Burn In = Voodoo?

I can emphatically say that burn - in of a CD player is real. I just got a new player last month. The company includes a warning sticker on the player to let the player burn - in for 36 hours, before the player will sound its best. When I first hooked it up, I was disappointed. It was ever so SLIGHTLY better than my previous, long time player. And only in the area of detail. After over a month, I played both players next to each other(to try to hunt down a problem I was experiencing). The differences were now night AND day. It was startling, and brought a smile to my face. The new player was better in every area. Improving markedly in the areas of slam, dynamics, liquidity, and pace. Again, it was night and day. I have also experienced this with my current amplifier. Being disappointed and in panic initially, and feeling sublime about one month later(I also A/B'd that with my former amp). I am sure that people will feel that burn - in is just plain voodoo. But, I am one of the converted

One thing I keep wondering about is this freezing of cables in liquid nitrogen. It is common to do an experiment for school kids with a rubber ball. First, it is dropped on the ground, and bounces higher than your head. The ball would next be immersed in liquid nitrogen. Then thrown against a wall. It then shatters as if it was hollow crystal. I am not sure of the compound used in the ball. Cables are made of teflon(PTFE), polypropylene(PP), polyethylene(LDPE or HDPE), polyester(PET/PETE or PBT), etc. I have no idea which would be adversely affected in the liquid nitrogen, and which would not(I no longer work in a lab, or else I could test this). But, I do know that I would be kind of devastated if my $1000 interconnect was destroyed. Don't think the cable companies cover that in their warranties...

Sam, my new CD player is a Cambridge D500 SE. I have talked a lot about it in the Digital forum. Basically, I bought it because I have been waiting for three years for this format war to be over, and in my opinion it is no more resolved today. It has a 24 bit/192 kHz DAC. I auditioned it against a Jolida 603, Linn Genki, Musical Fidelity A3 CD, NAD 540, and Rega Planet(not Planet 2000). It sounded as good, or better than the whole lot of them. I did find two superior players, but am not willing to spend that kind of money on a CD player if I will be buying again in the next year or two. Considering the opinions that some have on upsampling, a player will become a transport anyway. So, I think this is a great player for someone who needs to make a move today. Regarding break - in, it is not simply a matter of speaker cones and the metal contained in a wire(would also cover resistors). The points on annealing, stress relieving, fatiguing, etc. all changing many metal characteristics are well documented. Dielectric is ALSO changed for the better. This would be explained by the capacitors in components(amps, preamps, CD players, etc.), wire(the insulation), and speakers. The simplest test for this is to upgrade a capacitor in the signal path of your long owned speakers(on your midrange or tweeter). Simply replace a cheap cap with a much better one. You will be hugely disappointed(which caused a LOT of grief back to people making capacitor upgrades in the 80s - when the REAL good ones started coming out). Play the heck out of it for a month, and the sound WILL be much improved from the baseline. As I said, playing both of my CD players next to each other this past weekend proved to me how real break - in is. It was most definitely not a case of "getting used to the sound". The two players were both switched back and forth, via my input selector. And, having used liquid nitrogen extensively, it is not at absolute zero(I forget exactly what temperature is it at, -215F???). It is the cheapest, coldest method that is out there. That is why it is so popular. But, if you think about this theoretically, absolute zero means that there is no atomic motion. Liquid nitrogen(or ANY liquid) could therefore NEVER be at absolute zero. Nitrogen(or ANY element) would first need to become a solid, and then be further cooled to the point where atomic motion has ceased. THIS is absolute zero. And in reality, absolute zero has yet to be attained.