How to burn in new cable
How to burn in new cable and what is the best way to do it. I would like to say that it takes time and patience to burn in a cable and I You have spent money and you want results right? Why should you think that cable burn in is even necessary? Let me explain in the best way that I know how.
The system
Your system can be Hi-end system or it can be a normal stereo system but what ever you have the procedure is exactly the same. You do not need anything special to burn your cable in correctly all you need is time.
Direction
When you buy a new cable, make sure it has direction arrows marked on because it must always be put in the correct way. The correct way is in the direction of flow, which is source to amplifier and from amplifier to Loudspeakers. If there is no direction arrow on the cable you will have to put one on. This is necessary because you will need to remove cables for cleaning and they must go back in the same direction. For more information on this please click here.
Method
You must unpack your new cable or cables very carefully and make sure that you do not touch the ends. This could add dirt and moisture, which will affect the sound. When your cable is new it has no direction established and it is up to you to actually establish the direction. Connect your cables and put your Burn in CD in the player and set to repeat.
Play the CD for 24 hours and then stop for an hour. Change the CD and play this CD for 24 hours and stop for an hour. Change the CD back to the first CD and play for 24 hours. You now have a good basic burn in of the cables. The next step will be for you to play the music when you want because the basic burn in has been done. You will find, the longer you play your music for, the better your system will sound.
Burn in CD
The best CD you can buys is from “Ayre acoustics” and the title of the CD is “Irrational, But Efficacious”. This CD will also make changes to your audio system and in fact actually “tunes” your system for optimum listening. For more information on this please click here. Another CD is titled “Esoteric system enhancement disc”. This CD will actually increase your burn in time by 30% as stated in the information package. For more information on this please click here
How to Burn and what is burn in
This is a paragraph from “Nordost” who I think are one of the best manufactures of audiophile cables. “When cables are new, they have no directionality, as this directionality has not been established. But when you start to pass a current through the cables, then things like trapped gases are dissipated and small impurities in the conductor’s metal begin to act like a diode. A diode prefers the current to pass in one direction and this is what is meant when we ask how to burn in a cable” For more information on this please click here. Another good read from a disbelieving person is here
Time
The first 24 hours are critical and this must be strictly ahead to for the best results. The next two periods must be followed in the same manner. After this you will hear changes after 100 hours of playing and 250 hours of playing and again after 1000 hours of playing.
PLEASE NOTE
I am not trying to sell anything to you like the CD’s as some people have thought. I am only sharing this information because it does work for me and I know it also works for my friends and also my customers and many other people. For more information on this please read here
If you have any question then please feel free to contact and thank you for reading.
I’m just curious what this is based on.
“When cables are new, they have no directionality, as this directionality has not been established. But when you start to pass a current through the cables, then things like trapped gases are dissipated and small impurities in the conductor’s metal begin to act like a diode.”
Hello Kevin
This has been passed on by the technical dept Nordost who are in my mind the best manufacture of Hi-end cables world wide
Many years ago I though it was all load of BS and it was only until I was invited to attend a Nordost training seminar which
lasted three days I was able to her this for myself
What are you using at the moment if I may ask??
best regards
Paul
What other industries use these techniques?
Hello Dave
There are many thoughts on cable burning in and many people say it is a load of B/S as I thought years ago
The method I am talking about is what I do to burn in my cables before I ship them to customers as I have found
by many hours of research this works!
If you would like to use a machine to do this then please visit Nordost and more information http://nordost.com/blog/what-is-cable-burn-in/
Lou Haynes
02:21 (14 hours ago)
From: lhclub@outlook.com
Sent: Tuesday, January 03, 2017 12:15 PM
To: ‘paul goodwin’
Subject: Burning in new cable
Hi Paul,
Interesting about cable burning in and having the best cables, way back 40 years ago when I first heard this stuff I thought it was all Bollocks for the companies selling you on it.
But since then it wasn`t and it does make a difference and thanks for the great cable.
Your site is looking great!
Lou
“There are many thoughts on cable burning in and many people say it is a load of B/S..”
that is because it is
Hello Steven
Thank you for your comments which I respect.
Please have a read of this http://nordost.com/blog/what-is-cable-burn-in/
Can I just ask you what sort of cables you are using in your system and
also the manufacture
best regards
paul
“What other industries use these techniques?”
none because it is a waste of time
Hello
my father has many many cables and a very large audio system and he has friends round who help him burn in cables and I have heard the difference that it does make so for all the people who do not believe that it does you are missing out!!!
Laura
This wins the internet for the most RETARDED thing… EVER.. lulz
Hello FY
I love your style and am sorry to say the blog is still going and I will will award a prize to the worst comment OK
Horse apples.
Hello Scott
Thanks for your words and I LOVE apples by the way!
I am just wondering why so many people believe in burn in and so many do not maybe the same as saying Man will walk on the moon???
Hello,
I too am a firm believer in this process. I have also found that by reducing the capacitance, which seems to soothe out the overall quality by smoothing out the irregularities. People just don’t know what this process can do for them, until they experience it themselves.
Les
Hello Les
I thank you for this comment and I am happy that you can understand and have experienced this.
Many people most of the time just love to make comments on something that they have never actually
done them selves and this is really upsetting. Our ears are the best judge and that is all that really
matters when you become involved with audio -
best regards
Paul
I will gladly pay you $10,000 USD if any substantive and quantifiably measurable difference in final audio output quality can be measured (through any verified and professionally ran double-blind study) following “burn-in” or comparison of cable directionality. Both of these items hold zero value from a logical standpoint in regards to what we know about electricity and electrical cable functionality. Your ‘source’ is one article by a company selling this nonsense that cites no sources or evidence to support the claims.
My money is on the chance that this is a trolling expedition on a rather uninventive piece of audiophillic pseudoscience. If not, then you, sir, are of the most gullible and obtuse of men.
Hello C.G
I thank you for your comments and have read with great interest and understand where you are coming from
and it reminds of the bumble bee - impossible to fly but it does!
I am wondering how many audio cable you have actually listened to and if none then I am quite happy to send
you a new cable and you can do your own tests if you agree to give your us your results
Best regards
Paul
There is 0% science to back this up. Are you trying to make this article go viral as a hoax? Whomever told you this doesn’t know what they’re talking about. Probably the same snake oil salesmen that tell you a power cable will get you better sound. Total garbage….
Hello Clifton
I thank your for your comments and I will say that Power cords are indeed a great source of debate
for the past twenty year that I have been involved with high end audio. I would have agreed with
you 100% until I actually sat down and listened for my self and then I realised that these idiots
were not such idiots after all!
You see Clifton you have to just sit down and listen for yourself just as I did twenty years ago!
best regards
paul
I’m an audio engineer and i may have mixed down some of the material you listen to on your “Hi-Fi” system. If i can’t hear the difference neither can you. Don’t BS me….
Hi again Clifton,
I too have worked with Mathew holt (ex Moody blues) in his studio in London many years ago
and also done live mixing and had my own studio in Canada back in the eighties so I am familiar
with Mixing.
I also have hearing checks every two years and so I know my hearing is still 100% and as I do
not smoke or drink Alcohol so my senses are still as good as one could expect.
I also know that people do not hear the same for instance My wife can hear better than me as
she has “super sensitive hearing” as well as her other senses which is a bit awkward sometimes!
I am quite happy to put you in Touch with a gentleman who is also an electronic engineer with
more than 25 years designing electronic equipment for medical ultrasound - namely multichannel
amplifiers and a/d converters. He will say “I have been shocked to hear that power cable change
the sound. that USB cabe change the sound. RCA cable change the sound, no questions. direction?
yes, definitely, with some types of cables. just need to have good enough system” This is a quote
from a comment in a Facebook discussion https://www.facebook.com/groups/270936656576656/permalink/390226911314296/?comment_id=390864917917162&ref=notif¬if_t=group_comment¬if_id=1483459164748941
Hope this helps
Best regards
Paul
There are two theories on this, hole flow theory and electron flow theory. In 46 years as an engineer I have always ascribed to the electron flow theory which clearly proves directionality of electron flow is negated in audio. It is interesting that the writer has ignored this and has prescribed the hole flow theory by putting arrows on cables. Hole flow theory would be not only appropriate but actually a safety concern if this were, say, a battery connection. It has always been my understanding that polarity matters but directionality is irrevalaent. I am open minded and alway interested in learning. Please direct me to your research on this. Also, I am not sure the full 49 hours of burn in is necessary considering the half life of copper, measured beta-decay is roughly 33 seconds. So, what do the researchers consider as prescribing the other 48 hours 59 minutes and 27 seconds?
Again, I am an engineer seeking the latest research.
Hello Ken
I thank you for your letter and it makes very good reading which I appreciate.
I included links in the blog so you could follow to get for information from
other sources and as I said I am not trying to sell any CD’s or anything like
I am just sharing information on a method I use and it works for me.
Like you I am very open minded and 40 years ago just used the normal cables that
came with the amps and was very happy and the about twenty years ago go interested
in Hi-end audio and was introduced to many new things.
Now before I was say it is all B/S and makes no difference but now is a different
as my ears tell me differently.
As I know there is NO SCIENTIFIC testing ever been done on this and it is easy to
say rubbish when a person has never experienced testing for himself but I will
say that it works!
best regards
Paul
Could you explain how audio cables have “direction” considering they are used to pass an AC signal, which is bi-directional by default?
Have you ever heard of a thing called confirmation bias?
It is where you swear with the most sincerity that all the money and time you spent on your audio electronics and accessories actually makes a difference because you can hear it, even though no one else can. Many guitarist suffer from it when they swear they can tell a difference from a valve/tube amp and a solid-state one (all other things being equal), or how different woods effect the sound of their guitar.
Perhaps there’s a DC signal on that audio CD you are trying to get us to buy that you can listen to while you “burn-in” your cable. (eye rolling emoji)
Hi Johnathan
But of course and well done !!!!
FYI - I found this a few days ago and thought that you may be interested to read
http://www.hilberink.nl/tannoy/perkune1.htm
best regards
Paul
Hi Johnathan
Being a guitar player myself I concur with everything said about different woods for guitar bodies and also
tube amps and TT amps. Play Diana Krall on a Cary SEI 300B and switch to an Esoteric I-03 amplifier and if a
person cannot hear the difference then they need to have their hearing checked!
Conformation Bias is a good point BUT when I am doing testing there are always other people present and we take
the evaluation of the group to decide what is correct. Also in the previous email I send you the report of a
completely independent person who did a review on the interconnects which was clean fresh ears!
What is the system you are using ???
best regards
Paul
Hi,
I’m Carmelo. You’re right about burn-in. Cable burn-in is a real fact. It shoul happen as ‘voltage burn-in’ (dielectric level) and as ‘current burn-in’ (conductor level). There are different aspects that work together at the same time, but with the right technology is possible to measure in a statistically repeatitive manner the changes that occur in the cables. In lay terms, we are at the atomic levels.
Hello Carmelo
I thank you for that great information and int is
great that you can relate tom this.
The one thing that really upsets me is that a person says
it is all B/S and a money making scam!!!
Happy to hear from you any time my atomic friend!!!
best regards
paul