Beware of the cable claiming long burn in period.

Why didn’t you return the cable before the return time period had lapsed if you didn’t like the cable?

If the digital cable is a coax with RCA or BNC plugs just for the heck of it flip it end for end. Listen to it after reversing it and listen again after a few hours of signal passing through it. Good chance it will sound different. Hopefully better to your liking.



.

If the OP had a return privledge which seems to the case based upon his representation hear then his failure, unwillingness, and resistance to returning it for a refund is obviously a problem of his own cause, inaction, and creation.

They all require long burn in times. So what’s the difference? Hel-loo! Beware the guy who tells you it sounds good right out of the box.

I disagree with Geoff on ’all require long burn in time’ Some cables do sound decent or OK right out of the box, and some sound OK withing a few hours of play. However I do agree even those may/do get better after a long period of use.
So for cables which just sound terrible right off. I would say give them at least 24 hours and a good percentage of initially bad sounding cables will get a lot better after 24 hours of use. Sadly some do not.
For myself I would NOT keep a cable that take weeks to sound any good. First off if it is not used a lot, (later on) it will revert back to sucking. So IMO why bother to keep it around??
One cable in particular that sucks out of the box is Kimber Hero. When I bought a 7 meter XLR and plugged it in, it was terrible .etched and grainy and shrill. My immediate feeling as to take it out and return it. However I gave it a day.. and by day two (left on 24/7 but not playing music) it was much better. and was good enough to not return. That cable over the years I used it just was better and better (though when I replaced it with a Kimber KS1116 which cost 4 times the price of the Hero, it was immediately obvious the Hero have been a lot more veiled ..Plus the KS1116 was great from the moment it was plugged in. ((The seven meter KS1116 was drop shipped from Kimber, directly and may have been broken in by them prior to sending it? I have no idea yes or no)) (also prior to the Hero, I had used Kimber PBJ for the 7 meter run, and back then, I never noticed any change but I was not looking for any, also it eas the fist time I arranged the large gap from preamp to amp... so no basis to compare the sound.)