digital and interconnect cables burn in

Thanks Bob.

OK for speaker cables you have several options. You can play the system continuously at rather high levels when no one is home; allow for some consideration if you have pets though. You can use a break-in box, but the caveat here is to use caution if you have MIT or similarly terminated cables, because (some) breakin boxes apply DC, which will blow up the terminations, per MIT. You can setup a cheap garage or basement system & play the radio; face the speakers together & wire them out of phase to cancel some of the racket. You can make yourself a 4-ohm or 8-ohm dummy load out of some power resistors (must know ohm's law of series-parallel resistances to do this) or maybe just get 2ea. (1 per channel) 5 ohm or 10 ohm 20 watt power resistors, whatever is readily available, and some healthy-gauge clip leads. Cliplead the dummy loads to the ends of your speaker cables that you are breaking in, & absolutely use some electrical tape to ensure against short circuits! Death to your PA if you're not careful... Crank up the power partway & check the loads at intervals to ensure against overheating the resistors. They can be allowed to get nice & warm, but not blistering hot. Don't burn yourself, & don't look here for liability if you mess up (this is only my disclaimer for self-protection, even though it's free advice). The question regarding digital interconnects is a bit different. You must repeat-play the CD player, but it's not necessary to listen, or have anything other then your outboard DAC connected as a load termination. DAC power may be on or off - matters not.

Bob, That was most clear and helpful. I will certainly give my CD player a rest next time I break in interconnects. As Fpeel asked, what about speaker cables?

As an electronics engineer, maybe I can clear up some misconceptions above. Yes Radioman, it's OK to have the system on, except the amp - good breakin method for interconnecs. But obviously this will not breakin the amp, the power cord for the amp, speaker cables, or the speakers. A tuner as signal-source is a great breakin tool for interconnects. CD player on repeat-mode works too, but for prolonged breakin you're wearing out the mechanics. However, you must have signal-current flowing through the cables. For current to flow through the cable, you must have a load connected. An amplifier input still provides that load, whether it's powered on or off. But in the case of a preamp input, the jacks which your cables are plugged into must be selected (ie: if plugged into aux 1, then your preamp input switch must be selected on aux 1 for a load-termination to appear at those jacks). Cable breakin boxes are another alternative, but are pricey, & will see little use for your $ unless you frequently change cables or hardware. Some dealers have these breakin boxes, & will do this for you if you buy cables from them (Granite Audio does this). I've been through this experience several times. The most aggravating was with some expensive Synergistic interconnects, which kept going bright-dark-bright. I finally ran them from my tuner into a dummy load for a month, then all was fine & these are great cables. The dummy load I used was a cassette deck's inputs (rarely used at our house anymore). You can even buy some cheap female RCA's at Radio Shack & solder 47k-ohm terminations across them for use as dummy loads. Feel free to inquire further if you're still unsure; email me via member-lookup & I'll be happy to assist.

Radiomanjh: I just researched this type of break in process and was told by my interconnect manufacturer that the power amplifer is not needed for for break in to occur. You can run them from any source (even a VCR) into a preamp and this will allow the signal to complete its course. The preamp selector does not even have to be placed on the "break in" source and you can listen to another source, if you have two sources, during the break in process. It works, I ran a pair of silver interconnects in for over 200 hours without having to listen to them. Though if you are curious like myself you will take a peak/listen at them every now and then. I ran them on a cable music station for part of the time (from the VCR) and finished off running from them from our second "mini" system into our main systems preamp. Good luck.

Call me ignorant if it applies, and it certainly might, but why would speaker cables break in properly with little or no signal or current running through them? Wouldn't they benefit from higher volumes same as power cords do from draw? I'm certainly no expert on the subject, so am reluctant to comment on ICs or digital cables, but isn't that what a Mobie does?

The signal must be going thru ea.cable to a unit that is powered up.For a dig.source that means the player,and the dac,or dig. preamp. For interconnect: that would be the pre, and the amp.no volume is required,but the amp must be powered up,as well as the pre with signal passing (cd on repeat).Speaker wire break in follows this same principal,you can have the volume turned down. The only time you have to have volume is to break in speakers.