Cable "burning": Real or VooDoo ???

I use Transparent Audio Ultra XL balanced interconnects and they are very much affected by the burn-in process. T/A says 100 hrs. which I now believe. My friend had a well used cable (same as above) and it sounded so good in my system I spent the big bucks to buy one. Couldn't have been more disappointed in the sound of the new cable. After much use in the system, usually with me out of the house, they started to break-in. The change was particularly noticeable in the treble freq. and low level detail.

FYI, I confirmed with T/A that the Cable Cooker is safe for their network boxes and based on my long and painful experience I will try to use one next time to shorten the process.

My cable now sounds like my buddy's when A/B even though they didn't when new. If it was all in my head, I could have easily said my $1775 cable was awesome, embarassed to admit I made a mistake. But the fact is it took the 80 hours or so before it sounded like anything I wanted to listen to. I have this argument with a electrical engineer friend (I'm an M.E so what do I know from electrons) and he says the same thing as posted above (electrons don't know the difference). But there are a lot of other factors in play here and I think we still don't understand all the reasons. I do believe it, though, when he tells me he can't hear the difference because a lot of people can't. My old boss once told me he couldn't hear or follow the beat of music (how white do you have to be to say that?!). Anyway, I now accept the fact that some people can't hear the difference, and Circuit City has plenty of fine equipment for them to enjoy. I, however, can hear the difference and am a tortured soul (aka audiophile) as a result.

Hi Garfish, I bought the Duo-Tech sometime in the 80s. I dont think they make them anymore. I have seen them sold on this site for $50 to $75. Great post Wehamilton!

Since i started this ruckus, i might as well add my findings to it. Thanks to those that understood where i was coming from and took the time to share their honest comments. As mentioned, i wanted to get "the straight dope" from everyone first-hand before "going to press" with what i had found.

I have both a Duo-Tech and a Mobie. Both of these devices are designed as "cable burners" for interconnects with the Duo-Tech doing double duty for speaker cables also. I purchased the Duo-Tech a few years back from someone here on Audiogon. Quite honestly, i don't know if it ever made any difference at all, but i had continued to use it on occasion. I figured that it couldn't hurt anything as it was simply applying signal to the cable. To get the most from it, i always ran the Duo Tech on the speaker cable setting for everything instead of on the Interconnect setting for interconnects, etc... I'm assuming that the "speaker" setting put out a far higher level signal as the unit would get MUCH warmer in that mode.

As to the Mobie, it makes a HUGE difference that is NOT debatable. The differences are THAT noticeable. Unfortunately, it is only designed to do interconnects with no provisions or adapters for speaker cables. All i can say is that even if you have 10,000+ hours on your interconnects, you've still never heard what they are fully capable of UNLESS you've "burned" them in at a higher voltage. I am THAT sure of this product and its' benefits. While i know that this sounds "controversial" even for the "believers" here, i was literally amazed at the differences that i noted after "Mobie-ing" some cables.

Since i had never gotten real noticeable results with the Duo-Tech, i wasn't expecting much from the Mobie. BOY, was i wrong. Cables that were hard, grainy, splashy, etc... with over 500 hours of actual use on them were WAY smoother and lush sounding after only 36 hours on the burner.

I spoke with one of the guys that helped design the Mobie recently. He told me that 30 continuous days of burning on the Mobie can make cables that were made out of "Bat Guano" sound good !!! While he recommended using the Mobie on cables for a full 30 days of burn-in, ANY time on the Mobie is better than none in my opinion.

As to the differences between the Duo-Tech and the Mobie, i guess that the Duo-Tech produces a sine wave that ramps up and down in intensity. As such, you would be better off using wideband noise or an actual music signal at a constant yet higher signal to burn in the cables as some here have done. The problem with this though is that even at maximum output levels on most line level sources, you've still only got about 2 volts of ouput going through the cables. In contrast, the Mobie uses a square wave that remains at level that is well over 5 times the level that any interconnect would see under normal use. On top of the higher intensity signal, the advantage to using a square wave is that it produces an infinite amount of harmonic energy at great amplitude. To put this into plain English, instead of just having one limited spectrum of coverage within the audio band, it is covering the primary frequency along with a multitude of ranges above it and doing it at a much higher amplitude on a constant basis.

As to the technical reasons why this works or if it can be measured with test equipment, i have NO idea. While i know that there are doubters here, all i can tell you is "don't knock it till you've tried it". I have emailed with some of the "instigators" here and hope that they are not above learning by their own trial and error.

Here's a simple test for some of you that are handy and have test equipment. This would work best if you have two identical runs of cable. This way you could "burn" one set and listen to them and then use the other set that was untreated as a point of reference.

Since some of you might have audio generators, try running a 1 Khz or lower square wave into some interconnects with a high impedance 10K - 50K ohm dummy load ( resistor ) attached. Try using the highest voltage possible, which hopefully should be AT LEAST a good 10 volts or more. Let these cables run for as long as possible and then give them a listen, comparing them to the unburned cables.

My findings are that the burned cables will be far smoother, less grainy, have better ( warmer ) tonal balance, etc.... Of course, this could be a BAD thing if your system is already "dialed in" just perfectly or if it is already on the "warm & smooth" side.

An alternative to buying a Mobie or a Cable Cooker ( a high dollar and more versatile version of the Mobie ) would be to simply make up some adapters and use an old receiver to do this with. You can use your interconnects as speaker cables ( with the use of some inexpensive adapters that you can fabricate ) and connect them to some homebrew dummy loads. Of course, you would have to make sure that the dummy loads ( resistors ) were rated for above and beyond the amount of power that you were putting into them. Simply tune in a local "hard" or "classic" rock music station and crank up the volume. Initial cash outlay should be well under $20 for all the supplies needed to do this given that most of you probably have a few spare "boat anchors" ( aka receivers ) floating around the closet or basement. If someone needed help or had questions on how to go about doing something like this, contact me via email and i'll see what i can do about coming up with some directions and a parts list to make your life easier. Sean
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Miracle Products:
For swimming pool owners, we have a "water condition". After filling your pool, it stirs up the water for several hours. You would be amazed at how the much smoother it is after being broken in. It relaxes the water molecules.

For your car: Don't use oil that hasn't been broken in! THis new device subjects the oil to real conditions for several hours before your oil change. You would be amazed at how much less grainy the oil is.

Got stiff, lazy, or jerky electrons in your cables? Our cable conditioner will get those darn electrons whipped into shape in no time. Our condition has several hours of specially designed "music for electrons". This special computer generated music will energize reluctant electrons and remind them to behave properly.

Miracle Cures: Stevemj needs a keyboard break in device. His present model is stiff, and will not respond properly to input no matter how often he gives it the finger. Data that it does transmit, is either out of context or condescending.

Perhaps instead, it is his computers chip set, and the keyboard is not at fault. The processor has never been broken in with sufficient hours of full bandwidth truth, thereby producing answers not applicable to actual human experience.

Or, the last possibility is that the devices are OK, and the operator is not broken in. This situation is very dangerous at an audio site. Postings here are required to be from people who listen to music and realize that dealing with equipment is a fact of life.

In that case, the miracle cure would consist of Stevemj turning off his computer, hooking up a set of cables, and breaking himself in at the same time as the wire. I'll bet that in less than 100 hours, his keyboard would begin to respond as accurately the other posts on this topic. If he resists, he can return to his "water conditioned" pool. I am certain he has experimented with it quite a lot, as he is certainly all wet.