Speaker cables - cables make a difference


Happy weekend,

I have some PAD speaker cables I had reconditioned 

and burnt in a little.  They just opened up this listing session

I just hear that live small group, rock/ folk, Live sound.

its not as deep, and delineating, but you get more the other way. 
I like them both.  Reminds me of going to a show.  Happy Loving

This Hobby.

cdtd

Glad you are enjoying them. It’s ironic how someone has to be a poo butt. It wouldn’t be bad if they were correct, but to be critical and wrong is laughable. I’m grateful that my mid Fi system is resolving enough that I can tell a difference in my cables. I just put in a new Morrow digital cable that was an upgrade from the previous Morrow cable. I could definitely tell a difference having just switched it out. If I had not I could exercise the free return policy. So for me there is zero expectation bias. Plus I don’t really give a crap if “boo boo” care’s or not , I not here to convert non believers. I just wish they’d do the same thing and stop trying to tell me I can’t hear a difference, that’s just ludicrous. Cheers, My Peers, Mike B. 

The cables in question are indeed PAD Aqueous 20th.

i see why they seem to hold value well.

they took a couple days to come around but they do sound good!

nice synergy with magnepans and ps audio integrated. 

My question:
audiophile people say you have to break in speaker and component interconnect cables. Is there any tests that show this break in process actually happens? 

Answer
No. There are zero verifiable scientific tests, peer-reviewed studies, or laboratory measurements that show audio interconnects or speaker cables undergo a physical or electrical "break-in" process under standard operating conditions.

When analyzed by precise test instruments measuring Resistance (R), Capacitance (C), Inductance (L), and Total Harmonic Distortion (THD), a cable that has run a signal for 500 hours measures identically to one fresh out of the packaging.

The Technical Realities

  • Alternating Current (AC) Limits: Audio signals are AC, meaning the voltage and current constantly reverse polarity. Marketing claims that copper crystal structures or molecules "align" in one direction from a signal are physically impossible; the alternating electrical field reverses thousands of times per second, canceling out any directional alignment.

  • Dielectric Interaction: While electromagnetic fields do interact slightly with the surrounding insulation (dielectric), any resulting energy absorption shifts occur at the sub-microvolt or femto-amp level. This sits orders of magnitude below the ambient noise floor of professional audio components, making it entirely inaudible.

  • Crystalline Distortion Requirements: Altering the underlying metallurgy or grain boundaries of a copper wire requires thermal stress—specifically, pushing enough current to heat the conductor near its melting point. Doing this with an audio line would melt the outer jacket long before it modified the audio signal.

Controlled Listening Performance

In rigorous double-blind ABX testing—where visual bias is eliminated and cable switching occurs instantly—statistically tracked listeners cannot reliably distinguish a "burned-in" cable from a brand-new duplicate.

The perceived change over time is a well-documented neurological phenomenon known as auditory habituation (the human brain adjusting to a new frequency balance over several hours of exposure), not a change in the physical wire.

I removed my speaker cables and the system noise floor lowered.  Could not hear a thing ...

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