Interconnect Break In?

Explain please @ozzy 

if the cd player is playing it outputs signal thru the interconnects. If you don’t hear it because the preamp is off it doesn’t mean the signal isn’t flowing. 
If a tree falls in a forest and no one’s around to hear it, does it make a sound?

Audiphile1,

Yes, it does!

If you do not connect the wire to the battery, then how does the current flow?

Come on, you are smarter than that.

ozzy

@ozzy I stand corrected. Somehow I thought if the preamp is in standby there will be current flow because some of the circuits are kept alive in the preamp but no. I just measured the interconnects with my integrated and there’s zero magnetic field when it’s in standby. You are correct sir! 

Well, if Ozzy and Audphile1 agree, I'm sold. Thank you for the insights. 

Tent- That sounds like the way to go. With WFH  and weekend listening I get a good 25+ hours/week and the cables already sound good. Thanks.

GB McLeod- Fortunately these aren't Nordosts, so the break in is less excruciating than what your went through.

PHD/GHD/Mark2000/Z-lone - Thank you for sharing your break-in views too. I'd add that all of this does point out the benefits of buying used cords sometimes, but in this case what I wanted wasn't available used.

Awesome thread. Thanks everyone!

A load is needed to complete a circuit for current to travel in the circuit from the source through the load back to the source. No load, no current. No current no electromagnetic fields.

Does a closed circuit exist if the preamp is powered off? I think it depends on the design of the input circuit(s) of the preamp. What type of input switching is used to switch from one input to another? The basic type is a mechanical rotary contact switch. A more complex type of switching is done with relays. With relays what is the state of the contact when the preamp is turned off? Open, Closed?

Here is a schematic wiring diagram of an older Conrad Johnson PV10 preamp. It uses a manual rotary mechanical switch to switch from one source input to another. If the connected source is a CDP and the rotary switch is set to that source input there is a load connected to the CDP output jacks. (CDP connected to preamp using ICs.)

Balance Pot (R27), Volume Pot (R28). Those are in series with (R12) that connects the circuit back to the signal ground of the input jacks. (We have a closed circuit.)

There is also another circuit load depending on where the volume Pot control was set when the preamp was shut off, powered off.

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