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Do cables really need "breaking in"?

The post about whether speaker cables matter has inspired me to ask another question...do cables really need a break in period to sound their best? Some people say cables need to be broken in or played for a while before they achieve optimal sound.

This sounds to me like it was invented by believers in astrology. Isn't that break-in period just allowing time for the human listener to get used to them? Has anyone ever done an A/B test with new cables vs. used cables of the same type and noticed a difference?

All I know is that new Porsche or new bed (or new girlfriend for that matter) feels totally different after you've had it for a month versus the first day. Ever moved into a house/apartment/hotel and noticed all kinds of distracting ambient noise that seemed to disappear after you'd been there for a while. It's human nature. Even if cables needed a break-in period, how could humans tell, with all these other much more noticeable factors distracting them?
matt8268
bob_bundus
1,834 posts
 
interconnects are the most sensitive to breakin & can take several hundred hours, speaker cable not quite as long. You won't believe any of this until you hear it yourself though. I once tried to return some expensive ic's but the dealer talked me into waiting a month & I'm so glad that he did. AC cords don't seem to change much that I've noticed, but others report differently & who am I to argue?
paulwp
585 posts
 
Matt, cables do need to break in, for about 10 seconds. Consider, if cables need to burn in, what changes? And if you say they sound fine after, say 50 hours, do they stop changing by some miracle or do they keep burning out?

For those who believe in DBX tests, there have been none, zero, to prove that wires benefit from any sort of burn in. For those who prefer anecdotes, many of us have never noticed a change in a cable from brand new to broken in. Many say they have. This is one cable dispute to which I think there is an answer. You simply have to decide which group is delusional, the group that thinks nothing's changed or the group that thinks something happened.

This burn in argument offered by retailers of cables is the best argument I know of for the proposition that cables sound different from one another. If they all sounded alike, none of them would have anything objectionable about their sound to get used to during the "break-in" period.
mg123
192 posts
 
Having an old EE degree, I thought this made no sense. However, I have noticed that cables do sound better after they have sat in one place for many hours. One article suggested that the crystaline structure is under stress when bent and that after playing for many hours, the cables "relax". Try it, you'll like it.
lakefrontroad
302 posts
 
Hi Matt,

I had three sets of Stealth PGS Gold interconnects. Two xlr's and one rca. I lent all my powercords, speaker wires and interconnects to a man I sold an amp to while I was away on vacation. He wrote me a note telling me which was the newest, the next newest and the most broken in interconnects. He was correct. I had a Resolution Audio Cd55 which I installed a xlr and rca pair to the pre-amp. I would switch back and forth and the result of the switch was that the newer interconnect would always sound brighter and more brittle. After a few months they became identical.

My experience.

Bill E.
herman
2,267 posts
 
I agree with paulwp for this reason. After reading hundreds of testimonials in the usual magazines and online for several years now about the benefits of burning in cables, I have never once heard anyone say that a cable sounded worse. They ALWAYS sound better. How can that be? If they do indeed change, how can it always be for the better? If good sound consists of a synergy of all components, at least some of the time the raw sound of the cable would be more synergistic than the broken in cable. But no, they are always described as sounding better. There is no doubt that different cables sound different. But I think the effect of burn in is one of becoming accustomed to the sound of the cable.
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