Burn in is largely bull. Purely preached by marketers to leverage your unconscious bias.
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I would love to know the point in time when this concept of cable 'break-in' was foisted upon the audio public. Was it a bunch of guys in a marketing meeting, guffawing over the idea, or was it an r and d situation where a eureka moment occurred? I myself can't remember cable break-in even being a subject before about the year 2010. Anyone got a handle on the idea's history?
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@rifraf4u and others.
I was once a break in denier. I’m pretty pragmatic and I dont get too emotional one way or the other. In short, Im not invested in any particular camp. There are multiple explanations, some of which may or may not be measurable.
Electronics and tubes. These are thermal in nature and vary in duration. If you dont believe in it, thats cool. You have to admit that if you place a piece of gear in your system new, straight out of the box then it will sound better once its warmed up to operating temperature right. Well certain parts reach that temperature more slowly and retain/dissipate heat at differing durations. I’m not a believer in hundreds of hours being necessary for the gear to reach equilibrium but its real.
Cables, most of us dont pump enough voltage through them to break them in sufficiently. I thought it was voodoo. I bought a cable cooker to see. I had multiple sets of interconnects, cooked half of them, placed some in my system. Started with one channel of my system and had a friend install them with me out of the room. One channel from source through the amp and then I came in and listened. It was apparent from the first note, one channel sounded much better and the other much worse. One channel was playing with more ease, dynamics, tone and texture that I was pretty certain something was wrong with installation or gear adjustments. The next test/validation was a trick on me by my friend. I installed the complete set of cables that had been cooked and left the room to go to my garage to get something, came back to my listening room and we began to listen. Immediately I was struck by the fact that one channel was sounding bad in comparison. I began checking connections and shut down the system to check tubes, etc. He then burst out laughing…while I was out of the room, he had switched one channel back to uncooked cables without my knowledge.
Now, you can believe its real or not, doesnt much matter to me. Im not into tweaks, you wont see cable elevators or contact enhancer or funky fuses around my place. Breakin is real, the sufficient duration though can be debated. |
@ghasley, while speakers (because of a moving part) might be considered to have a burn in period- it is generally known to be short - like minutes - and usually accomplished in the factory during QA. I agree that tubes also have a 'burn' in period - but they are a continuous burn down period till failure. As for solid state, cables, et al - I think it's marking bull - and designed generally to invoke what is known as the Ikea Effect (look it up).
Show me some measurements with REW or similar to back up your claims otherwise. |
I clearly hear the difference in cables sound after they have been in my system for what we refer to as the "break in or burn in period". Like others, I cannot explain it. But I still believe that it is our ears/minds that are breaking in and becoming familiarized with the sound, and it has nothing to do with the wire itself. I wonder if persons who have cable cookers hear any change in sound at all after they put a fully cooked set of wires into their systems? |
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