Does cable burn in happen in phases?

[Dinkydau]

The mystery is still unsolved but I have some new ideas.

Similar question: does settling happen in phases? I'm starting to think my problem is related to movement of the cables. I had already read about the well known fact that vibrations reduce sound quality, so I made sure that the spikes under my speakers are all touching the ground (well, spike shoes) equally. Next I put my amp and DAC on sponges, which gave a much bigger improvement than I expected. It was immediately noticeable. Then I placed the speaker cables on simple homemade cable risers made out of sticks. Most people do that so it must be a good practice. I just want to rule out any possible causes.

So even if unrelated, at least it helps to isolate equipment, or does it? I somewhat doubt whether the sponges caused the change, or just the fact that I moved the cables. That's because thus far I have always noticed that immediately after connecting a cable, the sound is at least okay and then changes for the worse (sharpness). I have noticed this with all speaker cables, even with the cheapest of cables and speakers.

I have paid very close attention to what exactly is happening to the sound since 6 days ago, which is when I last touched the cables. High frequencies are too loud, but that's definitely not all there is to it, because it can not be corrected with equalizers (I tried, using the program equalizer APO for windows). There is an aggressiveness to it, even in the lower frequencies, but it's more annoying in the high frequencies. It kinda sounds like the cables resist changes in volume, which makes fast sounds like bells remain at their peak volume for too long. As the peak is supposed to be very short, it makes the sound way too loud. It also works the other way around: attack appears slightly delayed, as if the cables resist the volume going up.

In addition to what I described previously (harsh, bad imaging, no microdynamics) what is also typical is a lack of warmth in the bass. Bass is there and can be loud but it doesn't fill the room. Also the bad sound is forward. When the sound is good, everything appears to be more in the background, further away.

How the sound changes: I have heard multiple times a very high pitched screech (probably inaudible to older people), immediately followed by an increase in clarity. It may be a big increase or a small increase, and I can confirm it does sometimes (always?) affect only one channel. After that the quality slowly becomes worse again, and the cycle repeats.

It won't be long before I give up with these cables, but since the vibration adjustments there has been a general trend of improvement. If it takes much longer I will revert to my cheap cables and then it will be interesting to see if any variation occurs with those over a longer period of time. I'm still pretty sure it's related to the cables because I have tried two amps, and I can 100% rule out the DAC and interconnect because I can switch the DAC without touching the equipment (from my audiolab DAC to the one integrated in the amp).

 

[Dinkydau]

Cable burn in....... If you can explain such a phenomenon in mathematics or physics, I'd be glad to recommend a time interval.......
Electro-mecanical devices do have a break-in period, for example a phono cartridge has moving parts that change with use. Tube require a certain temperature to function appropriately and wires inside wear out due to thermal cycling. However, a piece of wire that all it does is carry a very small amount of current has no physical change during operation. It will work exactly the same from the day it was made to hundreds of year till it corrodes or is otherwise damaged.

Everything causes physical change. Just the cable existing already causes it to change. Particles have half lifes. There's background radiation. Footsteps and earthquakes cause movement. Movement is a significant change right? Electricity also applies some force. The heat causes the cable to expand. Everything in this word is constantly changing, so the question is whether those normal changes are audible. I'm not sure. I just know that a lot more is audible than typically believed. Side note: burn in is usually attributed to interactions with the insulation material, so it's not just about metal and electricity.

 

[Dinkydau]

I found the cause. After removing the plugs: much more powerful bass and overall a thicker sound. It has never been like this, even when I would call the sound good. It's interesting that it could still sound so good sometimes with a (I assume) loose contact.

 

[Maril555]

I found the cause. After removing the plugs: much more powerful bass and overall a thicker sound. It has never been like this, even when I would call the sound good. It's interesting that it could still sound so good sometimes with a (I assume) loose contact.

What do you mean by “removing the plugs”?

 

[Dinkydau]

Unscrewing them and connecting the bare wire. That fixed it. By the way, one of the wires broke off when I did that and that also happened a few times when I connected the plugs the first time. I don't know how people do this properly but I won't be trying it again. Next time I will buy a complete cable with warranty. Audio is too sensitive to DIY this if you don't know what you're doing.

 

[Maril555]

Unscrewing them and connecting the bare wire. That fixed it. By the way, one of the wires broke off when I did that and that also happened a few times when I connected the plugs the first time. I don't know how people do this properly but I won't be trying it again. Next time I will buy a complete cable with warranty. Audio is too sensitive to DIY this if you don't know what you're doing.

Thank you, I presume you are talking about speaker cables?

 

[Dinkydau]

Yes, see the first post of the thread. It's audioquest rocket 88.

 

[Dinkydau]

It's still not entirely stable so there must have been multiple causes. Since removing the plugs, overall the quality has been better, including better imaging. This also makes it possible to hear more clearly what the remaining problems are. One of which is probably settle time, as I have had it happen multiple times now that it really takes at least a full week for these cables to stabilize after having been handled. (Isn't that ridiculous?) The problematic sound during settling is harshness and lack of microdynamics which comes and goes. The harshness still sounds like a resistance to volume change as I said earlier - the music doesn't flow - but it also kinda sounds like noise to me this time, as if there is energy buildup in the cable while it is resisting chance, after which the energy is released as high frequency noise. It's been good for a few days now but I can still hear it sometimes, or maybe it's something else at this point.

So I have an indication that settle time is about as serious as burn in. I've read an experience elsewhere that was the same: after burn in with a cable cooker it still took 2 weeks to burn/break in in the system. I think that's just settle time. The burn in is something else, which is responsible for depth/layering in the soundstage. I didn't have that at first. Even my cheap cables had better layering. This improved enormously with cooking, and has remained since. During settle time, the depth is still there.

Electricity is probably also still a cause. I've tried many different orders of equipment and filters to find out what works best. It matters, but what matters more than order is just having all these filters. The more the better. What I have right now (this is the order in which everything is plugged in):
ifi ipurifier
ifi powerstation (with integrated ipurifier) containing:
computer on a cheap emi filter from aliexpress
ifi ipurifier
2×puron
amplifier
DAC

Some remarks:
- Electricity filtering helps against a confusing sound, where dynamics and direction are imprecise. Some harshness is also taken away, but the harshness from a settling cable is worse.
- The emi filter helps the computer, making the soundstage more believable, but it hurts the performance of the DAC and amp. I was not surprised because many people say serial filters restrict dynamics. That's what it did sound like with the DAC and amp.
- Sound quality is now good enough to notice the difference between USB cables*. This, together with the fact that filters help with the computer, indicates there's noise going from the computer to the DAC. A signal regenerator may help.
- This order goes against a recommendation by ifi to plug digital devices into the powerstation last (furthest away from the integrated ipurifier). It really sounds better this way, having the computer plugged in first. I guess it's because the computer already benefits from multiple filters this way, and the audio devices (which need filtering the most) get all of that plus the effect of purons.

Sorry is this thread is becoming too much of a blog, but I want to post this information somewhere. It's really difficult to figure out how all of this works, there's a lot of contradicting information and it's hard to be sure of anything, so any experience (mine in this case) is raw data from which hypotheses can be formed.

 

[MarkusBarkus]

...as a point of info, the Masterbuilt cables I bought this summer came with a doc suggesting (among other general handling tips) the cables be occasionally wiped-down with a clothes-dryer anti-static sheet, resulting in a "significant improvement." Don't shoot the messenger, I'm just reporting the info! Have not yet tried this, but my environment is not very dry.