Tape test results:
1. Everyone that listened to the recording I made agree that the second half of the tape (post burn in) definitely sounds better than the first half (pre burn in). To me it was not even close, and to not repeat everything I said in my first post about my findings (you can read for yourself if you like) the outcome was exactly the same for me. One of the participants did not even feel it was necessary to do a blind listening test but I insisted that we be thorough. So Instead of me doing the listening I ran the reel to reel. I had them leave the room and positioned the tape to one half of the song, and zeroed the tape counter had them return to the room and played a section of the tape. This is an audiophile friend of mine and we agreed on the criteria in which to listen for. The criteria we came up with was: Imaging, dynamic range, and overall SQ. However the imaging is what he clued in on each time and was able to properly determine pre burned in vs burned in each of the 6 times. Now this does not necessarily constitute "sounds better" unless imaging is not important to you, but thats not the point. The point is that the cable's sonic value did indeed change post burn in.
No need to continue as we have come to a conclusion on that.
But for the sake of due diligence we are continuing on with comparing the cable I currently have with the MA cable now that the MA cable is burned in.
Now for other news:
This has been a very worthwhile experiment because I have discovered some other things about my system.
One of the things we are measuring is noise. I will touch on this briefly because we are ready to actually do the next comparison. So between the two cables the MA cable is quieter. Seems to be better shielded. Running the volume up past zero DB on my pre-amp volume control I start getting interference with the AQ cable around +2DB the MA cable I don't get noise until about +4 DB. That is considerable. Thinking back on another post that someone else made either on this topic or another topic I started called "Bright or Dim" someone said that LED lights are notorious for noise. I have a LED light over my TT. After unplugging that light I was able to get zero interference that I could hear with the volume all the way up on both cables, but the MA cable was able to shield the interference at higher volumes than the AQ cable. Needless to say that light is coming out of my room.
Chad soon. We have some more work to do.
please excuse any typos Im getting tired and to lazy to proof this.
-Keith
1. Everyone that listened to the recording I made agree that the second half of the tape (post burn in) definitely sounds better than the first half (pre burn in). To me it was not even close, and to not repeat everything I said in my first post about my findings (you can read for yourself if you like) the outcome was exactly the same for me. One of the participants did not even feel it was necessary to do a blind listening test but I insisted that we be thorough. So Instead of me doing the listening I ran the reel to reel. I had them leave the room and positioned the tape to one half of the song, and zeroed the tape counter had them return to the room and played a section of the tape. This is an audiophile friend of mine and we agreed on the criteria in which to listen for. The criteria we came up with was: Imaging, dynamic range, and overall SQ. However the imaging is what he clued in on each time and was able to properly determine pre burned in vs burned in each of the 6 times. Now this does not necessarily constitute "sounds better" unless imaging is not important to you, but thats not the point. The point is that the cable's sonic value did indeed change post burn in.
No need to continue as we have come to a conclusion on that.
But for the sake of due diligence we are continuing on with comparing the cable I currently have with the MA cable now that the MA cable is burned in.
Now for other news:
This has been a very worthwhile experiment because I have discovered some other things about my system.
One of the things we are measuring is noise. I will touch on this briefly because we are ready to actually do the next comparison. So between the two cables the MA cable is quieter. Seems to be better shielded. Running the volume up past zero DB on my pre-amp volume control I start getting interference with the AQ cable around +2DB the MA cable I don't get noise until about +4 DB. That is considerable. Thinking back on another post that someone else made either on this topic or another topic I started called "Bright or Dim" someone said that LED lights are notorious for noise. I have a LED light over my TT. After unplugging that light I was able to get zero interference that I could hear with the volume all the way up on both cables, but the MA cable was able to shield the interference at higher volumes than the AQ cable. Needless to say that light is coming out of my room.
Chad soon. We have some more work to do.
please excuse any typos Im getting tired and to lazy to proof this.
-Keith