What Do You Do To Break In Your Cables?
- Thread starter jap
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Nice essentially the same setup as the Cable Cooker. I don't know anyone who found cooking their tonearm cables was a waste of time.
I have used Alan's audio dharma cable cooker for over a year now. I was a skeptic but thought I'd give it a try. It works. Main advantage is a lowering of the noise floor an increase in transparency which also helps dynamics and ability to hear into the recording. It's not subtle. Used it on tonearm wiring, ICs, speaker cable and various parts. Yes, it also makes a difference when you "re-burn" 6 months later although it's much less pronounced than the first time. Tone arm wiring was less impacted for me as I believe the Triplanar folks already use it for burn in. What was most beneficial was breaking in my Maggy 3.6 internal custom speaker crossover which employs very big Duelund caps and inductors. This was the main reason I bought it. After 500 hours of regular play with the new custom XO, my system was still closed in, somewhat opaque, and not very dynamic. I actually longed for the stock XO to be back in again. Had I spent $5K for nothing? That's when I resorted to the AD. A full week later on the cable cooker totally transformed it!
It was also instructive to burn-in interconnects and speaker wire that had been in my system for several years as it still made a noticeable difference. I concluded that music signals are not as effective as the cooker for break-in no matter what the regular playing time.
It was also instructive to burn-in interconnects and speaker wire that had been in my system for several years as it still made a noticeable difference. I concluded that music signals are not as effective as the cooker for break-in no matter what the regular playing time.
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I actually used the Cable Cooker to burn in Dueland caps before Charlie installed them in the King-Cello. Also would seem to be of great usefulness to say burn in those Teflon coupling caps and save 500 hours of wear and tear on the tubes. Would be interesting to somehow do a comparison of Cooker vs untreated caps. Sure Alan has done this.
Also seems that one might consider treating cables before upgrading.
Not to take money out of Alan's pocket but audio clubs might buy a cooker or two and lend it out to members.
I have to confess that I have never cooked a cable other than playing music through them as part of the normal setup. If I had a cable cooker I would give it a try or if I was so old that I wouldn't buy green bananas I would certainly buy one.
OK so has anyone noticed any differences when burning in silver, silver plated or copper cables?
From the FryCorder owners manual:
Duration- Empirical testing has led to the conclusion that most wiring achieves break-in after
two or three days of continuous burn. Silver conductors seem to take twice as long as copper.
As my mother said, if you don't have anything good to say (or in this case add to the discussion), then say nothing.
That agrees with what I have heard. I've just gone through a series of auditioning around eight cables for a phono cable survey. Some were copper, some were copper/silver plated and some were silver. The silver had never been treated (but had seen significant playing time) and I was ho-hum about its sound. Some good points, some bad points. But it still sounded like silver. The all silver cable definitely took longer to break in but when it finally did, the IC was far, far better than when it began the journey. Same goes for the silver plated cable too.
Up until now, I have just installed the cable (power, IC, speaker) and used it. Currently, I have a Shunyata Zitron Alpha powering a Panamax power conditioner, and a shop fan is attached to the Panamax. This has been going non-stop since Monday night. Friday morning I will install it on my Oppo 93 and leave it on all day. Late Friday night I will watch Avatar for the 738th time, and see if there has been any improvement. I have found Avatar to be an excellent disk for judging color, detail, clarity, and sound improvements.
On a related note, does anyone recall the Hovland study where they showed capacitor changes over time? I've been trying to find that work for a while. Does anyone have a copy.
Not to take money out of Alan's pocket but audio clubs might buy a cooker or two and lend it out to members.
Oddly enough, Myles I thought this would be the case many years ago. However, it's been a rarity for even a couple of friends to split the purchase....and that's only happened a handful of times over the 14 years of production. Go figure.
Oddly enough, Myles I thought this would be the case many years ago. However, it's been a rarity for even a couple of friends to split the purchase....and that's only happened a handful of times over the 14 years of production. Go figure.
Alan you have a lot of experience with burning many different brands in. anything you could share?
If speaker cables, do you talk to them both at the same time (jealously risk) or do you go them in turn (consistency risk); and do the speaker cables (unlike the i/cs) talk back?
I start out with a teambuilding session - talking to all my cables at once. After a week of burn in, I do individual performance reviews.
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