A faster way to burn in your cables - Page 3

I dunno - owning an HD 650 might be exciting enough, even if I didn't have anything to listen to with it. I could just sit and look at it, maybe wax it twice a day ..

I cook all my cables before each listen, sometimes even between each song if I'm listening to demanding music.

I like running some healthy current through cables and breaking in the connectors before doing any critical listening.

Kind of like breaking in a pair of new shoes. the connectors also alter slightly from use also.

I know this is a fact with my Cardas connectors, over time they fit better, ever since then for my system I use the cables for a while before making any judgements.

and overtime, I also discover tiny nuances in the sound that I wouldnt have noticed if I had listened to them for 5 minutes. I grow appreciation for them after many hours though.

Maybe it doesn't have anything to do with the conductor at all.

It's partially about the metal, but more about the dielectric that's affected by break in.
Here's some info for those of you with questions:

http://www.audioexcellenceaz.com/aud...ablecooker.htm
http://www.cableburner.com/technical.asp
http://www.cardas.com/content.php?ar...Cable+Break-In
http://www.ultraaudio.com/opinion/20030801.htm
http://www.positive-feedback.com/Iss...ablecooker.htm
www.soundstage.com/yfiles/yfiles200102.htm

I had a pair of cables "Cooked" a couple years back. It did make a little improvement on a pair of cables I had been using for a few months.
I agree that buying one does not make much sense unless you make cables or perform a treating service.

Note: I'm posting for the people who are trying to get more information on a subject, not to argue.

Cable-cooker alternative on the cheap

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You can do it without a dedicated cable cooker. What you need is...

- a power amp or an integrated amp
preferably one that can handle the common ground of headphone cables (if need be) -- otherwise you could still use a mono signal for both channels

- two adapters from the speaker terminal (e.g. blank wires) to two female RCA plugs

- two female RCA plugs with a 3.3-5.6 ohm resistor soldered in parallel on each

- a pair of 3.3-5.6 ohm resistors to be soldered in parallel to each channel of a speaker cable

- an adapter from the speaker terminal (e.g. blank wires) to a female headphone plug
(alternatively, if your amp can't handle the common ground, switched from one output channel to both headphone channels)
plus a pair of 3.3-5.6 ohm resistors to be attached to the headphone cable's connector pins


Now all you have to do is...

- to attach the dedicated resistors to the RCA cables to be treated, connect the cables to the corresponding adapters and the latter to the speaker terminal of your amp

- to solder the resistors as load to the speaker cable and connect the latter's free end to the speaker terminal

- to wrap the ends of the resistors carefully and tightly around the pins of the HD-580/600/650 cable connectors (avoid short circuits!), plug the headphone plug into the corresponding adapter and connect the latter to the speaker terminal (or one channel of it, resp.)

...and play music or interstation noise or a prepaired CD-R with square waves of different frequencies, and this with a volume knob setting corresponding to very high levels.


It's not as convenient as a dedicated cable cooker, but it should work just as well. The main goal is achieved: high current flows for effective and fast burn-in even with RCA and headphone cables which normally don't get that high currents.

I don't quite understand how the dielectric burn-in. There is no info on how the dielectric change. Does insulation increase or decrease? Does that mean the impedance of the cable change over time? (impedance is directly proportional to the dielectric constant)

If dielectric does change, it will be a measureable event.

I am not debating the merit of cable burn-in because I have no experience in cable burn-in although I have some real old cables. Cable however do age but not in hundreds of hours but in years. The cause is more enviromental than straight electrical. Talk to a old phone guy and he'll tell you all about corrosion, metal migration etc, etc.

Quote from Audioquest

Funny thing is, that is exactly what my ears have been telling me also.

We could get one of those for the headfi community, and rent it, or have it for using as needed comunity service, that is the only way of justifying such device.......but wait, I don't evne believe in cables, what am I talking....

"It's easy to tell when a cable has been "overcooked" -- the sound becomes comparatively dull, "bleached," and the soundstage tends to shrink. Fortunately, this condition typically passes after the cables are re-installed and played in the system for several hours.

Alan Kafton asserts that cable break-in is long-term but not permanent. He suggests that cabling (especially in the dielectric materials) benefits from a periodic "recharge" of 12-24 hours every few months. He says many Cooker owners do this chore every 3 or 4 months. This of course makes the Cooker a better long-term value."


This is possibly worse than the nonsense 'audiophile' crap Cardas produces.

Experiences are more interesting than biases.

Hey ampgalore, voodoo dolls and pins also need quite a long burn in, you know? But do not despair. I am working on a voodoo doll & pin cooker design of my own that speeds up that burn in quite amazingly, will be revolutionary. I can send you a demo unit after some simple $$$$ arrangements, if you are interested

More useful too

Good post. thanks. Wish I could afford it.