Burn/Break-in

How do you rectify that !?!

 

Remember that a bolt of lightning is about a zillion volts, and it can force anything to become a conductor, often demolishing it on the way - which is why they fit lightning conductors to church spires. At the sort of voltages we're talking about, there'd be no melting, only slight softening at most, and in the case of PTFE, no change in structure whatsoever - the reason for the choice of PTFE is because it's so stable and inert (which is why fluorinated hydrocarbons are making such a mess of the ozone layer). Sorry, Gambit, the energy transfer argument just doesn't wash. And what if there was "tiny, very quick energy transfer"? The electricity will still not conduct through the coating but through the preferential path of the conducting wire.

 

I once did, to some radio engineers of my acquaintance. When I left them, they were still helpless on the floor with laughter.

 

Better put this on the Shunyata (or whatever it's called) thread...

 

but skin effect is a known electrical phenomena

 

Tones, I really don't doubt you at all mate. I did start a Chem Eng degree, but most of the knowledge garnered was erased by weed, booze and Trisha. I'll try and find the article or advert, as it's probably by a cable manufacturer (which destroys all form of credibility in most peoples minds, I'm sure, but I've got to try).

 

Try a Russ Andrews Yello powerkord. They defy the laws of physics by being able to simultaniously suck and blow at the same time .

 

Found it on the AudioQuest site.

 

Thanks, shall digest. But at a very quick glance, it sounds like self-promoting humbug - lots of unsupported definite statements ("Such-and-such is very important").

 

You are correct it is. But is only an issue in the MHz range the Khz range that the ear can detect.

It is relevant for Video cables.

Be that as it may. iIt is an effect that is there all the time and is slightly off topic whilst discusing burn/break in

 

Yep
was just in reply to Tones statement about engineers laughing at it, but i have have misunderstood Tones post

 

Perhaps a more likely explanation of burn-in if it cannot be technically explained is that it is the listener that 'burns-in'. In other words, the listener will adapt and get used to small differences in sound. For example, this weekend I got on a train carriage with a distinct smell of vomit (apologies for the unpleasant subject matter). But by the end of the journey I didn't really notice it anymore. Perhaps smells burn-in on public transport or perhaps I simply got used to it?

I'd also be interested to know if the real believers in stuff like this could point to things in the hi-fi world that others believe in but they don't. Or will it be only silly things like coating the top of CD players with custard* that everyone will agree has no audible benefit?

* Not that I know of anyone who does claim this.

 

I wonder if custard might act to damp the casework .

 

so long as its not lumpy.

 

Why not, it would reduce standing waves .

 

I understand the scepticism, and I can't explain 'burning-in' either. I even wondered myself if it was a 'getting used to it' phenomenon. But how do you explain my example where I replaced NACA5 with NACA5?

I remember a similar debate 30 years ago when different sounding turntables and amplifiers were said by electronics 'experts' to be the stuff of overactive minds, and they had oscilloscopes to prove it couldn't be true. People that claimed to hear differences in cables were regarded as barking as a barking dog in a barking contest in Barking. Now no one gives the concept a second thought.

 

Strange it may seems to your little brain but it seems for some of us the answer is a definite ---- YES.

 

It certainly is, but it only is a nuisance in the MHz frequency range - quite a big one too, so radio engineers have to take it into account in the design of radio circuits. The thing that made my engineers roll over was the thought that there could be any noticeable skin effect associated with frequencies in the audio range. They found it too ridiculous for words.

 

OK, read it, and I think it is a load of self-justifying humbug. Rarely have I seen so many unsubstantiated definite statements in the one place!

One thing puzzles me, and perhaps someone with electronics knowledge can explain it to me. As I understand it, a capacitor is an electrical component consisting of two layers or plates of conducting material with dielectric in between. This arrangement is fundamental to its ability to store charge. So, if you have a cable in a dielectric, you have one conductor and one dielectric. How on earth can the thing store charge like a capacitor? A conductor is missing.

In short, I think this article is complete clop, but I'm happy to be persuaded otherwise by someone who knows more about electronics than I (which is nearly everybody). However, this article seems to fail on simple logic alone. But then, that would appear to be par for the course in the oleaginous reptilian fluid business.

 

Tone
many cables have capacitance
most cables (in the context we are talking) will consist of a conducter with its insulater and that will be adjacent or joined to another conducter with its insulater.

Think of many of the budget cables, a figure of 8 type cable, so 2 conducters with insulaters right next to each other. Most mains cables are of the same construction aswell ( cables in your wall, not flex).
Many cables will have a braided or plaited geometry, this can also have a capacitance.
I couldnt comment on the effects of this to an audio signal, but i know it is a concern to mechanism's we design at work.
Now, if i consider my phono stage that i built myself (so at least i have a vague knowledge of the circuiot), imediatly before the output sockets is a 1UF PP cap. The signal travels through that cap, and the value is critical. I know it is critical as i have tried a higher value with dire results. So imagine i use a cable with high capacitance to connect my phono amp to my int amp, in effect that cable will add capacitance to the output of my phono amp, and hence influence the sonics of it.