Wooooh. From the 2nd one:
"Breaking in" a cable has everything to do with the insulation - not the wire itself. The insulation (or dielectric) will absorb energy from the conductor when a current is flowing (i.e. when music is playing). This energy-absorption causes the dielectric's molecules to re-arrange themselves from a random order into a uniform order. When the molecules have been rearranged, the dielectric will absorb less energy & consequently cause less distortion.
This is pure BS. The only form of "energy" from the wire that can be transmitted to the insulation is heat. So even if this was true, cables could be "preconditioned" by doing some simple heat treatment. But the bottom line is this, because of the simple solid state physics concept known as "diffusion kinetics", it is absolutely impossible for the energy from the wire to the insulation to be high enough (i.e., a hot enough temperature) that any molecular re-arrangement goes on. Would have to be at least on the order of 200C for a polymer.
The funny part? The 2nd part is actually correct: because of lower capacitance, solid core actually is better than stranded. But can anyone hear the effect? I doubt it. But if you go to a place like
www.bluejeanscable.com, you can actually get solid core cable at very reasonable prices anyway. (Simple coax RG-59U or 6U.)
OK, just read the rest, makes more sense now...
Good links!
[This message has been edited by Kevin C Brown (edited June 11, 2003).]
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