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73.34.0.83
This post assumes, and I believe, that cable break in is a fact and actually occurs.
Here is a standard for cable break in time. The unit "Volt/hours" has this standard definition:
1 Volt/hour = 1 Volt of varying AC signal applied to an audio cable for 1 hour, or Volts x hours.
If a cable is said to reach an acceptable "mostly complete" break in after 100 hours of use, then greater or lesser voltage levels could be expected to affect break in time proportionally.
The impetus for this post came about after a discussion with a manufacturer about my method of breaking in the wiring on a new tonearm. If it takes ~100 hours to break in an interconnect cable at 2V line level, it would take *years* to break in a phono cable with the tiny output voltage from a moving coil cartridge.
I said that I use a sweep signal generator with an output of 7.2 Volts. Five days of continuous sweep tones will give the arm wiring the equivalent of about 19 years of non-stop playing with a moving coil cartridge with .5 mV output. That is the equivalent of playing the cartridge for about 172,000 hours! If I reduce the voltage to 2V line level for those same 5 days, this will give an equivalent Volt/hours break in time of “only” 5 years or 48,000 hours of continuous moving coil cartridge play.
Bottom line: For tonearm wiring used with a .5 mV cartridge, it would take about 2 years 4 months of continuous play to get the same break in that an interconnect plugged in to a CD player or DAC would receive in 100 hours. Breaking in a phono cable with a line level signal saves a LOT of time and about 10 cartridge retips!
There are many articles and opinions about cable break in, but empirical data is largely absent. Please consider this just another data point since I have not, nor do I plan to, conduct controlled experiments to test this idea. I am plannng to consider the tonearm wiring fully broken in 5 days from now and not in 2017!
Happy listening.
Regards,
JerryS
Follow Ups:
What about the cart ITSELF? Will THAT ever break in?
Please address the mechanical and electrical in seperate comments.
Too much is never enough
100-150 playing hours is usually required for a cartridge, although a couple have needed over 200 hours to settle down. The Cardas test LPs, with their locked grooves, is great for this chore.
I'm skeptical of your theory. Unless cable burn-in behavior and times change dratically at the mV level or at some very low voltage level approaching zero.Here's why. In my limited experience:
o A power cables takes roughly 5 1/2 days or 132 hours to fully burn in +- 1/2 day.
o An interconnect whether single-ended 2V or balanced 4V, takes roughly 5 1/2 days or 132 hours to fully burn in +- 1/2 day.
o A simple-constructed audio part e.g. plugs, IEC connectors and inlets, fuses (regarless of volts or amps), outlets, etc. all take roughly 53 hours +- 1 hour.
o Speaker cables usually 7 - 8 days. I speculate based on their construction and/or materials.
o Complex components - usually 150 - 275 hours, depending on complexity I speculate.
So if I compare the burn in times of a 1M pair of ic's drawing say 4 volts with my limited experiences of 6ft. power cables drawing 120 volts, I see a whole lot more similarities than I do differences.
But again, maybe at some magic number below say 1V, burn-in behaviors are drastically extended.
Edits: 01/23/15
I think we are in close agreement. I used 100 hours as a baseline, but I have heard some cables and other parts taking 200 or more hours for the sound to settle down and stop changing.
For phono cartridge-level break, my "2 years 4 months of continuous play" is related to the same Volt/hours as higher level signals. The 2+ years is directly related to the voltage output of the specific cartridge, so this could be much faster or slower to get the same Volt/hours figure.
It would be great if a manufacturer could specify recommended break-in time in Volt/hours. Using your numbers, here are the resulting recommended break-in times:
o Power cables: 15180 Volt/hours (115 Volts x 132 hours)
o Interconnects 264 Volt/hours (2 Volts x 132 hours). Balanced is 4V total or 2V per phase.
o Audio part: 6095 Volt/hours (115 Volts x 53 hours)
o Speaker cables: 1920 Volt/hours (10 Volts x 8 days) This is a little harder to specify due to the widely varying voltage levels, so let's use an average of 10 Volts as an estimate.
o Complex components: Can't really offer a spec due to unknown voltages.
Clearly, more testing and data is required to give this idea validity, but known phenomena could be quantified using some reliable research methodology.
Hi, Jerry. The fact that we both believe in burn-in probably makes us almost like blood brothers in some circles.
But you're attributing voltage to burn-in times and the point of my post is that in my limited experience between 2V and 120v, I've not noticed how voltage makes any difference whatsoever. It could, but I'm just saying in my limited experience, I've yet to notice voltage having that impact.
In fact, I speculate that the difference in burn-in times is almost solely related to the object's level of complexity. Moreover, since my primary focus is on resonant energy transfer and the required settling in time there, I can produce a list similar to the one above from a mechanical settling in perspective where the most basic parts take (you won't believe this) roughly 53 hours +- 1 hour to fully settle in.
The biggest and more complex take roughly 150 - 250 hours to settle in. But when I take things to the utmost extreme, it can take months and even years. I've observed both. Talk about watching paint dry?
Nevertheless, it's exciting to see somebody like you take a keen interest in this stuff. I assure you, your time is not wasted by any means.
If we agree that 0 voltage will result in no break in, and some voltage will contribute to break in, then we have the equation
B = V (X + T), where
B = Break in
V = Voltage
X = The big variable of cable complexity/construction/materials
T = Time, because even if you know V and X, break in does not happen instantly
I'm not a mathematician, and this simple formula is almost certainly not a complete explanation. The idea here is that the break in phenomena should be quantifiable.
Why the assumption that Voltage is the key thing. Why not current? Or power (ie voltage x current). Or getting more complex, power per unit cross section?
Actually that makes the most sense to me..but like most of this thread, it's a guess. It's not hard to guess that, say, a thicker cable might need longer to break in, or it might need more current and voltage to cause it to break in at the same rate. It could also be frequency dependent, so for example, 60Hz takes much longer to break in than full audio range signals. That might explain why power cords take as long to break in as interconnects. But I said "might" and "this is a guess"...you'd need to do some controlled experiments to determine what is actually true.
Remember that for every phenomenon, there is a simple, easy to understand and elegant explanation that is completely wrong.
made an adapter for my cable cooker, that was my solution
Very intuitive -JerryS.
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