Burn In = Voodoo?

Sam, my new CD player is a Cambridge D500 SE. I have talked a lot about it in the Digital forum. Basically, I bought it because I have been waiting for three years for this format war to be over, and in my opinion it is no more resolved today. It has a 24 bit/192 kHz DAC. I auditioned it against a Jolida 603, Linn Genki, Musical Fidelity A3 CD, NAD 540, and Rega Planet(not Planet 2000). It sounded as good, or better than the whole lot of them. I did find two superior players, but am not willing to spend that kind of money on a CD player if I will be buying again in the next year or two. Considering the opinions that some have on upsampling, a player will become a transport anyway. So, I think this is a great player for someone who needs to make a move today. Regarding break - in, it is not simply a matter of speaker cones and the metal contained in a wire(would also cover resistors). The points on annealing, stress relieving, fatiguing, etc. all changing many metal characteristics are well documented. Dielectric is ALSO changed for the better. This would be explained by the capacitors in components(amps, preamps, CD players, etc.), wire(the insulation), and speakers. The simplest test for this is to upgrade a capacitor in the signal path of your long owned speakers(on your midrange or tweeter). Simply replace a cheap cap with a much better one. You will be hugely disappointed(which caused a LOT of grief back to people making capacitor upgrades in the 80s - when the REAL good ones started coming out). Play the heck out of it for a month, and the sound WILL be much improved from the baseline. As I said, playing both of my CD players next to each other this past weekend proved to me how real break - in is. It was most definitely not a case of "getting used to the sound". The two players were both switched back and forth, via my input selector. And, having used liquid nitrogen extensively, it is not at absolute zero(I forget exactly what temperature is it at, -215F???). It is the cheapest, coldest method that is out there. That is why it is so popular. But, if you think about this theoretically, absolute zero means that there is no atomic motion. Liquid nitrogen(or ANY liquid) could therefore NEVER be at absolute zero. Nitrogen(or ANY element) would first need to become a solid, and then be further cooled to the point where atomic motion has ceased. THIS is absolute zero. And in reality, absolute zero has yet to be attained.

Jostler, would you mind doing an experiment:
Step one: Listen to your system with music, you know well.
Step two: Without detaching your wires from you gear, i.e. ic's, speaker- and power cables, lift them up, shake them vigorously, place them differently to where they were before. The greater the difference the better.
Step three: Immediatedly after that, listen to the same piece of music as before.
Step four: Tell us about what you perceived.

I agree, it has nothing to do with burning in new gear, rather with your contention, as I perceive it, that nothing happens to the wire, once it is hooked on. I don't mean to be imposing in any way, I'm just suggesting you do, what I once was told myself, because I was of the same opinion as you are now. Man, was I flabberghasted by the result.

J k thank-you for your insite and understanding of wire. The explanation you gave is the same one I've heard too, and it does indeed make sense to me.
Trelja, thank-you for your comments on absolute zero. I tend to not need alot of the physics and calc. I got in school, and absolute zero never seems to come up in design meetings. I thought I remembered it as you stated. I also thought that absolute zero is physically impossible. I thought I remembered that once atomic motion has ceased, the matter it self would fall apart. Am I wrong? J.D.

Detlof: Shaking a wire affects the sound? Come on, now. If that were true the phone company couldn't hang telephone wires in the wind. Your little experiment would prove only that I'm suggestible, which I'll admit I am. And you, my friend, sound very suggestible.

By the way, there's one case where your experiment could have a positive result. If the current placement of your wires causes some form of interference, repositioning them could alleviate that. But that has nothing to do with a physical change inside the wires.

There are molecular changes when current runs though a component or cable. There molecules do not immediately change back as soon as you turn something off. If you took a burned-in component or cable, removed it from the system and put it the closet for a couple months, you may find you need to burn it in again.