Cable Burn In

[Colin Wonfor]

All insulators cause electron drag, for a want of a different description.
This effects the high frequency and there edges and thus the rise and fall time, we see this as skin effect.
Air is best or space, Teflon is great, silk is great (long chain molecules) cotton and rubber not so good.
It also seems to be related to temperature i.e. melting or rapid electron movement.
These effect are very small and in theory we should not notice them, but I can't hear a dog whistle but I am aware it there.
I tried a experiment a long time ago using 40KHz .
Two transmitters/transducer were pointed at folk walking in a shopping mall. One fixed at 40KHz and the other FM at 40KHz and audio limited to 5KHz BW.
Aiming the cone the heads people, some heard on some occasion's the voice of Prof Bill saying "This is the voice of God" the reactions we got was very funny.
So to me that says we can hear the effect of higher than audio frequencies on some humans.
That was 20 yrs ago, now the mobile phone has destroyed humans to hear anything. I hate digital.

[icehockeyboy]

The top end is reappearing, burning in? Who knows.
Removal of cheap banana plugs? Who knows again.
What I do know is that it isn’t just me getting used to the sound, otherwise where has the top end come from that was missing when I first plumbed the cable in?

[walpurgis]

Your hearing varies and eventually you forget exactly what the previous set-up sounded like anyway,

[Macca]

The top end is reappearing, burning in? Who knows.
Removal of cheap banana plugs? Who knows again.
What I do know is that it isn’t just me getting used to the sound, otherwise where has the top end come from that was missing when I first plumbed the cable in?

Some recordings have more top end than others. Or are you just playing the same record over and over again? This is what gets me about evaluating this sort of thing by listening. The differences between recordings are usually greater than the differences between any two bits of kit except possibly speakers.

Without proper controls it's impossible to be certain if anything is really changing in objective reality or not.

I don't worry about it anymore. I'm either happy with the sound quality or I'm not. If I'm happy I listen, if I'm not I cock about with the system.

[icehockeyboy]

I always play the same few tracks, one being Dire Straits ‘Your Latest Trick’
There’s a hi hat about 75 seconds or so in.
When I first plumbed in the new cable, it just wasn’t there, despite turning my head to line up my better ear in line with the speakers.

It’s now reappearing.

[Stratmangler]

I always play the same few tracks, one being Dire Straits ‘Your Latest Trick’
There’s a hi hat about 75 seconds or so in.
When I first plumbed in the new cable, it just wasn’t there, despite turning my head to line up my better ear in line with the speakers.

It’s now reappearing.

What about the ride cymbal that's present prior to the hi-hat strike?

[Macca]

There's no way it can't have been there at all unless the cable was cutting off all frequencies above about 1KHz. If it was you'd notice a lot more missing than just the hi-hat.

Could it not be that having noticed that as the sound was dull in general the first time out, you are now just listening more intently for those higher frequency cues in the hope that they are coming through more clearly now?

My guess is this is nothing to do with the speaker cable but some more fundamental problem with one or more of the main components, either some sort of incompatibility or just poor quality.

[walpurgis]

The occasional ear syringing can work wonders, but I understand that's frowned upon now. Probably NHS trying to save money I reckon.

[icehockeyboy]

What about the ride cymbal that's present prior to the hi-hat strike?

Absolutely M
But that’s not the bit I listen for.

[icehockeyboy]

There's no way it can't have been there at all unless the cable was cutting off all frequencies above about 1KHz. If it was you'd notice a lot more missing than just the hi-hat.

Could it not be that having noticed that as the sound was dull in general the first time out, you are now just listening more intently for those higher frequency cues in the hope that they are coming through more clearly now?



My guess is this is nothing to do with the speaker cable but some more fundamental problem with one or more of the main components, either some sort of incompatibility or just poor quality.

So how come the higher frequencies were audible prior to the cable swap?