Burn in - a myth?

Some observations…

  • My baseball glove continued to improve with use over time as the leather softened and was more flexible.
  • My carbon steel frying pan has developed a nice patina over time which prevents food from sticking.
  • My Nait XS 2 sounded underwhelming when I first tried it at home. Years later I’ve become accustomed to its sound and have learned to live with its strengths and weaknesses. I once brought it to a dealer to try with speakers. Compared to the other amps we tried it sounded rather timid, lacking dynamics. On the positive side, it was less offensive with some material. So I guess it still is underwhelming years later.
  • On warm days my system generally sounds fuller and…warmer. Is it my ears, my mood, the speaker cone material, the electronics that are affected?
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“the feel of the sound has changed slightly” - and I prefer it.

We often find things we prefer to be ‘better’.

I’ve learned not to insist on Fraim, burn in, cable direction and so on. I have my experience but I’m never sure if it will be echoed by that of other people.

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If a cable sounds agressive and edgy during the first hours , you let the system running 24 hours and discover the sound has became much softer and open, it’s not a slight difference and cognitive subjective appreciation, specially as your mind has not been accustomed progressively to the new sound. First listening at t+ 1 hour and second listening at t+ 24 hours.

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I’ve only recently discovered Furutech power cables. Wow!!! It’s really my kind of sound. Just the most natural power cables I’ve ever heard. I was so impressed with the more affordable ones that I opted to have my cable guy build the top spec limited edition DPS 4.1 cables.

Looking forward to testing them on my NAP 135 monoblocks.

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That’s good

What is odd though is the poster a few back who said:

This is the oddity about ‘burn in’. It’s acceptable to say they sound great immediately yet allegedly they will change over a period of even months. And it’s always for the better. I don’t get it.

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I’ve read many reasons for why cables break in. Conductor conductivity and dielectric break in etc.

I don’t know why it happens but it does. My silver cables have started sounding good after about 5 months so yes I can understand and accept that statement.

I have also read that eventually all conductors begin to lose conductivity and the sound begins to dull. High frequency has been reported to diminish. This is decades from new.

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Please let us know how they sound as they run in.

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I do not know why the effect new cables have on sound often changes over weeks and months, but a hypothesis in addition to ones mentioned above is that it could also be to do with the fact that electricity is necessarily entwined with magnetism and the magnetic properties of some new cables change as electricity first runs through them.

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Honestly I have no idea how people are confident that a perceived difference in sound over a period of months is entirely down to one cable changing, in a system consisting of so many variables, with so many other candidates for the change (if indeed, there is any change).

  • psychological (our brain perceiving change where there is none)
  • expectation bias (I’m spent lots on these things that must be why the system sounds so good)
  • physiological (hearing differently today than yesterday due to changes in the body)
  • ambient temperature, humidity, pressure
  • ambient sounds and noise level
  • temperature and state of amplifiers, source, power supplies
  • fluctuations in the power source to hifi boxes
  • all the other cables in the mix

Yet supposedly it’s certainly all down to one cable changing over a 5-6 month period.

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But most audiophiles with good hearing and systems experience and report it. I’d say up to 3 weeks cable wise to reach a point where any changes are incrementally small. More like 6 weeks for hifi components and speakers.

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It certainly is difficult to isolate the long term impact on the sound of one cable for the reasons you give.

The reason it’s possible (and I say possible rather than certain) is because in some cases people have stable systems and only change one cable, and they get a significant audible effect over the first hours and days.

Also, burn in applies to new cables, not to one’s existing cables, which typically have been in the system for months or years already reached a relatively stable state in terms of their effect on sound.

One only has to suspend disbelief for a moment in the burn in effect, and then you can see that if it is real (which I believe it is) it would be difficult to distinguish those effects from other daily rhythms and changes in the system and in the electrical environment of your home.

That’s not a reason to doubt the reality of burn-in, it’s a reason to take care to try and investigate a subtle phenomenon rather than rejecting it.

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Only Arts graduates from Oxbridge need apply!

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That’s fair

I don’t listen closely enough to confidently identify the cause of subtle changes over time. I can imagine some people are more attuned to their system and more aware of small differences.

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I think when your credit card statement comes through a month later it has some effect. :wink:

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Reassuringly expensive ?

:+1:t2:

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The TCS31 is my first Furutech cable and it has exceeded my expectations. The DPS4.1 is above my budget but if I ever need another mains power cable this will be it.

With Furutech cables, the plugs (US types) are said to be more important than the cable. Furutech cables excel in tonality and have a full textured sound. I like it a lot. It currently connects the power conditioner to the wall outlet. I have a Wireworld Silver Elektra and it sounds noticeably thinner and leaner and lacks the full and nuanced delivery of the Furutech. The Wireworld is now used on less important component which is the streamer.

Comparing old and new cables blind is not difficult, but the will to verify seems strangely absent, instead a willingness to believe. As mentioned in an earlier post the thread where someone was discussing plans to do just this, inviting constructive suggestions and discussion, ended up being taken down after too many disagreeable posts.

For my part I am sceptical because whilst I have yet to hear a remotely plausible explanation for why cables might change with initial use*, I am aware of numbers of plausible reasons why a listener might believe they hear “burn in” of cables. This is different from run-in or “burn in” of some other system components, as I can very much see a mechanism for mechanical devices with compliant parts to change through the initial hours of flexing (e.g. speakers and cartridges), and for some electronic components within a “black box” changing slightly through initial hours of powering.

(*With the possible exception of any cables used on mains or speakers that are so inadequately rated that they get hot in use.)

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Burn in for electronics/cables is a myth/between our Naim ears. For mechanical moving parts like speakers/cartridges it isn’t.

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Of the Furutech cables that I’ve heard which are the affordable ones. They all seem to have the more muscular, body to the music kind of sound. And treble has always sounded sweeter to me.

I believe in the very high end - ready made options they exhibit a more faster transient and attack kind of sound. This I believe is the Nanoflux and above. This is what a user told me. I haven’t heard those ones myself.

Is ‘nano’ still the trendiest word in techno-babble … ?

:roll_eyes: