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Gear / Technical Help => Cables => Topic started by: thegreatgumbino on August 20, 2004, 01:44:32 PM
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Anybody have anything to offer up on this subject? I am going to be making my first pair of canare cables this weekend, and I am unsure about burn-in time. I have seen a handfull of posts related to this, but nothing definitive. Is it required/recommended? What does it have to offer? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
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It depends on the cable type and length. The best thing is to do as Moke suggested and set them up with a source and load and let them run for a few weeks. I've read reports that burn-in can take from 100h to 500h depending on alot of different factors. I don't know what associated gear you run, but burn-in may not make a difference for you.
My personal experience is that I believe I have heard noticable burnin effects with my speaker cables (sound got smoother after a couple hundered hours) and power cords (bass got deeper and background quieter after about 75 hours) but less so with the interrconnects that I use. ymmv
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I am going with 20 ft canare star quad with neutrik silver xlr connectors. I suppose I will set them up with the UA-5 and let them run for a few days. Thanks.
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On another note gumbino, when you make the cables, the intended directionality of the cables is noted by the writing on the outer jacket. Signal should flow through the writing from left to right, as you read the writing, as opposed to the other direction. You may not notice a difference if done the other way, but that is the common practice.
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Good to know. I don't remember reading that anywhere. Thanks for the tip!
+T for tip
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as per speakerwire, 24-48 hours is good for basic break in time, but one can really see the effects of burn in after the cables get a few hundred hours of use in them. same with any cable really
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+T's all around for the help. Made my cables this weekend and have them burning in right now. Thanks.
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so to burn in the cables I would say.... hook them up to my v3 and power it up
and turn on the phantom but don't plug in the mics right? ???
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I'd plug the mics in so that there's some current going through the cables...
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I'd plug the mics in so that there's some current going through the cables...
Dito what he said.
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I can't say I have ever heard a difference with "burning in" cables, but I'm a firm believer in burning in equipment. Amps, speakers, pre-amps etc... all sound better to me after about a week of burn in.
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i bought this mac-daddy coax->rca digital cable and it came with a letter that read....
"OmniWire II will undergo gradual change over a period of about an hour when it is installed in your system. At a minimum, allow your system to play for 15 to 20 minutes before begining critical listening. The effects of the warm-up process are more obvious with Omniwire II simply because the ultimate noise-floor after the warm-up cycle is substancially lower and resolution is substantially greater - than with most other cables. This warm-up cycle will recur whwnever you first start playing "cold" components interconnected with Omniwire II, and whenever you remove and re-install the cable. (for this reason, quick A/B comparisons with other wires will NEVER reveal the full potential of Omniwire II)"
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good reading about breaking in cables, etc.
http://www.audioholics.com/techtips/audioprinciples/interconnects/Cable-Breakin.html
found these 2 to be humorous:
"So is cable break in just a ploy for getting people to keep the cables beyond the return period, or perhaps long enough that their desire to do anything about the lack of any improvement is gone?" - Paul F
Interestingly, the New Scientists recently commented on the London Heathrow Hi Fi Show, saying that among the cables selling for up to £30,000 for 6 metres, they found Quad demonstrating their latest speakers to great enthusiasm. The orange cable to the speakers looked oddly familiar. When asked about it, Tony Faulkner, the recording engineer demonstrating them (who'd used the speakers as monitors while recording Saint-Saen's complete works for piano & orchestra, Gramophone's Record of the Year), said of the cables:
"Yes, they would look familiar if you have a garden. Before the show opened we went over the road to the DIY superstore and bought one of those £20 extension leads that Black & Decker sells for electric hedge-cutters. They are made from good, thick copper wire, look nice and sound good to me. The show's been running for three days and no one in the audience has noticed..." - New Scientist Magazine
marc
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there was an article in Absolute Sound sometime in the last few months about using Home Depot extension cord for speaker cable... it's supposed to sound great!
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there was an article in Absolute Sound sometime in the last few months about using Home Depot extension cord for speaker cable... it's supposed to sound great!
when i get home i can scan or retype it- it is really really short.
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thanks Jonny, I don't have the original article anymore.
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there was an article in Absolute Sound sometime in the last few months about using Home Depot extension cord for speaker cable... it's supposed to sound great!
Home Depot HD-14G
est. $30 per 50-foot pair with terminations
Okay, the model designation is my own invention, standing for H (Home) D (Depot) 14G(auge) outdoor extension cord. Otherwise, this entry is no joke. Like several other cables, it comes in a decorative jacket, here of striking orange and black, evocative of Halloween; unlike the others, you must snip off its AC connectors and attach terminations of choice (I used Pomona bananas). The HD-14G rendered Murray Perahia’s piano in a big bold manner, lacking just a little in finesse and ultimate transparency. It threw an image on Jacintha’s “Something’s Gotta Give” with the best—one note reads, “some of the best depth of any cable”—with tuneful bass, notably good height, and a quite lifelike projection. On the Rachmaninoff, it didn’t sound as “fast,” transparent, controlled, or defined in the bass as the better cables, but it wasn’t far behind them either, and it was always highly listenable and involving, with a big-boned, robust presentation that flattered the Appalachian Spring sonics. As for detail, well, it allowed me to hear every piano chord that bleeds through Jacintha’s headphones at the beginning of “Danny Boy” (Autumn Leaves); more detail than that you don’t need.
I’ll leave the last observation to the most technically knowledgeable, musically literate, and experienced of my listening group: “You know what’s really good about this cable? It sounds totally unscrewed around with.” If its half-inch thickness isn’t macho enough, Home Depot also sells a 12-gauge for half again that sum, and a 10-gauge for about twice the price, both in less attractive yellow-and-black jackets. If you still think I’m kidding, know that Tony Faulkner—engineer of about a third of the best-sounding orchestral recordings of the last twenty years—used the Black-and-Decker equivalent to hook up his Quad 989s at the recent Heathrow Show in England—“They are made from good, thick copper wire, look nice and sound good to me”—and that the designer of what is by provable standards one of the half dozen or so most accurate loudspeakers ever made uses and recommends it all the time.
http://forums.audioreview.com/showthread.php?t=4339
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they sound okay, better with a solid state system than a tube system