Power Cable Break In - Such a Change!

@holmz-

      Bear with me a minute, in my folly, far as a possibility on why a power cord might make a difference.

      Based on some of the theories on how electricity works, simplified:

      The conductor acts as a waveguide for the signal/voltage.

      Within the conductor: when excited by an AC current, electrons oscillate, generating photons/electromagnetic waves that travel, always from the source, to the load.

       Keep in mind: all signals (ie: music, AC) are sinusoidal  waves

       Those photons/electromagnetic waves travel through and outside the dielectric, which (according to it's permittivity/Poynting vectors) will have various effects on those waves.    One of the most obvious, is the dielectric's effect on the speed of the signal.

      The better designers of printed circuit boards, even take the above into account, when choosing materials for their products.

       I posted a link on the first page, that included data on the manufacture of semiconductor chips and what was observed when materials were cryo'd, during process.     Short version: better contact/lowered resistance between layers.

          Under the scanning microscope: much smoother surfaces observed.

       I would hope, by now, it's a given that various cable constructions, twists, braids, etc, can make for a cleaner transmission of signals (ie: Litz, etc).            

        Just seems to me (a hypothesis): given the above (some theories and some things established/measured/proven), it's not a big stretch to believe a power cord, built of the best conductor (Ohno CC silver), wrapped in a very low dielectric coefficient dielectric (ie: Teflon), cryo'd for the smoothest transfer of those photons/magnetic waves and twisted in some crazy way, might not smooth out some of preturbations/noise, from the crap an AC waveform had to go through, back to it's generator.  (run-on, much?)

       I haven't tested this, actually comparing two circuits, but: it wouldn't surprise me, if a power supply that used a choke, would be less affected by a better power cord, as the former can eliminate a lot of the high freq garbage, etc, that's either created by, or makes it through all the big converting/filtering stuff, before.

       Never thought about PCs before the good stuff hit the market, but: the Physics/QED made sense.

            I tried 'em, I like 'em and the science makes my head feel better.

                              Don't care WHAT it does to anyone else's!

     OH, and: it takes some time for the dielectric to form, take a charge, polarize, or however one chooses to define the process, when a dielectric is subjected to electromagnetic waves, which affects the Poynting vectors, measurably/predictably.

              The lower the material’s dielectric constant: the longer that takes.

                                               PC burn-in?    Maybe?

Perhaps there is no current viable device that will measure our sonic preference? I mean all we have is Ohms law. If you're hearing and your system is transparent enough, most people will be able to detect the differences. Why such a denier? Try it.

I might.

 

OH, and: it takes some time for the dielectric to form, take a charge, polarize, or however one chooses to define the process, when a dielectric is subjected to electromagnetic waves, which affects the Poynting vectors, measurably/predictably.

              The lower the material’s dielectric constant: the longer that takes.

At 60Hz, that is a huge time.

I can abide that speaker cable playing the 1kHz or 10-20 kHz can do all that, but 60Hz is very low.  

Maybe being on 50Hz makes it less of a problem?

@wesheadley 

...you have just entered the land of confirmation bias ...

Which inevitably leads to the sea of cognitive dissonance.

Is there any other hobby that makes more wildly unprovable claims than this one?

Yes. Electric guitars and tonewood. That myth has been busted many times, but is still going strong.

I’m not going to say there is no such thing as "burn in" but there is no physics that says a copper wire will change with low levels of current flowing through it for 300 hours. Hot things, such as tubes, will certainly change. Anything that glows is undergoing metalurgical changes that hopefully will mostly stabilize, hopefully for a long period of time.

But if you were a seller and had a buyer thinking about returning an item, any item, even a rock or a nail that he just bought, if you could convince him that it will get better if he sits with it for 300 hours, that will greatly reduce the risk that he will return it.

And "audiophiles" have pretty much posted all over the internet that they will believe the "burn in" theory for any and all components.

Make your own decisions but I will suggest that you don’t believe eveything you see on the internet. Make sure you read the last line:

Jerry