I hate to get in the middle of these pointless arguments where all the people that have never given a product a try deny that it could have any effect and must be snake oil simply because they can’t propose a mechanism for its action but I am going to anyhow LOL.
1) I visited Shunyata Research recently where Caelin Gabriel said that he considered burn in a fact, not a belief. He pointed out that at Shunyata they have made exactly the same cable, made by exactly the same person, and tested them at different levels of burn in and clearly and repeatably heard a difference.
2) The guys at PS Audio have also made that same claim, that they have built the same products and compared them at different levels of burn in with clearly audible differences.
3) Shunyata claims their KPIP burn in process provides such a dramatic benefit that they no longer cryo treat their products.
4) Since I was buying a loom of Ice Age power cables and saw this thread, and was familiar with the positive reviews for Hagerman’s phono stages, I decided to take advantage of their 30 day return policy and bought the Frycorder2. At $189 shipped with return privileges it seemed like a no brainer.
5) Before any burn in I put the full loom of Ice Age OFC power cables in my system and compared them to the mostly Pangea cables I had before. I heard them as being slightly different, especially in the bass, but not clearly better.
6) I bought adapters on Amazon that let me daisy chain all 5 power cables and hooked them to the Frycorder2 for 3 days. And for good measure I put them on a fan for a day and a half after that. Shunyata said that a fan was the best thing for an end user to use to burn in power cables.
7) Once again I compared the Ice Age cables to the previous set up of mostly Pangea cables going back and forth twice to confirm what I was hearing. After the burn in the Ice Age cables had improved dramatically and were clearly much better than my previous set up in all the ways we listen to. Dynamics, bass, transients, attack and sound stage were all immediately and noticeably better. Since the Ice Age cables also come with a 30 day return policy my preference would actually have been for none of this to have resulted in a positive outcome.
8) Bottom line for me is burn in is real, the Frycorder2 made a very positive change in my power cords, and the Ice Age OFC power cables are a remarkable bargain in a sea of grossly overpriced gear.
I could care less what all the naysayers think who have preconceived opinions about how something won’t work and can’t be bothered to actually test those opinions and simply assert that anybody that disagrees with them must be delusional. Go take advantage of the money back guarantees and give the products a fair trial and perform your own A/B tests. If you actually know how to listen, and yes it is a skill, and have a reasonably good system, and you still don’t hear any benefit then make a constructive post with your findings. That would actually be helpful. This blathering on about how something can’t work and must be snake oil is ridiculous without any testing with the most sensitive instrument we have, the human ear.
