Burn your power cables in PROPERLY with Haglabs Frycorder


I have thousands of hours on my Nordost Heimdall2 power cables. And I put in new Gigawatt inwall wiring over 12 months ago, so hundreds if not thousands on that.

I now know I (and probably most audiophiles here) never had my power cables or power lines burned in, not even close. Because this cheap $300 product by Hagerman Audio Labs, the Frycroder2, has blown me away with only 18 hours on it so far.

A little box you just plug into the end of each power cable. It creates a series of oscillating waveforms, supposedly it burns in the power line all the way back to the first utility transformer.

Who knows if that's true, but already there is a large reduction in hash and grain, more black background e.t.c all the usual subtle things you get with burn in, but seemingly amplified 10x than normal.

I'm going to give each power cable at least 48hrs, so will take a 2 weeks to do and get a full picture after that, but already at this early stage I am a convert and Jim Hagerman is a genius.

https://www.haglabs.com/collections/break-in-devices/products/frycorder2-power-cord-burn-in-generator

agisthos

"Engineering must be based on the scientific method, and in these products, science is being disregarded."

Exactly! Science and its engineering applications are all based on measurements. How do possibly power cables burn-in? Customer feedback? This is not science... just an excuse that ridiculously over-priced cable sellers came up with. So don't miss the return deadline.

@ak749  you know that a university  education  is about opening your mind and looking at things from more than just one way . 

@retiredfarmer that’s not inaccurate but I think you might be misapplying the sentiment in this case. In the absence of tractable metrics for a process/device like this, anyone with a reasonable understanding of experimental design (and/or psychology) will acknowledge the only option is a properly controlled preference study.

No reputable university will train people to base their understandings on anecdotes, no matter how abundant an online community may profess the anecdotes to be. Understanding comes from factual evidence. Belief comes from personal experience and/or unquantifiable anecdotes. Anecdotes are not evidence, but evidence of audible difference can be sought with properly controlled preference studies, even in the absence of digital test protocol/equipment.
So it’s left up to the purveyors of such devices as “cable burn-in’ers” to test (for consumer preference). The question “Why don’t they just do it?” is begged, the true answers probably being:

(1) it’s not free of time, money and other resources,

(2) it’s possible that less-than-favorable results may be had, and

(3) why invest (1) and risk (2) if sales occur without due diligence (1 and 2)?

Yeah - who likes it when a question is used to answer another question, right? 😉


One question about consistency of design philosophy, given the alleged importance of such things as cable burn-in being sufficient to warrant Hagerman Labs developing multiple devices for the purpose, … how does burn-in affect the cheap switching power supply for the rave-reviews-phono stage Hagerman designed - the current 3rd gen model that replaced the previous inbuilt PSU-versions of the Trumpet? Advocating a flagship phono stage that’s powered by a Chinese wall wart to the same folks you’re selling “cable burn-in’ers” seems to me a double standard. What am I missing?

Disclaimer: there’s little skepticism in my mind that the Hagerman phono stage is probably great (I’m particularly partial to certain 12AX7’s, so bias be had!), and I’m not one to assume a properly matched switching PSU will audibly degrade all stereo playback components. What’s curious to me is that I usually see a pattern of folks who say (A) LPS is a must for everything x cables / burn-in is real. Folks who hold (B) cheap switching wall warts for an analogue stage being fine x cables need unmeasurable burn-in, to be simultaneous truths would, in theory, be a rare breed indeed, no?

Overthinking this, surely, but, I like to know the process behind patterns I sense. Lest the patterns not be real patterns at all. 😆

Hey, maybe this place will turn into Audio Science Review (ASR).

Wouldn't that be fun?

My stereo makes me so happy now, any change would surely be anticlimactic. I will use the energy to find new interesting music.