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  3. 140503-78269

Skeptic or just plain hard headed

So I purchased a pair of Morrow Audio phono cables. These are the PH3 with the Eichmann connectors. Wanted to start there to see if MA cables will be a viable option for my system.I think my story is not so unique to others who have purchased MA cables. So no need to go into the hu hum of burn-in in regards to MA cables, and how things sound bad at first, then gets better,  then excellent...yada yada yada. I know the story about this product.  I simply am one who is not a believer in electronics break in periods, or battery packs on cables, etc... Regardless of what side of the fence you are on in regards to that Im NOT trying to start that debate again please.. Anyway. After reading several reviews of the MA cables and understanding that most agreed that the cables needed a substantial burn-in time, and that the cables would not sound its best until this happens I decided to give them a try. Thinking ok lets get a jump on the burn-in period (if the concept is true). I paid for the 2 day burn-in service from MA. What I didn't expect is that when I got the cable it would sound as bad as it did in comparison to my existing name brand cable (not getting into that either, not relevant). I thought well the cable might not quite be up to snuff with all this talk about burn-in (if its true) but not that much of a difference.  I mean as soon as I dropped the needle on the record I immediately heard a profound difference in sound stage and clarity degridation. Needless to say this cable was destined to be returned to MA for a full refund and my thinking was "they are crazy if I am going to trade my cable for this cable" So I decided to give MA a call to setup the return. Talked with Mike Morrow (very nice guy by the way) and we had our differences in what I should expect out of his product. Now my Mother always told me that I have a hard head.. I heard that growing up all my life, and when you couple that with skepticism it makes a pretty, well lets just say not a very fun person to have a debate with lol. However Mike insisted that if I return the cable that I would be missing out on the fruit they would bare after 400 hours of break in. 400 hours??? really!. Oh at that point I was really ready to return them. I told all my friends "Mike must be nuts" (no offense Mike) no way am I going to wait a year to hear what this cable is capable of, AND I do not have any way to expedite the process...at least I thought I didn't until I found an old sound bar I don't use anymore with analog inputs. Ok I know you pro MA and  pro cable burn-in folks are chomping at the bit. Im almost done. Take your hands off the keyboard for just a few more lines. 

So here is the deal to be fair I am going to be open minded about this because Mike really made me feel like I would be missing out if I return the cable without a proper burn-in (great salesman), and since he had such conviction I now think I have to test this thing out right??. Now I know that there are testimonials out there about how the MA cable improved over 100s of hours in their system, and that they are now "blown away". However can you really hear a profound difference in a cable you play in your system over 170 hours or so?  I would think a gradual difference would be harder to detect. I mean my system seems to sound better to me everyday without making any changes. Is it because of  continued cable and electronics burn in?? maybe. Or maybe its just my brain becoming more intimate with the sound of my system. Well this test I'm doing should reveal a night and day difference from what the system sounds like today with the cable pre burn-in if there is any merit to the notion. In regards to does it sound better than my existing cable that is yet to be determined. I think my goal now is to prove or dis-prove if cable burn-in is a real thing. This whole idea has evolved from if it's an improvement or not over what I use today. We can discuss that later.

I now have the cable connected between a cd player , and a sound bar with a CD playing on repeat. The disc of choice for this burn-in is rather dynamic so it should be a good test. At the end of 16 days (384 hours) I will move the cables to my reference system and do about another 20 hours of additional burn-in to compensate for moving the cable. This will put a total of 452 hours of burn-in on the PH3. When I put this cable back in my system I sure hope it sings because this is a lot to go through to add a cable to your system. Mike if you are right I will eat crow and will preach from the highest mountain top that you are right, and that cable burn-in is REAL.  For me anyway the myth will be considered busted or reinforce my belief that cable burn-in is a bunch of BS. 

For those who will argue the point of cable burn-in I fully understand the concept, and I don't plan to get sucked down that rat hole and I won't argue that....yet because at the end of this test I may be in your camp and I don't want to have a steady diet of crow so for now I will remain neutral on the subject until the test is complete.  However I will be totally transparent and honest about the results. So not trying to make anyone angry as I know beliefs about audio are sensitive subjects, and rightfully so this hobby is expensive and I like you have a substancial investment in this. Just trying to get to the truth. I also understand that cable burn-in may actually happen when you consider it from a scientific perspective, but the real question is can you actually hear the difference.  

I will report back to this thread in 17 days from today (need at least one day to evaluate) with the results. 

happy listening!!

-Keith
barnettk
barnettk OP
410 posts
 
@prof  
"Im sure I missed some previous details.
What “recording?”   It sounds like you used a cassette deck to record a music signal from....a DAC?  Turntable?"

yea so to do an A/B comparison between the pre burned in cable and the post burn in cable I made a recording of a song I am very failure with to my reel to reel. The phono stage was connected directly to the deck as to bypass the pre-amp. 

After the burn in I rewound the tape to the middle of the song, then dropped the stylus on the same record at about the same place in the song as the recording. This way I could splice in the performance of the cable post burn in. Playing the recording back there was no lapse of time between samples so if there is any difference in the recording I figured I could hear the difference. Doing this I was able to absolutely determine that the cable did indeed improve after burn in. 

After that I continued to listen to several other records that I am very intimate with and the cable was a lot better, but still not besting the cable I had previously. So that is what led us to today. results of the first test (tape test) following this post. 
Post removed 
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
Ah, the relentless pursuit by the blind test fanatics. No matter what happens, or how thorough, there’s always the next move. “You didn’t do the test properly,” “There were not enough trials,” or whatever. It never stops. Been there done that. Hey, no offense. I was pursued by the most relentless, ruthless blind tester of them all. He was like a Gila monster! Prof is a teddy bear by comparison.
barnettk OP
410 posts
 
Tape test results:

1. Everyone that listened to the recording I made agree that the second half of the tape (post burn in)  definitely sounds better than the first half (pre burn in). To me it was not even close, and to not repeat everything I said in my first post about my findings (you can read for yourself if you like) the outcome was exactly the same for me. One of the participants did not even feel it was necessary to do a blind listening test but I insisted that we be thorough. So Instead of me doing the listening I ran the reel to reel. I had them leave the room and positioned the tape to one half of the song, and zeroed the tape counter had them return to the room and played a section of the tape. This is an audiophile friend of mine and we agreed on the criteria in which to listen for. The criteria we came up with was: Imaging, dynamic range, and overall SQ. However the imaging is what he clued in on each time and was able to properly determine pre burned in vs burned in each  of the 6 times. Now this does not necessarily constitute "sounds better" unless imaging is not important to you, but thats not the point. The point is that the cable's sonic value did indeed change post burn in. 

No need to continue as we have come to a conclusion on that. 

But for the sake of due diligence we are continuing on with comparing the cable I currently have with the MA cable now that the MA cable is burned in. 

Now for other news:

This has been a very worthwhile experiment because I have discovered some other things about my system. 

One of the things we are measuring is noise. I will touch on this briefly because we are ready to actually do the next comparison. So between the two cables the MA cable is quieter. Seems to be better shielded. Running the volume up past zero DB on my pre-amp volume control I start getting interference with the AQ cable around +2DB the MA cable I don't get noise until about +4 DB. That is considerable. Thinking back on another post that someone else made either on this topic or another topic I started called "Bright or Dim" someone said that LED lights are notorious for noise. I have a LED light over my TT. After unplugging that light I was able to get zero interference that I could hear with the volume all the way up on both cables, but the MA cable was able to shield the interference at higher volumes than the AQ cable. Needless to say that light is coming out of my room. 

Chad soon. We have some more work to do. 

please excuse any typos Im getting tired and to lazy to proof this. 

-Keith
barnettk OP
410 posts
 
Oh by the way the blind reel to reel test I randomly moved the tape to and from both sides of the tape without him knowing which half he was listening to. Just in case you were wondering. We did this for 6 different cycles. 
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