Cable Break-in....again?

C5150, I enjoyed your trancendental view of this hobby. I smell a new book in there somewhere!

As for cables, my understanding as a result of reading many interviews with various cable manufactures, and studying the explanations of engineers and scientists comes down to this:

1.) Cable break-in matters.
2.) It matters because it "improves" (I'm not clear how) the boundry or junction between the conductor and the insulation (dilectric).
3.) And sometimes, (depending on metallurgical issues) it improves (maybe degrades, God forbid!?) the signal carrying characteristics of the conductors.

Cables may need to be broken-in again if:

4.) They've been out of service for a very long time (like six months or more) but this won't require more than a few hours. Not a hundred or more like when new.
5.) If you change their orientation relative to the signal flow, or change the polarity of their connections (which amounts to the same thing, and would most likely apply to speaker cables.) NB: I don't understand the science behind this, but it's been repeated many times (does that make it true?) Also, this re-burn-in (they say) requires almost as much time as the original burn-in did.

My personal take is that except for power cords, most audio cables including speaker cable (and certainly tonearm cable!) don't carry enough current to modify anything very much at the molecular level (I suppose there are exceptions of which I'm blissfully unaware.) So unless you are willing to invest in a cable cooker or cable cooker service, I sincerely believe that the signals normally generated in an audio system are too weak to have a significant effect on the molecular structure of the cables that carry them. OK, have at me ;~))

Another point might be that used cables that were once burned in on the original components may have to be re-burned in on whatever gear they are now connected to so that the electrons can optimize & maximize their signal transfer between these new components.

This is the best reference that I have found for cable break-in. Check all the other theories that George has on his website...

http://www.cardas.com/content.php?area=insights&content_id=12&pagestring=Cable+Break-In

Nsgarch, once again, I see that you think that signal current flows only in one direction or that the polarity of a signal doesn't change. Actually a signal at 100Hz changes polarity 100 times in one second. If it didn't, how would you expect the speaker to work. In fact to check for polarity of a speaker, one applies a DC voltage (of a given polarity) to the speaker terminals and notes which direction the speaker cone goes. To get the cone to go in the other direction, one must reverse the polarity. If one wants the speaker to respond to a signal of a frequency of 100hz, then I guess that the signal must reverse polariy 100 times a second. The current, of course, during all this polariy switching, reverses direction as many times. Kind of renders direction of current in cables and direction of speaker cables, silly, don't you think?
Bob P.

If your cables require break in then I would very be suspicious of either the design or the manufacturer.

There should be absolutely no scienific reason that cables driven at normal AC current levels and made of appropriate materials, such as copper, with reasonable diameter, shielding and insulator, would change their response over time. From time to time ( over months/years ) the contacts might need cleaning (due to oxidation) but that is about it!

Anyone who designs cables that require a break in must necessarily be using some materials that are not stable or fit for purpose in either the cables or the components driving them ...in essence probably a very bad cable/system design as nobody desires that the audible output drift over time.

Anyone who claims that any of the commonly used audio cables actually requres a break in period is probably deluded....most are designed to do their job and would never be driven to the kind of extremes that would cause drifts or changes in their properties.