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
There needs to be an ignore option here like the Tapeheads site for people who make a forum post flow and read like you're walking through glue trying to carry a big Krell amp. Are you listening Audiogon??????
I have been a cable tester for about 15 years for a small manufacturer.  I've heard maybe 100 different cables, most never making it into production.  Before I test them, I burn them in for 24 hours, minimum.  I have found that a new pair of ICs versus a 24 hour used pair of ICs can sound very, very different.  

I've also tested Monster Cable 300s series years ago and found no appreciable difference after 100 hours burn in.  I found a slight difference using Belden low capacitance ICs.  Then again, I found that High Fidelity brand cables sound terrible on any system I've heard, generally, very expensive systems of $300,000 to $1 million.  I'd rather listen to Monster 300s than High Fidelity cables for musical enjoyment.

Since comparing newly manufactured audiophile cables to burned in cables is so obvious to me as well as to others, may I suggest that some or many professional based balanced cables do not have a significant burn in change in sound.  Note that so many great recordings were made using cheap professional cabling back in the 50s to 70s.  Could they have been better with more advanced design and metallurgy cabling?  I don't know.

When I purchased my SME IV arm in 1989, the dealer said listen for a while, then bring it back for modifications.  He shot closed cell insulation in the arm to remove the low mid/upper bass hump and installed Cardas phono cable with an RCA junction box.  It took about a month (100 hours) until I found great enjoyment using my new arm.  I am still using this arm in 2018.  

Honestly never bought into the cable burn-in thing. It's a piece of WIRE!! There's nothing to burn in................Try this, take two brand new identical cables. Keep one set aside and run the other set continuously in your system for a week, a month, however long you want, then have your wife or a buddy swap them back and forth, double blind, so that you have no idea which set is in the system or even if they swapped them around. I'd bet you good money that you can NOT reliably tell which is which or even if they've been swapped. You may guess right a few times, but I'd virtually guarantee that you can't honestly and repeatedly tell which one is in the system.......................Dude, it's WIRE.................45 years in electronics.........doesn't make me an expert, but I do understand a few things better than many hobbiests
Thank God we can't take this discussion or others like it to a "Game of Thrones" environment.  The carnage!!!!😮
I just recently bought quite a few brand new Audio Note cables interconnects and speaker cables.
I had borrowed the store demo cables prior to ordering and receiving my new cables. 
I replaced each demo cable with a new cable one at a time. Each new cable did not sound like the one I replaced. I asked the dealer about this. He said give each cable about 50 hours of music playing through them and they will start to bloom and sound like the demo pair.
Sure enough after 50 hours they started to bloom.
I experienced the same results with every other cable.