Cardas Clear breakin. How many hours needed?

I believe that cables don't need to break in (or burn in). This is because they are not mechanical - like headphones or speakers.

The actual phenomenon has to do with moving parts that are settling into place.  With cables, either they work out of the box, or there is a wiring fault.

Coppers, 25-100 hours, The terminal ends take the longest with copper unless they are copper.

Copper/Silver clad. The larger the strand the longer it takes. 200-400 hours

Silver, the larger the strand the longer the BREAK - IN. (Burn-In LOL)
200-400+.

They all better sound good within 25 minutes, BUT some constructs NO MATTER the manufacture take a while to BREAK-IN and a good 24 hours to settle.

Line level cables, just like phono stage, tonearm cable, and internal tonearm wire, take a LONG time.. The voltage is REAL low.

AGAIN if the cable was PRE conditioned that can cut the time by 50% as far as SQ. That is usually the ONLY difference between a lot of the manufactures is how much the cable is preconditioned.. Makes a heck of a difference in "out of the box" experience. Some cable guys do different conditioning too, like jumping cars for a week or so.. That will warm up the ol cables...:-)

Regards

For your reading enjoyment or debate.  

http://www.cardas.com/insights_break_in.php

Time is needed, and it is not only the wire material itself. Connectors, sheaths, configuration of cable, gauge, signal amplitude, components have their contribution.
Both @decooney and @oldhvymec points are valid.


G

mastering92 is the only sane poster on this thread! All the others are fair game for the men in white uniforms! I hear the sirens in the distance!