Burning in cables - question

[cannonball24]

Quick question about burning in cables. Specifically speaker cables in this case but I suppose it probably applies to all cables in general.

Does volume matter in terms of how fast/well they burn in? Or do you just need to have current flowing through them?

I know when I burned in my speakers volume made a difference but I never really thought about this for cables.

TY

[lejonklou]

I’m probably not the right person to answer this, as I’m rather insensitive to burn-in phenomena. My impression is that if it sounds right, I can sense it right away. Usually the music calms down a bit and becomes more homogenic over time, but it’s always along a predictable pattern.

Anyway, I’ve found that some of these changes occur just with time passing after the soldering or crimping. They seem to settle. But then there’s also a second effect that occurs with voltage being present. I’ve burned in unused cables that have been years old and they do change a little after having been used for a while.

I have not found it helpful to have louder than normal voltages across these cables, they seem to break in just as well with a normal signal. I also haven’t found any burn-in equipment to do any good. All the ones I’ve tried, starting with special CDs and then specialised boxes (that usually emit intermittent high frequency spikes) have been negative in their effect on musical performance of the cable. And this negative effect is usually permanent, which I find strange and surprising.

So my recommendation is to burn in every cable in the normal environment in which it is intended to be used.

[cannonball24]

Thank you for the advice Fredrik! Yes I have my cables plugged in between my Pioneer receiver and my regular speakers to start, and am just running an FM radio signal playing regular music at a normal volume. Figured it couldn’t hurt to at least give it a day or two of run in before hooking them up to the rest of my regular system.

My wife will be particularly happy that I don’t have to blast music at obnoxious volumes for a week like I did when I burned in my speakers. But man did that make a big difference and I was glad I did.