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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
ieales's avatar
ieales
1,201 posts
 
If you hear no difference after time passes, you've lost nothing.  If you do perceive an improvement in the openness of your sound then yippee!
Riddle me this, Batmen: How do you know it's the cables?

Hearing changes all the time. Fatigue, stimulants, temperature and pressure all affect hearing.
Loudspeakers change with temperature and pressure.
Amplifiers can sound markedly different with temperature.
Contact pressure increase with temperature.

It's not possible to isolate 'improvements' to burn-in. It's equally as likely that degradation could result if changes exacerbate inherent system distortions.

The one constant with a HiFi system is there isn't

geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
Actually it’s not that difficult to isolate burn in. How, you ask? By using a cable burn in device or the break in track on XLO Test CD or similar. You can observe sound quality improving as you break it on. Problem solved!
browndt
97 posts
 
With Cables its pure snake oil. Once you have a good cable with
low resistance or known resistance and sized right for the application
and in your case proper shielding you are done. What you hear is what you get. The rest is pure fantasy.
n80 OP
2,133 posts
 
The RCA cables I bought (the ones on which this thread is based) are also directional. They have a tag on them for the source end. I did not notice this when I ordered them. 
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
The RCA cables are most likely only directional in the sense the shielding is connected at one end only. But the RCA cables are probably not directional in the sense I use the word, which is due to the inherent directionality of wire. 
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