Cable Break In for the Naysayers

Not sure I have written about this here but I have plenty of experience in test gear use as spent 20 years in the US Navy as first a Data Systems Tech then it was merged with Fire Control Tech and re-titled that. The most complex gear I worked on, one out of two left still in use, no training on it, cannot say to much but it had a large number of critical circuits that the block diagram was 20 pages long. The most important aspect took 4 scope probes to look at and if dialed in according to specs which was very difficult and hugely time consuming to do, the whole system did not work well and it was absolutely critical to the operation of the whole battle group. What did work, tuning it by ear, then it was so good we broke ever record of reliability by a far margin. 

 Testing is good, great in fact, it just does nor cannot measure everything we can hear (or otherwise sense) but maybe someday gear will be invented than can do so.

 Those that refuse to believe we may not yet know everything we think we do might one day be surprised to learn there really are tooth fairies, not saying I believe there are but if so I bet they would not call themselves that:)

Rick

I don't understand it and therefore the phenomenon of "break-in" doesn't make sense to me, except perhaps with speakers.  But nonetheless, I have perceived a difference between when I first hooked cables up and ran them for 50 or 100 hours.  So who knows.  As with all of these debates, it does seem reasonable to say that if it sounds different, it should measure different, either on a scope or REW or something else.  But I am surprised that no one has formally organized a true double blind test as suggested above, with some from each side of the cable debate and a couple of neutrals. I would be very interested to see the results of that  experiment!

As a beta tester for a boutique cable manufacturer, I wouldn't listen to a cable without 24 hours of break-in.  Certainly significant differences can be heard immediately.  There was often a significant change of character between new and broken-in cables, mostly better but sometimes worse, emphasizing a negative change.  Professional cabling less significant, especially balanced cables. 

To those who claim only speakers require break-in, NO!  phono cartridges (maybe other than DC Audio systems) require break-in of 20 to 100 hours to optimize the suspensions, just as in dynamic cone speakers.  My numerous Dynavectors and Benz cartridges-50 hours then, wow!

ozzy

Thank You for the follow up. Agreed, You will want to use a full loom of AQ cables/cords with the Niagara Power Conditioner. Synergy is key.

Happy Listening!

fleschler,

Thank you for your post. I never claimed to be able to explain cable breakin. But it is apparent to those who care about the final outcome.

Phono cartridges hmmm. Amazing, thank you.

Just to get the deniers more riled up (just kidding) but I found the Critical Mass footers also had a breakin period of about a week.

ozzy