Cable "burning": Real or VooDoo ???

Brulee pretty much summed up my feelings and experiences with "wire" burn in. I often use the XLO burn-in CD. BTW, where do you get the wire burn-in devices? I too am tired of running all my electronics 14 hrs. a day to burn in wires. Sean; it's pretty much been my experience that new wires are often excessively bright, sometimes to the point of glaring/smearing of mids and low treble, but smooth out considerabley with use-- bass usually tightens up too. Bob B.-- good story about the Syn. Res. ICs. As Avguy and Richard stated, and I agree, there's no point in trying to turn this thread into another whizzing contest. Cheers. Craig.

.........should have been more specific-- Brulee, Ramesh where do you get the Duo Tech burn in devices? Re: the Nordost, I'm guessing they have a website? Thanks. Craig

Sean; just gotta' add: I think your thread is good, but the title-- shall we say "a bit provocative"? IMO. I'll quit now....Craig

Josler - Leather cables are good for country western music.

I use Transparent Audio Ultra XL balanced interconnects and they are very much affected by the burn-in process. T/A says 100 hrs. which I now believe. My friend had a well used cable (same as above) and it sounded so good in my system I spent the big bucks to buy one. Couldn't have been more disappointed in the sound of the new cable. After much use in the system, usually with me out of the house, they started to break-in. The change was particularly noticeable in the treble freq. and low level detail.

FYI, I confirmed with T/A that the Cable Cooker is safe for their network boxes and based on my long and painful experience I will try to use one next time to shorten the process.

My cable now sounds like my buddy's when A/B even though they didn't when new. If it was all in my head, I could have easily said my $1775 cable was awesome, embarassed to admit I made a mistake. But the fact is it took the 80 hours or so before it sounded like anything I wanted to listen to. I have this argument with a electrical engineer friend (I'm an M.E so what do I know from electrons) and he says the same thing as posted above (electrons don't know the difference). But there are a lot of other factors in play here and I think we still don't understand all the reasons. I do believe it, though, when he tells me he can't hear the difference because a lot of people can't. My old boss once told me he couldn't hear or follow the beat of music (how white do you have to be to say that?!). Anyway, I now accept the fact that some people can't hear the difference, and Circuit City has plenty of fine equipment for them to enjoy. I, however, can hear the difference and am a tortured soul (aka audiophile) as a result.