[Don Hills]

I am surprised that so few of you seem to have 'cooked' your cables. This is standard practice here in blighty-land. Most English audiophiles do this every year or two. You have to disconnect all of your cables, and put them all together into your microwave. You then select full power, preferably 850W or more, and then set it to run for 10 minutes. You can certainly hear a big difference, apparently it realigns the electrons, which is why you have to do all of the cables together.

 
Would that be because of the heating, or because of the microwaves exciting the electrons in the conductors? You could try putting the cables in a conventional oven at 300 degrees for 30 minutes...

 

[aamefford]

I am surprised that so few of you seem to have 'cooked' your cables. This is standard practice here in blighty-land. Most English audiophiles do this every year or two. You have to disconnect all of your cables, and put them all together into your microwave. You then select full power, preferably 850W or more, and then set it to run for 10 minutes. You can certainly hear a big difference, apparently it realigns the electrons, which is why you have to do all of the cables together.

 
 

   
Would that be because of the heating, or because of the microwaves exciting the electrons in the conductors? You could try putting the cables in a conventional oven at 300 degrees for 30 minutes...

 

  Since in theory a microwave oven is a lot more accessible than a backyard liquid nitrogen tank...
 
One being that the metal crystal lattice will align with slowed molecular motion under cryogenic conditions, and the other being that heated (~molten?) metal crystals will align with a magnetic field.  You do have to cool them quickly to freeze the alignment, tho, and with cryo the metal crystalline structure will remain in alignment while warming back to ambient temperature.
 
I'm surprised that sparks don't fly.
 
'Course it could just be relaxing the conductor wire stress from fabrication, which is also a heat treatment.

Erm.... @BackToAnalogue is having one off on us, isn't he.  ?  .

 

[atubbs]

   
 
 
Erm.... @BackToAnalogue is having one off on us, isn't he.  ?  .

 
Yes. The only reason this works is because you need to buy new and better cables. And maybe a house. In which case you get to upgrade your equipment too.

 

[aamefford]

Yes. The only reason this works is because you need to buy new and better cables. And maybe a house. In which case you get to upgrade your equipment too.

Ahhhhh. Shear genius that!

 

[jimmers]

I am surprised that so few of you seem to have 'cooked' your cables. This is standard practice here in blighty-land. Most English audiophiles do this every year or two. You have to disconnect all of your cables, and put them all together into your microwave. You then select full power, preferably 850W or more, and then set it to run for 10 minutes...

And you can charge your iPhone at the same time

 

[fabiobueno]

I began my audiophile "career" with an O2 and ODAC, but after trying Vali and Wyrd, I became a believer of Schiit! I intend to buy a Gungnir and a Valhalla 2 soon.
 
And this thread was just the icing in the cake. Jason's writings are amazing, and almost all of his viewpoints are the same as mine. I work for a big corporation, so reading about the Schiit environment is very refreshing.

 

[senorx12562]

Erm.... @BackToAnalogue
is having one off on us, isn't he.  ?  .

Nothing else could account for that post.

 

[J&J]

The objective/measurable vs the subjective/discernable debate has been going on forever especially where cables are involved I hear differences with different interconnects. The more I pay the better they sound. Is that just cognitive dissonance? The one comment I read years ago that made sense was that our aural memory really sucks. Even A B ing equipment in a rapid sequence we cannot make comparisons in sound other then what we are expecting to hear. So cook microwave cryo attach magic feet or chant Tibetan spells at your equipment If you hear an improvement then it work (for you)
Do you remember the all amps sound alike debate of the 80s I think Bob Craver said he could make a cheap amp sound like a $10,000 amp I forgot how that worked out

 

[JohnnyCanuck]

Do you remember the all amps sound alike debate of the 80s I think Bob Craver said he could make a cheap amp sound like a $10,000 amp I forgot how that worked out

 
He did prove it.  See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Carver.

 

[ThingyNL]

I am surprised that so few of you seem to have 'cooked' your cables. This is standard practice here in blighty-land. Most English audiophiles do this every year or two. You have to disconnect all of your cables, and put them all together into your microwave. You then select full power, preferably 850W or more, and then set it to run for 10 minutes. You can certainly hear a big difference, apparently it realigns the electrons, which is why you have to do all of the cables together.

 
Ah, cool....
 
Gone rip my 6 meter Valhalla 2 speaker cables and 2 meter interconnects from my system in a bit and put then in.... Lucky we have a 1250w nukebox....
As it's more powerfull, think i'm gone start with 7 minutes at full power.

 

 

[Ableza]

People believe all sorts of things. Knock yourself out, whatever floats yer boat, and to each his own.  But please don't let this thread disintegrate into another cable argument.  Or please, lock it now if it does.

 

[BirdManOfCT]

  With fava beans, for sure.

Cannibal by Starlight?

 

[BirdManOfCT]

 
First: atubbs is right, this isn't about flipped bits.  If it happened, believe me, you'd hear it.  Like a scratch on a record - a quick, nasty "tick."  We're not talking subtleties in the audio presentation, we're talking "Damn!"
 

Going on a tangent about scratches on a record. Remember when CD's were "perfect". First time I told one about my CD skipping like an LP, they questioned my stability. Until a couple years later when they had CD players themselves and theirs skipped as well.

 

[johnjen]

   
Forgive me my stupid question, but how does one "cook the usb cables" and to what end would one "cook the usb cables".... Apart from dropping the formentioned cable into a pot of boiling water?

I have one of these…
http://www.audioexcellenceaz.com/products/audiodharma-cable-cooker-cable-conditioner/
 
With the usb adapters…
 
This is a heavy duty 'industrial strength' cooker when compared to the cd versions etc.
 
I have found that 'cooking' the cables brings out a whole nuther level of inner detail, especially the very bottom of the bass (the last several octaves).
 
In my experiments on my system, it was only after cooking my Shunyata power cables where the very bottom end of the bass finally turned 'on'.   I wouldn't have purchased them if they didn't deliver the bass that I knew was there, because my home made ac cables (also cooked) let me know it was there.
 
On the usb cables, it allowed the delivery of that much more inner detail, enough so that I now use usb instead of cat7.
 
Yeah some people swear by, while others swear at, these sorts of tweaks.
I'm willing to investigate, and determine if these 'voo-doo' enhancements actually help my system, or not.
 
JJ 

 

[Puma Cat]

Just skipped ahead a bit and read chapter 38 today...GREAT read. Loved the dialog between Jason and Dave about Wyrd.
 
I have to admit that I didn't even know about Wyrd until I read that chapter this morning. Of course, I immediately ordered one after reading the chapter.
 
I have to admit, since getting my Gungnir and Loki (yes, I am a lover of that pesky little trickster god of DSD!

), I haven't been keeping up with all my Schiit. I really must amend that bad behavior; as such I gave Ragnarok a once over last night. Hmmm....no coupling caps. "Fascinating" he said, with Spock-raised eyebrow...
 
Jason, just a note that as someone who works doing product development-stuff for a (very large) biotech company (I train and lead them in VOC and Design for Six Sigma for product development projects; and all that being a "change agent" entails), I am REALLY, REALLY enjoying reading your book. There's just such good, common-sense wisdom in it. You know, things like, "don't announce what you haven't built yet"....duh! I know from comparing and contrasting my experiences to yours, that that wisdom didn't always come easily and was often hard-won. 
 
Wonderful, wonderful stuff.