Why do new cables needs to be "broken" ???

It takes that long for the electrons to learn how to read the arrows through the jacket of the cable. Before they become literate those little buggers are running around so confused that Ringo is playing a guitar center stage and Paul is singing backup with Jethro Tull.

Bignerd,

If you hook the cables up backwards and spin beatles platters backwards, does it sound forwards?

Bgrazman, I knew that answer... you just beat me to it!

But seriously, I don't know, yet they do take time and music to polish their performance as do tubes and semi-conductors. I believe electrons are the modern day alchemy of magic dust. Happy listening!

Here we go again.... I use to think it didn't make a difference and it didn't in my old system. Since I now have higher end equipnment I can definally tell a new cable it is very apparent. I do not know the sicience behind it but by using it it tends to break the resistance a bit I think. I notice the bass becomes more apparent and the highs better and new cable sounds very thin. Now with that being said I would love soomeone to measure the resistance in the wire before and after break in in specifice frequency ranges.

it seems like the answer to your question is: nobody really knows, but the phenomenon seems to be real. a simple way to see for yourself is to get your hands on a set of cables that have been used for a while and some brand new ones of the same model and switch back and forth. if you actually do get to do this, one thing to be careful of is to avoid bending, crimping, stomping etc. either cable during your switching back and forth - that might impact the comparison.