Cable Break In for the Naysayers

I am far from an expert on this, but for those that believe that science simply doesn’t support cable break-in, consider this:

The electrical signal is a flow of free electrons in the valence shell of the copper (one example) atoms.  It’s a physical flow of matter.  Because electrons are free to move relative to the nucleus of the atom it’s not unreasonable to think that the flow of electrons could alter things in the cable.  I am thinking that any interfaces in the cable could mesh/blend over time resulting in a different flow of electrons.  The connections would be a place where this could matter most and why people experience a break-in period when reconnecting cables  

My experience with cable break-in is very limited, but this is a physical phenomenon that happens with cables.  To quote myth busters, plausible at minimum.

If you hear it, it is real.

To you. 

And it would be real to anyone else who has a good system and ears...

ozzy

@ozzy , my new Audioquest Dragon Source cords (3) have just now reached the point where I cannot  hear / perceive any difference between them and the fully burned-in demo cord I had on hand along the way. They have been cooking for just over 400 hours now.  Prior to 360 hours, there was a blatantly discernible difference when I swapped in the single burned in demo cord, replacing just one of my three new cords in my system.  Yes, the difference was night and day.

I have to admit, even though I firmly believe in burn in from my past experiences (or perceptions if you prefer, I consider both terms to apply to my subjective experience), I had started to wonder if something else was at play that would explain the difference I was hearing between the new and burned in cord as of 360 hours and prior.  I was wondering if maybe the design had changed, tolerances were coming into play, etc.  But thankfully my new cord sounds equivalent to the burned in demo cord now. That is to say (here come the SUBJECTIVE descriptors) that it is more open and relaxed, the images are more solidly defined, there is a more relaxed soundstage which means that there is more depth and layering, and there is more unconstrained high frequency detail coming through, in a relaxed and gentle manner (e.g. decay on subtle cymbals are more defined now and trail off in a more 3D space without the sense that the brakes are being pumped).  There is less of a sense of restraint overall, and also I am hearing more resolution, seemingly due to less noise.

All in my head?  I was on a hike on the weekend and we passed a guy who said to his companion “Point to a tree and I’ll prove to you that it doesn’t truly exist.”  Not sure what the context was and unfortunately I didn’t stick around to hear his “proof”.  But at a certain point I need to have faith in my subjective perception of the difference between the burned in and new power cords.

nyev,

It may have taken longer to breakin because typically the Dragon Source power cords do not see the higher power demands that the Dragon Hi-Current do.

Regardless, they are great cables, Enjoy!

ozzy