Cable Break In for the Naysayers
I still cannot believe that in this stage of Audio history there are still many who claim cable break in is imagined. They even go so far as claim it is our ears that break in to the new sound. Providing many studies in the way of scientific testing. Sigh...
I noticed such a recent discussion on the What’s Best Forum. So here is my response.
______________________________________________________________________________________________ I just experienced cable break in again firsthand. 10 Days ago, I bought a new set of the AudioQuest Thunderbird XLR 2M interconnects.
First impression, they sounded good, but then after about 30 hours of usage the music started sounding very closed in and with limited high frequencies. This continued until about 130 hours of music play time.
Then at this time, the cables started to open up and began to sound better and better each passing hour. I knew at the beginning they would come around because they sounded ok at first until the break in process started. But now they have way surpassed that original sound.
Now the soundstage has become huge with fantastic frequency extensions. Very pleased with the results. Scientifically I guess we can’t prove cable break in is real, but with good equipment, good ears, it is clearly a real event.
ozzy
Do you have any hard data to back up these claims? Human perception is notoriously fickle. Someone else could feel just the opposite to how you did. There's no arbiter. That's a big problem. Need cold, hard data. I'm not quibbling with your observations. You've got a right to your own opinions. But stating your opinions as facts and conveying these opinions to others requires hard facts, i.e. data. |
@lanx0003 "Cables and equipment break-in is real. It’s just that the electronics—especially the capacitor components—take much longer (three to four times longer) than cables." the only problem is a capacitors with time degrade performance (ESR goes up, capacitance down), tubes and semiconductors weaken drive strength, resistors accuracy degrade, overall noise increase.. are you saying sound quality improves with usage time? LOL |
That is why you want to use higher class film cap (instead of electrolytic cap), extremely stable capacitance and ESR and low dielectric loss. Same thing with resistors. You want to buy products such as R2R DAC with not only high precision resistors (like 0.05% used in Harmony DAC), low TCR, long term drift resistance, but also matched and cased in the protective housing like Harmony and MSB DACs, which provide thermal stability, electrical isolation, etc. You must know in R2R DAC, the resistor ratio matching is more critical than the absolute tolerance, right? MSB, in particular, takes extreme care and time to screen/select the matched resistors and that is part of the reason why it is so expensive. Okay, need to take a break. Let me know if you have other questions. |
@kevemaher Unfortunately, just like when I was in your (nonbeliever) camp, I did my due diligence digging but could not find any supportive measurement data. Even now, I still cannot identify hard data to support my claim from the believer camp. That said, I clearly stated that the change in my perception of the HDMI/I²S cable is more significant than with the Mirage USB cable, and I stand by what I have perceived. Take it or leave it. You do whatever suits you. By the way, the ED Labs Mirage USB cable is currently 20% off. |
