Can an unused cable break in?

I agree with Millercarbon's comment about 'burning' in. In my 12 years or so of playing I have always noticed (almost always) that changing gear, cords, interconnects, etc. needs to settle in for several hours if not days to calm or whatever you want to call it. 

I call it settling in, so as to distinguish it from burning in, warming up, and reaching saturation or equilibrium.

Burning in happens only once, when something is brand new. 

Settling in happens every time after something like a cable is disturbed. The more it is bent, twisted, banged around and exposed to temperature extremes the greater the difference and the longer settling in can take. This is why a cable used even for years can sound awful after shipping. Discovered quite by accident when two identical power cords were swapped. Each time the one going in sounded worse than the one coming out- but only for some minutes, after which it sounded the same. In this case settling in took only a few minutes. After shipping it could be hours.  

Warming up happens every time after something is turned off. How long it takes to warm up is totally arbitrary, because it is pretty much open-ended. The longer it is left on and running the closer it gets to saturation or equilibrium, the point at which it is pretty much done changing.  

The reason for "pretty much" is this phase lasts for hours, long enough for sound quality changes to start being affected by AC power and other daily noise cycles. 

Not that everyone will hear or notice all this. But to the extent you are at least aware this is what is going on this awareness greatly improves your odds of being able to hear it when you come across it. 

Jea48,

There is definitely an on/off push switch on the front panel of the
CD t accessible by the remote control
It could be that I have an older model.

rvpiano OP1,748 posts06-12-2021 12:17amJea48,

There is definitely an on/off push switch on the front panel of the
CD t accessible by the remote control
It could be that I have an older model.

@ rvpiano


What does the switch control? AC Mains power? Or maybe electronics power?

Age of unit?

I have an old ARCAM ALPHA 9 CDP made in the late 1990s. It has a push button on the front panel too. It doesn’t control the AC mains power to the power transformer of the CDP or possibly the DC power supply.

The ARCAM has an oversized power transformer located at the rear right hand side of the unit. The top metal cover above the transformer runs warm to the touch whether the push button is in the on or off position. There is no doubt the power transformer is energized when the power cord is plugged into the wall outlet.
.

Think about the mechanics of a Connector - i.e. ANY connector

• there are pins and there is some sort of "gripping mechanism" (normally spring loaded in some manner) to hold onto those pins once inserted
• simply inserting a plug into a socket creates an initial connection
• over time, the gripping mechanism creates a better connection

I have auditioned many cables, but I allow at least 24 hours for things to "settle", even with cables that are "broken-in"

Regards - Steve

@jasonbourne

The capacity of Humans for self-deception is apparently unlimited - Mr.Spock the Vulcan
Imagination is a wonderful thing!

Quoting a fictional character from Star Trek is, er, an imaginative move. And are you really "Jason Bourne" the action hero or is that just more of your imagination?

But I digress. These and other playground-style putdowns are not the best argument or even arguments at all. Snarky disputation doesn’t cut it on a forum where people are giving and asking for reasons.

Besides the experienced members here on Audiogon, let’s take as Exhibit B the hifi podcast from Darren Myers and Duncan from The Music Room. There, they discuss burn in, settling in, etc, in multiple episodes. These guys have been in audio their whole lives. They work with equipment every day, of many kinds, they tweak and listen to their systems constantly. They have the time, energy, acuity, and resources to keep variables stable and to compare their findings with other listeners.

On the one hand, we have two guys with experience, critical listening and skepticism as part of their job, along with engineering chops, and they hear effects such as burn in, break in, settling, isolation, etc.

On the other hand, there are snarky put downs. Um, who wins that "debate"? That’s pretty easy.

Not only do I take them at their word, for all the reasons above, I take the members here at their word about their critical experiences. The alternative would be that everyone is deluded, everyone is beholden to a kind of audio gambler’s fantasy. That, instead, is the delusion -- that everyone else is deluded.