burning in cables

Cheers Dev.

 

They are not just wires they use magnets also. They use magnetic coupling to induce a voltage. Bascially wires wrapped around magnets. But the wires going in are not electrically connected to the wires going out. They may just be physically touching.

 

The cores are not usually magnetic. In fact I suspect any burning in may be the effectively random AC music signal working out any residual magnetic properties of the core. If you put DC through a transformer it can magnetise the core and bugger it up.

 

transformers can be made from a number of things ..ferrite, steel plates not certain about c cores.

yes ...the connection quality can be heard ...but is a magnitude less than burn in for what ever reason...ime

 

surely the pot or resistor ladder volume control is what burns in..

 

A TVC doesn't have a pot or resistor ladder, just switches to the taps on the transformer.

 

This is the most important observation of all. People tend to forget that sound exists only in our heads, the brain's interpretation of the compressions and rarefactions caused in the atmosphere by vibrating speaker cones and detected by our ears. The interpretation will be as individual as any other individual characteristic, and will be determined by factors such as mood, state of health, previous experiences, expectations and biases, and so on. Each of us lives in his own little very individual sound universe. So, while I don't think burn-in is a real phenomenon, I'd be the last to criticise anyone who believes in it, because for him it is true, and that's all that matters.

The thing I absolutely detest is the way that the cable manufacturers and other assorted crooks seek to elevate such things into absolutes, saying that it does take place, and if you don't hear it, you're somehow deficient.

 

......determined or influenced, tones?


(perhapts a fine line...)

 

Good point! Let's say somewhere in between, perhaps best described as "influenced much more than we would like to think".

 

I suggest there is a very important point here that is being missed. We can learn over time (consciously or unconsciously) to hear more critically and detect subtleties that others do not notice. As we upgrade our hifi systems and listen more carefully to them we also upgrade our listening skills. Maybe this is a reason why we are often dissatisfied with some aspect of our systems even if to others they sound fantastic.

Take an analogy with wine. To appreciate top quality wines your taste has to be cultivated through many tutored tasting sessions - you have to learn to appreciate the complexities and subtleties. If you asked average customers in a supermarket, for example, to taste wine at say £5 a bottle and £500 a bottle you’d probably get a 50/50 split or even a preference for the cheap stuff. (I think the trick here is not to acquire a taste for expensive wine!).

As another example closer to home, you can buy a violin for say £300 or easily £300,000. Now if you stopped people in the street, played a few bars on each instrument then asked them which they’d prefer or even if there was difference… Yet to most professional musicians and classical aficionados there is the world of difference because they’ve spend many years learning those differences.

So the more we listen critically to our systems, the more we increase our listening skills, the more subtleties we can detect and the more important (to us) they are. As with wine, perhaps the trick is to be happy with what we have and to realise that those subtleties are maybe not so important after all.

 

cables need burn-in for over 200 hours and some times over 500 hours to reaching their natural texture.

 

Cable burn in?!? Texture?!?

Can I swear please?

 

there are some good points here.

 

Can YOU explain the chemical and/or physical changes involved in burning in?

 

Yes and this is our road to unhapiness. Last week I listened to a £50k system based around a Simon Yorke TT. The whole thing sounded so perfect, analytical and well-balanced that I found it simply dreadful. They should have paid me quite an amount of money to walk home with the system and even then, I would have sold it. Quite significantly, the shopkeeper used a few standard audiofool records and never cleaned them before spinning, such things just hurt my eyes.

My NAS/72/135/ES14 is far from being a perfect system. The amps hum, the speakers are coloured and have no bass extension. But I happen to listen to music between two and four hours a day simply because the sound suits me. Cables ? Yes I started with Reson DNM speaker cables, I didn't like them and bought a pair of Mogami because they were reasonably priced. The result was more than convincing (more balls) even though I haven't noticed a difference in sound over time. If some people absolutely want to get sucked into the audiofool spiral they can.