Does Power Cord Require Burn-In To Sound Good?

I actually sort of envy people who can't tell the difference between lamp cord and a given $1500 power cable. Fortunately for me, I can't seem to tell the difference between the $1500 and the $5000 cable (except the price) of the same brand and similar construction. I guess you can count me as a reluctant believer that cables (and yes, break-in) might make a difference for you. Just listen and decide for yourself.

I say might, because what struggling through this pathetic thread illustrates is that many people can't - or perhaps won't - hear the difference. And they're apparently pissed off about it.

(The Cable Company will let you borrow cables to try so that you don't get stuck with something you can't use and can't return. And I'm just a happy customer of theirs, no business interest.)

@audio2design-      "Not sure who you think you are fooling with this?"      "....with some hard numbers what your claimed dielectric impacts would be on a power cord....."       Are you actually that obtuse?       I’ve, "claimed" nothing (hence: nothing to prove).       I’ve only pointed out that POSSIBILITIES exist, regarding those scientifically established (measurable and repeatable) changes that dielectrics go through, when an electric field is introduced.      Obviously; you’ve a serious problem with comprehension.     Then again: it’s probably that fevered, religious fervor, that has has your uneducated brain in turmoil.

You know what happens when we were recording and we detected a faulty power cord? We replaced it then shut the studio down for 2 weeks.

Sorry bit of professional humor. We replaced it. No one noticed. Usually it was replaced due to damage/safety not actually failing and we replaced with new. Generally heavy duty as they took a lot of abuse. Then again could be just that the artist forgot the power cord to their amp, synth, etc. Never once do I remember them insisting they had to run/fly home and get their own cord (or let it sit for several days).


Now obviously recording and playback are not the same but the people who make your music don’t fret over this, don’t even give it a thought actually (except hum and noise). For live recordings the equipment including orders of magnitude more sensitive microphone cables were probably set up that day or if lucky the day before and no one gave any thought to the power cords on mic preamps, mixer boards, amps, etc.

Oh, contacts ... That's where problems existed most of the time. Contact cleaner/enhancer is your friend and sometimes tools to fix a bent pin.

Leave your DAC on 24/7. Any DAC will sound better this way.

except a tubed dac...