1. Home
  2. cables
  3. 137172-115924

Cable Burn In

I'm new here and new to the audiophile world. I recently acquired what seems to be a really high end system that is about 15 years old. Love it. Starting to head down the audiophile rabbit hole I'm afraid.

But, I have to laugh (quietly) at some of what I'm learning and hearing about high fidelity.

The system has really nice cables throughout but I needed another set of RCA cables. I bit the bullet and bought what seems to be a good pair from World's Best Cables. I'm sure they're not the best you can get and don't look as beefy as the Transparent RCA cables that were also with this system. But, no sense bringing a nice system down to save $10 on a set of RCA cables, I guess.

Anyway, in a big white card on the front of the package there was this note: In big red letters "Attention!". Below that "Please Allow 175 hours of Burn-in Time for optimal performance."

I know I'm showing my ignorance but this struck me as funny. I could just see one audiophile showing off his new $15k system to another audiophile and saying "Well, I know it sounds like crap now but its just that my RCA cables aren't burned-in yet. Just come back in 7.29 days and it will sound awesome."
n80
andy2
484 posts
 
The accusation that "burn - in" is more psychological than real only works for the average buyer since he mostly likely purchase a pair of cables and has rely on his memories to tell the difference when he bought it brand new and now.

But this accusation does not work for cable manufacturers because they have a bunch of them lying around - some brand new, some has been used for awhile.  So there is no need to recall any "memories" since they can compare side by side brand new cables and old cables.  So if they can hear the difference then there is such thing as "psychological".
Cable manufacturers has nothing to gain by this.  If you bought a cables and it sucks, you call the manufacturer, they tell you to wait until so and so hours.  If after that it still sucks, then they got nothing to gain, because it's still suck.  
elizabeth
6,726 posts
 
"Leading edges of notes..." yup. Cardas Parsec seems to sweeten the very tippy tip of the beginning of notes when it was with my VAC Standard.. How is not mine to know or explain. Just to verify Yup, happens. I sent back an expensive pair of cables since they sucked.  No amount of dealer saying 'let them break in' mattered.Then the Stereophile AND TAS raved about DAC. sent that packin too. But cable break in? yes. heard it. Many times. The strange one is Duplex break in. What a freaky roller coaster.
blueranger's avatar
blueranger
575 posts
 
In another forum this could be a debate about the existence of Bigfoot. The UFO phenomena. Ghosts. Religion. What ever people have beliefs in. The human senses are quite extraordinary. Digital photography has yet to capture the resolution that the eye can see with our 20/20 vision. 
The human ear is limited to 20-20 at best. I do believe there 
are parameters our scientific instruments cannot measure in the sonic realm. Its not cut and dry. To be fair a human is not infallable. We cannot be calibrated like an instrument. However with that being said the cable burn-in phenomena is real. Too many people have experienced just to dismiss It. Quick AB test are inaccurate. You have to listen for long periods at a time to pick out differences.
Cable burn-in can't be scientifically proven with our primitive instruments. They are the best we have with our current technology. Coming full circle it goes back to our beliefs. Do you believe we have discovered everything? All the physics of electrical current. If you think we have its your opinion. This debate won't be settled anytime soon. I'm getting sleepy. Carry on. 



geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
14,147 posts
 
Blueranger
The human ear is limited to 20-20 at best. I do believe there
are parameters our scientific instruments cannot measure in the sonic realm. Its not cut and dry. To be fair a human is not infallable. We cannot be calibrated like an instrument. However with that being said the cable burn-in phenomena is real. Too many people have experienced just to dismiss It. Quick AB test are inaccurate. You have to listen for long periods at a time to pick out differences.

>>>>The ear is limited but the human brain is not. The human brain itself is sensitive to interference and noise from a variety of sources that affect our hearing, e.g., RFI/EMI and subtle conscious and subconscious influences of our physical surroundings and emotional and mental state. News flash! Our perception of sound is not (rpt not) completely based on what goes into the ears. We can be easily distracted, even consciously. For example if someone is conversing with us we may not hear the sound at all, or only as background, I.e., phase lock loop effect.
blueranger's avatar
blueranger
575 posts
 
You hit the nail on the head. Ears are like the microphones and our brains are like the tape recorders in the studio. Oh well maybe not a good analogy. Steve Guttenberg in on of his youtube videos predicts that in the future we won't be listening to music by our ears but the music will be fed directly into our brains for ultimate fidelity!!
More to discover