Cable burn in

The process of change occurring in audio cables caused by signal transmission.

Dear @Suedkiez,

We said before that on this one we were not going to trust salespeople.

Publishing evidence and trust are two different things. It is normal procedure to publish evidence for your claim in a manner that allows others to analyze and repeat the experiment. Granted, not when selling commodities, but in this particular case, if someone is claiming to know why, as in the waffle by Nordost and Cablecooker, then I think I can expect more. (The option to just say “we don’t know why, but that’s what listening tests tell us” always exists, and I can totally live with that)

I make a note to document this in my paper.

I imagine you have seen the Naim video about the cable shaker?

Yes. They they used ‘the option to just say “we don’t know why, but that’s what listening tests tell us” and I can totally live with that’

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I also despise them, who cannot substantiate their claims.

But we are here to change the situation, in an amicable and scientific way.

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Cables cannot be ‘directional’…and even if they could, your amp is pushing out AC which would rather undo this supposed directionality…

I addition, the Naim engineer’s preferred hypothesis was microphony, and I see no (or at least less of a) fundamental problem with this. Nor did he claim that the shaker makes the cable 1.5 dB louder :slight_smile:

If I remember well, microphony was a remark by the guy making the interview. The reply from the Naim engineer being: “Well, yes, microphony.” In a somehow dismissing way.

To be checked but let’s remain still and take microphony out of the picture.

No. It is the engineer who first says at 4:20 that the more rigid the cable is, the more mechanical coupling you get. Then the visitor remarks “microphony” and the engineer says “yes, microphony” in a clearly affirmative way.

But yes, we can agree that microphony may not be completely understood at the minutest levels in audio, but it is a phenomenon that undoubtedly exists, and around which Naim has redesigned much of their lineup.

Point taken but we agree to take microphony out of the picture.

It is one of the cases where the observer modifies the observation. Let’s remain still.

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Naim disagrees: they put directional labels on their cables.

Mark

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How can a cable carrying AC be directional…?

I think for shielded cables the shield can be only attached on one end only.
So could apply to interconnects, but not speaker cable

Indeed. Directionality is established through listening one way and then the other to each sample batch. Which can be a problem if the manufacturer of something like NACA5 gets it wrong, as the direction marker is printed on the outer sheath. I recall some years ago Roy not being happy with the latest batch of NACA5 that had just been delivered (As with any cable, as soon as it arrived, Roy would cut off a number of lengths and subject them to running and listening over a week or two before allowing them into stock proper). He preferred them the wrong way around. So enquiries were made with the manufacturer. Seems he got it spot on and heard it right; a new person who made an error and had got the direction markers printed the wrong way. The whole batch of about a thousand metres of NACA5 had to be scrapped.

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In Naim’s case, it simply sounds better in one direction :slight_smile:

Even more usefully in the context of the thread subject, the 4 cables could be compared blind to see if there are any reliably identifiable differences, thought sensibly including at least one additional cables not “burnt in” to factor in the possibility of differences between nominally identical unused cables.

I don’t think anybody is quite sure why or how. Julian wondered whether it was established during the extruding or application of the outer insulation sheathing, like a sort annealing process, but couldn’t say for sure. All anybody can be sure of, is that some cables can sound better one way than the other (see my post above).

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We can make a blind test so let’s put five cables in the budget.

But I am trying to keep the human factor off, allow me to be clear on this point.