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May 19, 2010 - 6:38pm
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Cable Cooking
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Not sure you're right about the "after one year of use." It appears 24-36 hours is about right for existing interconnects. The general guidelines for new speaker cabling are from between 3 days to 4 1/2 days.
See FAQ at:
Frequently Asked Questions
The only thing that needs broken in are horses and new shoes. Honestly when will the stupidity stop about cables? Probably never on here.
From the FAQ page.
Honestly! when will you stop stupidly complaining about what other people do? It's none of your damn business.
What exactly do you think Stereophile is?
Trolls are like cockroaches... once you let them get a foothold you can never get rid of them.
That's giving Daveyboy too much credit, geoff. Cockroaches at least have the positive value of ... eh ... um ... awgeez! ...
Damn! it seems you're right about Davey after all.
Wait, wait! A tick! D'boy has the value of a tick! That's it! Just a little bloodsucker spreading disease.
That's got it!
Given the miniscule amount of time most audiophiles spend listening to music, perhaps this device would be helpful.
Actually.....
I see the future or the high end evolving to audiophiles just hiring surrogate listeners and having done with it.
There will be a group of guys who stand around outside local audio salons waiting for an audiophile to drive up and hire him for some casual/day listening. It'll look kinda like the sidewalk around a plant nursery or Home Depot in Cali.
Day Listeners will freshen connections, play music that has enough frequency content to keep cables healthy, the suspension on a cartridge supple, keep speaker drivers limber, etc....
10 bucks an hour, ten hours work, for the prioce of only 1 set of valhalla speakers cables per year, audiophiles will be able to keep their systems ready and waiting should the owner ever have company and want to play some music for 20 minutes.
A reviewer, whose cables were already broken-in, said that the cooker made a huge difference after using it.
I was just wondering if anyone else did this. Apparently not...
As pointed out in FAQ link, cables and ICs can't really be properly broken in (by playing music only) without resorting to some sort of break in device. I.e., break in electronics goes much further than cables/ICs that have many years of use.
Oh, didn't I mention I've used a break in device? My bad. MOBIE (Maximimum Overdrive Break In Electronics).
Then I guess his cables were not broken in, yet he said they were.
Hmmmmm.
So, for amps, do they need to be treated in a similar manner?
Speakers, too?
I think these marketers are limiting themselves.
Time for other electronic, mechanical break in machines. Your speakers won't be fully broken in unless they are properly flogged by a break in device!
It would seem that if you 'only' listen to music, none of these things will properly break in.
Then comes the next question...
For a new car engine, at first, ya gotta treat it gently to break it in. Only after a while can you take it to redline.
Maybe we should be discussing how to "pre-break-in" a cable in order to get it safely ready to be broken in the rest of the way. I mean, what if you took a new cable to 200 MPH when it was brand new and it wasn't ready and did harm? Maybe it's best to drive it at 55 MPH for the first month or so, then more safely run the proper break in.
We gotta worry about this stuff.
I hope people are purchasing the proper "break-in preparation" devices to get their cables ready for full break in treatment. Like a pre-wash, to let the main wash do its job even better.
All we can do is break-in a wire by playing music through it (over time) then try the cooking device to see if it makes a difference. Doesn't sound too hard to do...
Good point. And what of the directionality of all the wiring in the amps and speakers, and the other electronics? Wait, shouldn't the manufacturers be taking care of all that?
It is a box of worms, man.
All that wire in electornics and speakers, never broken in properly. Some wires facing the right way, some not...the list is expansive.
I agree, you'd think manufacturers would do this.
Maybe they can invent a "Signature...Plus!" versions to put forth gear that has been 'pre-broken-in' so it will sound 'right' when you get it.
I like this idea! Maybe for $15/hr they could clean the room and categorize your record collection! I see a good market with the Physics Grad student population.
Mike
Hmmm... Are you from Texas by any chance?
Finally a job worth applicating for! Thx
I'd just like to know:
What does 'breaking in' actually do to the cables? What is 'breaking in?' All I saw from the quoted site was some stuff about 'dielectric stress,' but nothing to explain what it is or why it should affect the cable. (In my experience, dielectrics are used with capacitors. If you stress them mechanically they will eventually break and no more capacitor. This doesn't seem to relate to what the site is claiming.)
Similarly, 'The break-in process is believed to be due primarily to current flowing through the conductors of wiring components' doesn't say anything - what's current supposed to do here, apart from carrying the signal? Why is it a benefit?
I noticed they try to speed up the process by subjecting the cable to much higher amperages than it would experience in the system. This seems odd, if the intent is to somehow condition the cable.
I must say I'm very doubtful about this product, because the explanation seems incomplete and not-quite-logical.
One possible explanation is that it is your brain breaking or burning in.
As you get used to the sonic sig. of a component your brain decodes more aural info.
Of course, since this is the most reasonable explanation most audiofools will deny it vehemently.
Also brain burn in doesn't cost any money so it can't work
You know, if cable burn in were really all that....used cable and demo cable would go up in value, not down.
The marketplace does not seem to support the notion of cable improving with time.
I still think I can hear cable cable differences, etc...just pondering the dichotomy.
Hey! That's what I look like if forced to listen to Britney Spears
Aha! So, you do use lamp cord!
I see that it may be an illegitimate way to burn my brain. Thus I have shifted to a more appropriate source of power, and fatter cables. Less than 45 Amps won't do it
Breaking-in is typically applied to materials that change properties after some use. Speaker suspensions may get looser with more flexing (like the breaking-in of shoes).
We should look more fundamentally of what is really going on. If the physical property changes, like in easier to flex, then the material has been subjected to more stress than it handles and may have been 'broken' in, so to speak.
How electrical current in the low levels that signals are in cables can stress the cable, is not clear to me. In a capacitor, the charges of opposite plates try to get through the dielectric (insulator) but can't so can exert a tiny force on the dielectric. Whether this stresses the material enough is also not clear. If it does stress the material enough to make a sonic difference, then the capacitance would change with the varying signal, something that is not desirable.
My take is speakers and phono cartridves may have breaking-in effects, but cables should not, unless someone can prove otherwise in a more scientific way than has been presented in the past.
Copied from an audio forum somewhere on the internet:
I (anonymous) sent the following email to Audioquest regarding their FAQ article:
"I find your FAQ section to be misleading and misguiding to those who don't understand basic electronics. I question your business ethics if you can deliberately make such ludicrous claims as cables causing distortions, or cables requiring break in, etc. You have no proof for this, nor do you base your reasoning on any valid science.
I wish the FTC would step in here and force cable vendors to back up their bogus claims.
I would appreciate the (audio forum) take regarding the Audioquest response below:"
- Anonymous
Response from Audioquest
"We totally understand that is very easy to be skeptical about cables. After all, you can't measure it, so how can you possibly hear it? In fact you can hear it - and it really is very easy to hear the differences. Far from making bogus claims, the principle of cable "break in" is very real. "Breaking in" a cable has everything to do with the insulation - not the wire itself. The insulation (or dielectric) will absorb energy from the conductor when a current is flowing (i.e. when music is playing). This energy-absorption causes the dielectric's molecules to re-arrange themselves from a random order into a uniform order. When the molecules have been rearranged, the dielectric will absorb less energy & consequently cause less distortion. The cable is now said to be "broken in" and sound quality is improved. To prove it, simply take 2 pairs of the same cable - one broken in, one new, and compare in the same system.
As for causing distortion - absolutely! All cables cause distortion. Stranded cables cause the worst type of distortion, which is why we use solid conductors."
Cable Cooking does it require salt and pepper or lots of lard.