Ed I asked about electrical burn-in with careful noting of humidity as a control. As far as I can see there is no evidence by experiment with controls that electrical burn-in does anything.
Ah but what brand of tinfoil will give the best combination of noise rejection and flavour retention? I'm off to blind test a King Edward
no but is the gravity tower still there?😀
We went in 1995 and took a look. Things were much more confusing then.
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But it'll cost you! Incremental improvements always do. And consider the refrigeration system required to keep the sour cream and bacon in good form
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Well adios amigos, getting back to work now.
Just received an order for 10 pallets of tin hats.
bruce
I can't measure the humidity in the capacitor. The only thing that changed from first to second measurement was the dry out.
To me it was interesting the 2nd, 4th, and 6th harmonic were most affected. So if I do a burn in and the same harmonics are affected will that indicate it is moisture that burn in affects? Also note burn in fades with time as does a dry out.
But I think it is clear that dropping the humidity in a mylar capacitor does reduce distortion.
My cable cooker just burned the pasta sauce 😡
I can't seem to get the hang of this at all, must be doing it wrong. Shame Peter Belt kicked the cryogenic bucket.
btw I hear those tinfoil hats can be a hazard, especially in stormy weather.
Live long and prosper
I can't seem to get the hang of this at all, must be doing it wrong. Shame Peter Belt kicked the cryogenic bucket.
btw I hear those tinfoil hats can be a hazard, especially in stormy weather.
Live long and prosper
So don't use mylar capacitors. Using a pathological case does not prove that burn-in in general does anything.
I don't use mylar capacitors when I can avoid it. However it does show that moisture does affect things. Not that it shows that is the effect in cables but only that one (You know who!) should not rule it out.
Currently I am burning in one half of a stereo RCA cable. It measured 28 (0 is best 50 is end of scale) on my tester for both sides. I hooked it up to a simple oscillator at 6 volts 10,000 Hz. Will wait a few days and retest.
BTY if you have 10 matched samples of a capacitor you think I should test...
Indeed, it doesn't show the effect in cables and likewise, it doesn't show that moisture removal from a hygroscopic dielectric is achievable by a small electrical signal.
So, again trying to get this back to the actual topic, there's still ZERO evidence of any efficacy of any kind of cable electrical burn-in.
You'll get a laugh out of this, just a couple of hours ago someone stopped me in the hall an mentioned that he had just wasted the afternoon trying to calibrate a cap-touch sensor with an air variable capacitor. The problem was obvious after breathing on it.
Actually the actual topic was:
"Does anyone know how to build a simple cable cooker, which can be used for speaker cables and power cord too?"
NOT "do cable cookers work?"
So unless someone has more schematics of cooker designs or more ways to use your computer then shutting the thread down might makes sense since this is all off topic
OTOH determining what is going on to better achieve the desired result if any should be on topic. The OP asked for the simplest (I assume cheapest/DIY) burn-in device that "worked". Helping someone do the same thing for $10 that someone charges $300 for is a service.
Not simplest, simple, and nothing about it "working" So we've given him some ways to do it in keeping with the burn- in products out there which is indeed a service, and I would assume by now he's also gotten the message that some people are saying that not hooking them to anything will accomplish the same result (nothing )
As author of the lone schematic posted thus far (see post #10), I will suggest another way -- a better way -- to build one. Jettison the hardware based waveform generator (2 x 555 with assorted passives) and replace it with a microcontroller and onboard software. Software implements the frequency-vs-time smearing according to your wishes and tastes. You choose fmin and fmax. You choose the frequency-ramp-up time (10 seconds?) and you choose the frequency-ramp-down time (7 seconds?). The little uC chip drives an integrated H-Bridge IC like the DMHC3025 (datasheet) which can pump more than 3 amperes into the load.
Build two complete copies of the circuit with two different current limiting resistors; Copy#1 (for "interconnects") includes a series resistor which limits current to ±250 milliamps. Copy#2 (for speaker cables and power cords) includes a different resistor which limits current to ±2.5 amperes. Notice that by having two copies you can "cook" interconnects at the same time you "cook" speaker cables. Multi-Tasking! Ooh baby.
An AC-to-DC power supply brick from a laptop computer inexpensively provides 19.5VDC at 90 watts link, more than enough to drive this contraption including a hefty airflow "gaming fan". You can even silkscreen the seductive sales-closer phrase "Anniversary Edition" onto the front panel, as audiodharma has done.
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Build two complete copies of the circuit with two different current limiting resistors; Copy#1 (for "interconnects") includes a series resistor which limits current to ±250 milliamps. Copy#2 (for speaker cables and power cords) includes a different resistor which limits current to ±2.5 amperes. Notice that by having two copies you can "cook" interconnects at the same time you "cook" speaker cables. Multi-Tasking! Ooh baby.
An AC-to-DC power supply brick from a laptop computer inexpensively provides 19.5VDC at 90 watts link, more than enough to drive this contraption including a hefty airflow "gaming fan". You can even silkscreen the seductive sales-closer phrase "Anniversary Edition" onto the front panel, as audiodharma has done.
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Attachments
Yes humor for the day.
Mark I suggested using existing equipment.
BTY tomorrow I should have a measurement on the cable I have in break in to compared to the other side.
The capacitor measurements I think show that there can be changes in a dielectric contrary to some opinions. The open issue is does a break in circuit do that. So I'll be curious to see what I get.
Next I'll try 10 cables out of the box, with a break in then dried.
Also should be able to compare capacitors fresh vs broken in.
Not exactly the question but certainly related.
Why would anyone need a schematic? If you have an AMPLIFIER on hand (and a test signal source) you already have all the tools at your disposal you will ever need to burn in a cable (or even a mylar capacitor). No need to build or buy additional hardware. Try the obvious first.
If you really want to "burn in" a power cable, you could run a 50 or 100 amp load through it (like your AC or electric furnace). That burn in would probably be noticeable - as the connectors oxidize. Seriously. I had a small space heater for my shop that I bought when the window unit failed a few years back. Ran it on a brand new 6 foot #14 extension cord. It ran stone cold for the first few months of its life, but at the end of the season the connectors would run quite warm. Sustained use at high current definitely caused a change - and not for the better.
Interesting to me that telephone companies, who have used miles of cable for ~100 years, never noticed that call quality or data (bit error?) rates improved with burn-in. They do have length-related issues that audiophiles would never dream of.
If you want to burn in cables, there are any manner of unsafe mains-related ways of doing it. Why not just use an old amp and a big power resistor on the far end (whether in a chassis or whatever) and play a sweep tone?
If you want to burn in cables, there are any manner of unsafe mains-related ways of doing it. Why not just use an old amp and a big power resistor on the far end (whether in a chassis or whatever) and play a sweep tone?
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