Burn In speakercable

[JE]

Hi,

Can anyone explain me why I should burn in speakercables? Instructions about burning in can be found at Bruce Brisson's DIY Audio Cables (Do-It-Yourself) - Kits for Speaker Cables, Power Conditioners, Audio and Subwoofer Interconnects.

As far as I am concerned, a cable is just a piece of copper with insulation, in which nothing changes if you burn it in (except if you use high currents and a cable gets hot, which is not normal for audio purposes).

Greetings
Jan-Edwin

[SY]

Do it if it makes you feel better. There is absolutely zero evidence, measured or subjective, that "burning in" a cable does anything other than keep the audiophile busy for a while. That doesn't prevent lots of people from claiming that it's efficacious, but those claims do beg the question of "is it in the wire or in the head?"

[trd1587]

I Think that when they form the solid billet or block of copper, they have to burn it beforehand! Afterwards they stretch it into cables.

So It has already been done, no need to think about it anymore.
LOL

[chris661]

I wouldn't listen to that website.
Bottom line is, I think, that your electons move quicker through his bits of copper than anyone else's bits of copper...

Saw a really good one here...
The arrows on the cable indicate the direction of signal flow — the net
work box closest to the destination. (Reversing the direction will affect the
sonic performance of the system!)

Some great laughs on here... http://www.diyaudiocable.com/pdf/diy...structions.pdf

See what you think.
Chris

PS, maybe you should pass DC through the wires, to replace the old electrons............

[Mooly]

I cringe when I see and hear folk say that cables, opamps, transistors etc have to "burn in"

My general thoughts,

Speakers... they are mechanical and the properties must alter with use. The movment of a mid or hf cone is so small though that any effect here is marginal.

Capacitors... electroylitics are a chemical device, so again properties alter. I usually charge new ones up to the rated voltage via a resistor and discharge via same to "form" them. And that's that.

Semiconductors... don't alter there properties.
Resistors... as for semiconductors.


Question... to all those that "believe" in burning in. Why do you always think the "sound" gets better. Why not worse ?

[godfrey]

Originally Posted by chris661

PS, maybe you should pass DC through the wires, to replace the old electrons............

Careful, Chris - some of 'em might take you seriously!

[chris661]

Would be interesting to read reports of audiophiles trying it, then cooking their amps by connecting one end of wire to a + and - on their amp, trying to get rid of old, tired electrons, replacing them with brand, shiny new ones.

[Mooly]

As strange as it sounds
In idle bored moments I have "wondered" on the audible effect, if any, of introducing a very low amplitude high frequency "bias" to the amp output terminals. Perhaps around 200khz, pure sine at less than 100mv. The zobel network and output inductor would block it's entry into the amp.

[wwenze]

Originally Posted by Mooly

Question... to all those that "believe" in burning in. Why do you always think the "sound" gets better. Why not worse ?

Oh yes! I was waiting for somebody to say that.

And I wonder at which point will "burn-in" become "burn-out" - 150 hours of burn-in time sounds too long, and I've seen people being proud of their 300, 500, even 1000-hour burnt-in gear when selling second-hand.

My gear has been on almost 24/7 for more than a year now, at 365 x 24 = 8760 hours I'm worried the PSU caps won't last.

[scott wurcer]

Originally Posted by Mooly

Question... to all those that "believe" in burning in. Why do you always think the "sound" gets better. Why not worse ?

It begs the general difference/preference question. The $10,000 cables "always" sound better than the $100 ones, no matter what makes them $10000.