomenon known from having been measured by instruments in the first place.  Look for instance at the Cardas link where in describing issues with cables they reference:

microphonics dielectric characteristics of  insulators
high input impedance
Piezoelectric effect
uneven distribution of the charge
Mechanical stress

And yet, despite appealing to a set of measurable problems, they do not produce measurements showing they fixed those technical problems.  You go directly from technical sounding descriptions...to marketing and subjective anecdotes.    If it was a technical measurable problem with cables in the first place, and they fixed that technical problem in their design, where are the measurements showing this to be the case?

(And there is also the issue of how they have drawn the line between any of those technical "problems" to their audible consequences in the first place).

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If you are a "measurer" then so be it.  You will be happy in your paradigm and that is absolutely fine!

My organic listening mechanism is more important to me than a man-made measuring device.👂👂

The decision?  Which listening mechanism do you want to trust to deliver the truth of your system to you?
+1 @hifiman5 .

First of all, going to the people who seem to be making dubious or controversial claims for products they sell might not be the best place to get objective information on cables. I don't know about you, but I try not to derive a true picture of the world form advertisements ;)
OK @prof , point well taken.
That's why the consumer should be reading the user reviews of said cables.


Second of all, note in those links to Nordost and Cardas simply bring you to claims made by those manufactures, wherein they supply no objective/measured results to support their technical claims of burn in (or that it is audible even if something does change over time in the cable).
It is implied by the manufacturer's info that the listener will experience an audible change in sonics after a run-in period. In some cases they are answering queries regarding break-in.





Excellent post prof! And it has been shown that the measuring devices can measure things small enough that the ear of most likely cannot detect. So I find it funny that people Scoff at measuring device list.
 N80 if you’re interested read up on confirmation bias and expectation bias. This is the reason for all the folks claiming that things sound wildly better when they’ve spent 1000s on a cable.

prof
"
going to the people who seem to be making dubious or controversial claims for products they sell might not be the best place to get objective information on cables. I don't know about you, but I try not to derive a true picture of the world form advertisements ;)"

I don't know about you but I would be reluctant to accept technical judgements from anonymous forum posters about things they admit they don't even understand especially when the claims, assertions and doubts they promulgate lack any basis in science, engineering or even common sense and from people who dismiss, disregard and reject the data, observations, and conclusions made by those who have actually listened, experimented, and documented they're testing:) <grin> <grin>