Cable Break-in....again?

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.

It could be delusional to think that cables are the only part of a system that does not require break-in, but we know for sure that audio components in themselves do require this break-in period. Audio components have traces on circuit boards for the exception of point to point wiring which interconnects electronic parts (tubes transistors etc.). We know they all contribute to the final sound but do cables in themselves change during break-in & can it be proven? Who really knows for sure. Some electronic engineers can add, subtract or substitute various electronic parts (including wiring) to improve sound but admittingly can't always explain why, resorting to theories.