Is a break-in period required? If so, how long?

I was trying out the PCAs today and after a few CDs I basically decided they were not close to my prior cable - which makes sense because the other was more expensive and silver. So I switched back.

The thing was the PCAs just sounded slow - not tight, especially in the bass and drum kicks, and the highs were just too edgy.

Well if somebody wants to buy these PCAs from me let me know I have four .5M pair.

I would give them at least 48 hours before making any definite judgment. I left mine hooked up to a CD player on repeat for a couple or three days before doing any serious listening.

What silver cables were you using?

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gonk -- Saloon Links | Pre/Pro Comparison Chart

i would be interested. please drop me a line at ltkhuc@hotmail.com and let me know the price. thx.

Regarding break-in, I don't really want to run my main system for that long continuous -although perhaps that is the only practical way to do it based on the four pairs of cables.

Alternatively, could I just run cables off the back of an extra CD player without hooking them up to anything? Just to to be shooting the electrons through the wire - could this hurt anything since there would be no load? I am guessing it would be OK.

Perhaps I should just hook everything up to the main system and leave the main amp off. Would setting some volume on the pramp get the interconnects from preamp to amp burned in quicker? I'll still need to rotate the surrounds into the mix since they won't be getting signal based on a stereo signal for burn-in.

I have a Prodigy CD that is a good break in piece. Well with four pair of PCAs and since I can only hang one pair on the back of the CD player at a time, I better get started. I guess I'll run this as an experiment to see if I can tell a big difference or not, unless I do sell them right away.

By the way, my other cables are Apature Accusound Silver BL4s. You can read a little more about them here:

http://www.apature.com/accusound2.htm

These are a very reasonably priced silver cable from what I can gather. Not that well known a manufacturer, though.

How about you "break in" one or two pair, and then do an A/B comparison with the un broken-in pair, and tell us here what difference you hear? Might be educational.

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Matthew J. Hill
matt@idsi.net

Yes that would be a good experiment if and when I have time to run it - I am a little skeptical regarding this break-in so I may sell them outright first. I'll post back regarding what happens. I am curious, though.

Well I have a couple cables hooked up to a carousel player on repeat with 5 CDs loaded, with the output level at max (this player you can control the ouput level). I think I'll let it go 48 hours.

Can somebody who knows tell me, does it matter that the cables are just hanging off the back of the player? (just dangling, they are not attached to anything)

So the electrons are being run through the interconnect, which is all that is needed, right?

So, the cables are not driving (attached to) anything else - does it matter?

(sorry if this is dumb but the whole concept of break-in is kinda mysterious to me)

Triple J,
If the cables are still available for sale, please let me know. My email address is csbsjuedu@hotmail.com. Thank you.
PD

Here's a quick electronics lesson. If the interconnects are attached to the CD player at one end and nothing at the other, then you have an open circuit and NO current flows, which means the electrons are not moving through the cable. One way to look at the situation is the open circuit (the ends of the cable that are dangling) appears to be an infinite amount of impedance, and electrons don't like infinite impedance, so they don't move. Anyway hook those cables up to an input on something and good luck.

Thanks for the info. To continue with this line of questioning - if I hook the cables up to my preamp but leave the preamp off, will there be impedance for which to break in the cables. Or do I need to have the preamp on. Thanks for your patience.

i don't mean to offend you but i am curious about what you said. if you unhook the dangling cables from the cd player, will the outputs of the cd players create an infinite impedance still? the signals from the laser reader will go to the output jacks through some kind of conductor. so if the outputs of the cd player are not connected to, say a pre/pro, it is an infinite impedance.
if the circuit is not a closed one, there will be no current go through it. i see no harm there whether the dangling cables are there.
well last time i was in physics was 4 years ago. please correct me if i'm wrong
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another poor college student

That's true, stud, but he was asking whether or not current would flow through the wire, which is the point of the break-in exercise. It indeed would not, as the air separating the pins at the end of the cables is a very good insulator. (Assuming your CD player is not going to produce enough voltage to cause arcing).

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Matthew J. Hill
matt@idsi.net

I don't think you can conclusively state whether there would be appropriate resistance with the pre-amp turned off. I would think there would be a very high resistance. If you really don't want to turn on your pre-amp you could look in the owners manual of your pre-amp or search on the web to see if anyone has listed the input impedance of your pre-amp and go to the Radio Shack and buy an appropriate sized resistor. Like looking at Krell amplifiers they have a 100 KOhm input impedance.

Maybe you could by a 20kOhm resitor at Radio Shack and jury-rig it.

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Matthew J. Hill
matt@idsi.net

Here is an update. I hooked the PCA cables up from a Yamaha carousel CD to the inputs on a casette recorder. I wasn't really sure if this would close the circuit or not, but anyway, I let this run overnight with 5 of my reference high quality and most sonicly demanding CDs. About 8 hours of burn-in.

For the initial round of AB comparisons, I took the PCA cables off the carousel CD player and hooked them up to my panny91 stereo outs, and ran that to the second input on my Sony TAP9000. The first input was hooked up from the Panny91 5.1 outs with the Apature Silver BL4s cables. The preamp to amp connection was still the Apature BL4s.

Now I was in a position to sit in my chair with the remote, play a CD, and switch back and forth between inputs 1 and 2, the only difference being the CD to preamp interconnects, with the (broken-in) PCAs on 2, and the BL4s on 1 (the original and reference configuration). My test CD was Big Sugar 500 Pounds a Sterophile pick of the month 4-5 years ago I think.

Results at this point, I can't really tell the difference between the two. If I had to pinpoint something, I would say the silvers are perhaps a little sweeter on the vocal and in the midrange. Perhaps a little more air, seperation, and soundstage. I know these description will make some people giggle. Could I tell in a blind test? I doubt it.

I guess my next test will be the same but swapping the broken-in PCAs with a brand new not broken-in pair. That should conclude the break-in testing.

Keep in mind my initial reaction was with fresh cables swapped in as a total replacement for the BL4s, from player to preamp, and from preamp to amp.

Very cool, Triple J. I've been watching this thread and wondering how it would turn out. The fresh vs. broken-in PCA comparison will also be interesting. I get the impression that your impression of them has improved at least some from previously (when it seemed that you felt the PCA's weren't close to your silvers) -- if that is a correct statement, that's a dramatic change for ~8 hours of burn-in. I'd be curious to hear if you become more comfortable with the PCA's after a few extra days of burn-in (if you keep them in your system). Thanks for keeping us informed.

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gonk -- Saloon Links | Pre/Pro Comparison Chart

Yes, my impressions have improved considerably. I am going to keep these cables as I have concluded they are an excellent value for the money. I can no longer hear a big difference between these and my other cables and have gotten a little worn out with the testing.

When I switched back to the non-broken in cables with the configuration described above, I believe there was some slightly more discernable impact, but not that much. At this point I had only .5 meter of impact vs. the original swap where the total length was a meter. (Keeping in mind for my testing I left the preamp to amp connection with the BL4s)

So I recommend 6-8 hours of break-in on these cables and the importance of the break-in will depend on the length of cable impacting your system.

It is possible more break-in will help further but I have decided I will retain my BL4s as my primary interconnects and use the PCAs for some other needs, such as with the subwoofer (after I BFD it) and my bedroom system. So I will probabily not be able to offer any other meaningful feedback.

If I end up getting the 950 I will at that point have some extra cables but for now I can put all these babies to use.