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Cable Burn In

I'm new here and new to the audiophile world. I recently acquired what seems to be a really high end system that is about 15 years old. Love it. Starting to head down the audiophile rabbit hole I'm afraid.

But, I have to laugh (quietly) at some of what I'm learning and hearing about high fidelity.

The system has really nice cables throughout but I needed another set of RCA cables. I bit the bullet and bought what seems to be a good pair from World's Best Cables. I'm sure they're not the best you can get and don't look as beefy as the Transparent RCA cables that were also with this system. But, no sense bringing a nice system down to save $10 on a set of RCA cables, I guess.

Anyway, in a big white card on the front of the package there was this note: In big red letters "Attention!". Below that "Please Allow 175 hours of Burn-in Time for optimal performance."

I know I'm showing my ignorance but this struck me as funny. I could just see one audiophile showing off his new $15k system to another audiophile and saying "Well, I know it sounds like crap now but its just that my RCA cables aren't burned-in yet. Just come back in 7.29 days and it will sound awesome."
n80
nonoise's avatar
nonoise
10,547 posts
 
Where did I put that can opener?
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drrsutliff
834 posts
 
What is just as funny is that an audiophile would be sure to not show the system to another audiophile until the cable is past the 175 hour mark so only you have to hear it sound like crap... We suffer alone and only celebrate success with others. ;)
hifiman5's avatar
hifiman5
1,823 posts
 
Well said @drrsutliff !

Cable burn-in is for real.  Once everything is hooked up and working, play music through the system with a CD on repeat.  After about a week the cables should be sounding their best.
n80 OP
2,100 posts
 
I believe you. I doubt it is anything I would ever notice and it does sound like a very clever way for a cable company to excuse a bad product. I mean, how do you compare what you are hearing right now vs what you're hearing 7.29 days later? Just sayin'. But I'm an eternal skeptic.

Anyway, now I'm curious. Just what exactly is burned-in? And if something needs to be burned-in in an expensive cable, why don't they do it before they send it to you? Or maybe that's a thing. You can buy race tires for your sports car that are heat-cycled several times by the manufacturer to bring them up to peak performance.....for a few extra dollars. Of course maybe the best cable companies do this already? If not, I smell a marketing opportunity!
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