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Cables break in? Dear Dr. Jon Wong, Thanks very much for your reply on my question about the 845 tube. Recently, I visited AudioQuest's web site and read the FAQ section. They describe about mechanism of the cable break-in. If I remember it right, the theory is that as there are signals travelling along the cable, the electrons in the dielectric will absorb the signal energy, resulting in signal loss and hence distortion. However, after absorbing energy, the electrons are then arranging themselves better. At some point, the signal loss becomes minimal as the electrons in the dielectric are at the stable state (orderly arranged). Now, the cable is said to be "broken-in". BUT, after the signal are gone, the electrons are getting random again. The cable now becomes brand "new" !!! In those Hi-Fi magazines, people always say we need to break in the cables in order to get better performance. However, if the above theory is true, it is not practical to have a broken-in cable as the cable becomes new again once we don't stress it. I am a bit curious about it. Thanks! Mark |
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Hi Mark! When I was in Leicester University as a Research Assistant, I came across some High Voltage Direct Curret transmission (HVDC) system, and had read some cable design work. However, I am not a specialists in Metallurgy with regards to signal transmission. By physics, unless the voltage is very high or the frequency is very high, the dielectric absorbtion (or breakdown) is not going to be very serious. The dielectric forms Capacitance, which affects high frequency because capacitance is a short circuit for high frequency signals. What you should worry more is the copper atoms should arrange themselves nicely as a complete cyrstals with no defects. Then they will form a perfect conductor with as little resistance and inductance as it should. One method is precise and controlled annealing (cooling of hot copper) to get a complete, nice long crystal. As such, it is very bad to kink, bent or deform cables. You destroy the continuity? One way to break in cables is to pass a very high current through it. I am not sure what is the physical or chemical change that happens, but I find it a very effective methods. I used to use a high current transformer, some RCA sockets and a high power reisistor bank. I passed about 3 amperes of current (at 50Hz ac of course) through the coaxial RCA cables, or even speaker cables. After 24 hours, there is a mark difference. The sound is more open and the attack more distinct. This works for cables like van den Hul MC silver to ordinary Hitachi 6N cables. It works for my video cables as well. Any materials physicists here to explain the changes here? Using a pre-amp to break it will certianly take longer. Perhaps it will never be broken in because the current is small. |
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