Power Cord Burn-In


I know, I know...this has been posted before but I swear I searched the archives and couldn't find what I was looking for so here's my question:
Just purchased a new pc for my cdp.
Can I burn this cord in without turning up the volume( family factor) and can I leave my preamp and amp off during this process. In other words, can I simply throw a disc in my cdp and press play/repeat and let the music play with no volume?
Thanks!
greh

Showing 4 responses by gliderguider

I'm a fridge/freezer guy. Apparently the motors make them a good choice for burn-in. If you get a couple of adapters you can even daisy-chain the PCs to do several at once.
I have to agree with you, Drrdiamond. I just got finished burning in a TG Audio SLVR power cord over the course of 5 weeks, on a combination of a SS amp that's on all the time and a chest freezer. The process was very instructive.

I tested it three times during that period, comparing it each time on the preamp in my main system to an Elrod EPS2 Signature that had been powering the preamp for several months. The first time, after two weeks, the TG was much worse than the Elrod - it made the system sound lean, edgy and bright. The second time, after four weeks, the TG was almost as good as the Elrod, but not quite - the edge was gone but it still sounded lean. The third time the sound with the TG was better than with the Elrod - it was smooth, transparent and fully fleshed out, and in comparison the Elrod now sounded slightly thick and plummy in the upper bass, with an attendant loss of detail.

I doubt that mental acclimatization played much of a role here, because each test lasted no longer than an hour, and the trials were separated by at least a week. The change in the SLVR's character over time was quite striking. I just repeated the test for a fourth time after having the SLVR in the system for a week or so, and the results were the same, to my ears, as the third test.

I'm quite prepared to believe that some power cords in some systems don't exhibit these kinds of changes, because I've used other PCs where I never noticed any changes at all. Bob Crump, the man behind TG Audio, is adamant that his power cords take this long to burn in and settle down, however. Based on what I heard, he is absolutely right.
I'm not an EE, so I have no clue what happens during "break in", but my common sense tells me that, as Dr. Greenman notes, it doesn't have anything to do with a restructuring of the conductive metal. To me, it seems more reasonable to suppose that the dielectric undergoes some small changes. All I really know is the evidence of my own fallible senses, and they tell me that I often notice a change following a cable break in period.
And as someone who just listens rather than designs, I'll take the evidence of my own ears any day. Is it "correct"? Who knows? Is it "right for me"? You bet. My hobby, my ears, my money. I'll leave physics to solve the important stuff, like whether bumblebees can fly...