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
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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.
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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.
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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.
