Tonearm wire burn-in question.


I have my ET2 arm wired with one continuous run of wire from cartridge clips all the way to the circuit board of my phono preamp; where it is hardwired. I just replaced the Discovery tonearm wire that I used for years with Audionote silver wire. It is an absolutely fabulous wire. AN claims it needs very little break-in, but I would like to burn it in anyway using a line level signal.

I would like to not have to dismantle and unsolder the existing wire arrangement.If I send a line level signal from the cartridge clip end of the wire to the preamp (turned off, of course!), will the wire get broken-in? Or does the device at the receiving end need to be active (turned on) for the burn-in to be effective?

Thanks to all
frogman

Showing 2 responses by zargon

Adding some to Al's concern of over driving the phono stage input...

If you want to be ultra safe, there is a Granite Audio Phono Burn-In & RIAA Test CD which I have used which would ensure protection. It provides for both MM and MC cartridge levels and includes RIAA compensation. You could drive it thru the tonearm wire and into the phono stage thus killing two birds with one stone.

Test CD

Regards,
Frogman, you are correct that a higher voltage may accelerate the burn in of the wires, however, as Al points out it may also cause harm to the phono stage assuming you don't unsolder the tonearm wires. My recommendation is to use the lower voltage produced by the CD and just run it longer. In truth, just playing records will also work just as well over the long run. It just depends on how anxious you are.