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In Reply to: RE: Saving 2+ years of phono cable break in. posted by JerryS on January 16, 2015 at 13:17:20
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: 01/23/15Follow Ups:
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.
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