[Vertigo-1]

Do you have to actually play music through them? Or can the volume knob be left at zero? I know with interconnects as long as the source is passing the music out, they're being burned in, but what about speaker cables, which also have to pass through power, etc?

Right now I've got my 9000ES playing music, which is piping it into the amp, but I've got my amp at zero volume. So am I burning in the new speaker cables at all like this?

 

[Neruda]

well, if there's nothing going through them, they're probably not going to burn in are they?

Just play music at normal levels!

 

[dhwilkin]

Yeah, they're probably not burning-in much. If you're worried about volume annoying people, you could always do that trick suggested over at AA. You know, where you wire the speakers out-of-phase from each other, put them real close & facing each other, then turn up the volume. Supposedly, the waves will mostly cancel out, meaning you won't hear much coming from them, but the cables will still burn-in.

 

[Xander]

I think burning in cables is absolutely obscene. But if it tricks your brain into thinking it sounds different, then so be it.

 

[dhwilkin]

Hey, it's not obscene as long as no bare wire tips are showing!

 

[Dusty Chalk]

Quote:

Originally posted by dhwilkin ...where you wire the speakers out-of-phase from each other...

You know, this is a misnomer. If the sound coming through them is monaural, then they will already be out of phase by facing them against each other.

I think the misunderstanding came from this: if you do not want to move your speakers (or can't, in the case of the Wilson's or Pipedreams, e.g.), then wiring them out of phase will make them just a little bit quieter.

And in answer to your question, yes, you have to have music playing through them.

 

[raymondlin]

The out of phase/point at each other speaker burning method doesn't work that well. It's to do with the fact that different frequencies have different wave length and for them to be totally cancelled each other out would be impossible. I would just listen to your music as normal and they'll get better over time, or you can go to a dealer that has a Nordost cable toaster (no kidding) and burn it in that way.

 

[Dusty Chalk]

Quote:

Originally posted by raymondlin The out of phase/point at each other speaker burning method doesn't work that well.

Well, not to beat a dead horse into the ground but, it won't if you do both at the same time. I tried it on my Spendor S3/2's, threw a blanket over them, and they were still too loud. Thought about it, rewired it correctly, and it was well within tolerance...with the towel, anyway. (The burn-in source was monaural.) Quote:

...go to a dealer that has a Nordost cable toaster (no kidding) and burn it in that way.

Actually, the cable toaster doesn't "do" speaker cables, the theory being that the current that comes out of an output of an amp is necessary to burn in speaker cables, and that would make it prohibitively expensive. I have a cheap little EQ that I use for unbalanced interconnects, and I connected them to an amp to do the speaker cables. Unfortunately, this cheap little thing (anyone remember DAK?) doesn't seem to have much bass response, so when I get around to it, I will probably hook up my Nord Modular to do it if I ever have to do it again. A Micro Modular, also by Nord, may not be completely out of the question to some of you guys (they go for US$549 at www.zzounds.com). And besides, it's great fun (it's a synthesizer that you can program from your PC).