Audio cable break-in?

[Jammrock]

I know we've hit this topic a lot, but I just read this at Audio Quests FAQ:

Q. Do AudioQuest cables require a break-in period?
A. Yes. In fact, all cables require a break-in period - even so-called "lampcord" cables that are often supplied with speakers. "Break in" is a misnomer. What's really happening is that the insulation (or dielectric to give it its proper name) is being "formed". This "forming" is caused by the dielectric absorbing energy from the conductor when a signal is present (i.e. when current is flowing). Every cable requires something to separate the negative conductors from the positive conductors - a dielectric. However, because the dielectric is in direct contact with the conductor, it will interact with the conductor whenever a current flows, absorbing energy from the conductor. What the dielectric does with that energy once absorbed depends upon its quality. PVC releases the energy back into the conductor a split second later, causing a kind of "smearing" of the signal. In contrast, Teflon absorbs significantly less energy in the first place, turns most of the energy into heat, and whatever energy remains is released back into the conductor virtually instantaneously. This causes significantly less damage to the signal which is why - all things being equal - a cable with Teflon insulation will sound better than the same cable using a lesser dielectric. This absorption of energy causes the molecules in the dielectric to be rearranged from a random order into a uniform order. Once the molecules are fully rearranged, the cable is said to be "broken in". The dielectric will now absorb less energy from the conductor, causing less harm, and improving performance. To ensure that the cable stays "broken-in", there must be a signal present in the cable at all times. It's obviously not practical to have your system playing 24 hours a day every day, but you can at least leave the components switched on. Even when there is no music playing (i.e. there is no current flowing down the cable), there is a potential present. This will ensure that your cables (as well as your components) remain at the peak of their performance. However - and this is the important bit - if there is no signal present in the cable at all (i.e. if the all the components are switched off, or if the cable is disconnected), the molecules will rearrange themselves back into their random order. In other words, the cable is almost like new again!

Comments from audiophiles and engineers?

Jammrock

[mutz]

...I've done professional A/V work for many years. I've heard engineers and freaks go on and on and on about this or that or that or this being important. For practical purposes, they were rarely of any relevance, unless you are doing professional recording, where there may be many generations of copying, remastering for archiving or signal processing for cleaning up.

In the above case, you would have to leave your system always on with a white noise generator to maintain this condition. You would have to keep a level high enough that no "no signal" switching occurred. This low level would probably not be consciously audible, but would so frazzle your nerves you'd land in the looney bin in a week.

I have a friend who is an absolute genius on anything electronic or computer. He's head of computer tech for one of the largest international banks. He hires hackers to try to crack the bank and laughs like a maniac each time he cracks them. One day I watched him measure and cut the speaker wire for all of his speakers to exactly the same length to a milimeter for all of his monster sound, DVD, game system, a whole room. He thought it might make some difference. Nuts!

People love to argue and nit-pick over things they can neither hear or see. If you can hear 30-16,000Hz, you are above average. I've seen people spend thousands and thousands for things they can neither hear or see, but they can argue they have the "best".

So I would say at least 50% of all this nit-picking in high end and media is just to suck more bucks out of your bank account.
I've spent many thousands too, but finally seen it was not a matter of diminishing returns, which you can argue, but NO returns.

But please go on. Just realize it's just another form of entertainment... like me chasing 2 degrees Celsius in my computer.

[agallag]

A break-in period is an excuse made up by some audio manufacturers to get your ears used to the bad sound.

Quote on Roger Russell's page.

[mutz]

...that's it.

[VJ]

Well, my brother's Sphinx amplifiers (both front and power amp) have a standby-setting which keeps the circuits powered, as the manufacturer does state it performs better after being powerd some time. But for cables, it seems somewhat farfetched to me...

Jörg

[mutz]

...standby is of course twofold. One, a warm amp goes optimally straight to work, and two, when it stays warm there is less contraction/expansion, cold/hot, that degrades the components and therefore performance.

[rugger]

VJ

That standby setting is probably to keep the components warm, since component performance is affected by temperature. The components may have been tweaked at the standby temperature for best performance.

Of course, I don't think it really matters all that much as the performance of most components is not affected by tempurature change much (unless designed to respond to it). Any well designed peice of equipment is fairly resistant to tempurature change (within reasonable limits of course). You shouldn't be able to hear the difference between a cold amp and a warm amp.

As for cables, bleh, it is a cable damn it, just a cable. Just a long peice of wire coated in plastic. And because the plastic is a NON-CONDUCTOR, it does not affect the signal travelling along the cable. (at least in any perceviable sense when used to transmit audio signals) If you are worried about this, you should be FAR more worried about crosstalk from the power cords and the other cables your equipment uses. You should be also worried about EM interferance from, umm, just about every other electrical appliance in your neighbourhood. You should also be worried about interferance from the power line (that can be sometimes fed through amplifiers). A good example of this is when you place a cheap set of computer speakers on the same line as a washing machine (clicks every time a motor is started)

Its scary just how many people get fooled by this silly mumbo-jumbo. They make dumb computer users (the ones who don't know who made their computer) look good

[mutz]

...humidity is a factor, for both cable insulation and components. The affect is so gradual, you don't notice it until things begin to spit.

[Wombat]

Of course, I don't think it really matters all that much as the performance of most components is not affected by tempurature change much (unless designed to respond to it). Any well designed peice of equipment is fairly resistant to tempurature change (within reasonable limits of course). You shouldn't be able to hear the difference between a cold amp and a warm amp.

I have to disagree with that one. BJTs perform very differently with different temperatures, as well as certain types of capacitors. Those are just the things I thought of as an immediate response - there's likely to be other components that will notice the temp.

[Dogbert]

Originally posted by rugger
VJ

As for cables, bleh, it is a cable damn it, just a cable. Just a long peice of wire coated in plastic. And because the plastic is a NON-CONDUCTOR, it does not affect the signal travelling along the cable. (at least in any perceviable sense when used to transmit audio signals)

Actually it seems that the material surrounding the conductor does change the speed of the signal. With Air being 'faster' than silicon, chip companies are researching ways to insert air bubbles into the silicon waffer.

It has nothing to do witn Audio though

[Wombat]

Silicon is a semiconductor there, not a non-conductor. It's not the same thing at all.


My favorite is the guy at my local audiostore that told me how much better a system sounded after he broke in the interconnect cable. I couldn't stop laughing in his face when he told me that breaking in the digital coax made it sound better.

[rugger]

Originally posted by Wombat
I have to disagree with that one. BJTs perform very differently with different temperatures, as well as certain types of capacitors. Those are just the things I thought of as an immediate response - there's likely to be other components that will notice the temp.

I believe you are talking about bi-polar junction transistors.

I still don't reckon the minor difference between room and operating temperature makes much of a difference to output sound of the amplifier.

Even if I am wrong about , (and the effect is audiable, in double blind tests) it would still only apply for the first minute of operation. BJT's heat up very quickly.

[rugger]

Originally posted by Dogbert


Actually it seems that the material surrounding the conductor does change the speed of the signal. With Air being 'faster' than silicon, chip companies are researching ways to insert air bubbles into the silicon waffer.

It has nothing to do witn Audio though

As I indicated, there may be some extremely minute interference, because nothing is truely, perfectly non-conductive, just like nothing is truely, perfectly conductive.

While this effect may be measureable on wires fractions of a micron wide, where every effect is amplified by the size of the wire, it certainly isn't measureable on speaker wire, which is typically millions of times larger.

[rugger]

Hmmm,

I just read the paragraph from the original poster (sorry for taking so long, but it takes a while to wade through the technobable in it),

Its complete bollocks.

Firstly, it obviously attempts to confuse and obscure the reader, (by using complicated names like dialect instead of insulator) so that the reader has a difficult time reflecting upon what has just been read, and is less likely to question it.

Secondly, insulators don't absorb electrical energy. They might get hot when in use, because the wire itself has resistance, generating heat while a signal is being transfered in it, but it isn't absorbing the signal and transmitting it back into the wire like they claim.

Thirdly, insulators are solid, not liquid. Thus, they cannot be rearranged, or "formed", as the audioquest person would have us beleive.

This just sounds like a sales pitch to get people to buy their expensive teflon insulated cables, instead of the much cheaper (and just as good) PVC insulated cables.

It sickens me

[agallag]

When my brother bought his new amp, and was deciding on an optical or coax digital cable to hook up his dvd, the salesman said something like: "If you're listening to music, the coax cable sounds warmer. The optical cable is better for surround." Um... they're both SP/DIF, so unless you start dropping bits, they're going to sound i-frickin-dentical.