Cable burn in service

It is a well-known fact that high-quality audio and video cables improve over time when used in a hi-fi or home cinema system. A hard, closed-in sound with a distinct lack of bass are the qualities most noted when a cable is new; a cable that has been ‘burned-in’ will sound more open, extended and three-dimensional, with a more natural, less sterile performance overall.

Unfortunately, most high-quality specialist cables only get close to realising their full potential after months of use. Playing wide-bandwidth music gradually improves the performance of speaker and interconnect cables, yet technically they will never reach optimum performance with music signals alone.

The problem is quite simple. Real music has very little high-frequency energy, and thus will have a limited ability to improve a cable. Research shows that musical instruments may produce energy above 20kHz, but there is little sound energy above 40kHz. Also, most microphones do not pick up sound at much over 20kHz.

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Furthermore, even the best burn-in CDs have a limited effect, owing to the limited frequency range of a CD player. A typical CD player has a sampling rate of 44.1kHz (Red Book standard). Digital theory (Nyquist) suggests a maximum frequency of 22.05kHz; the highest frequency is always half the sampling frequency. In reality, 20kHz is about the maximum because of the need to filter within the replay device.

Therefore, while it is accepted that sound, be it composed music or carefully generated frequencies played through an audio system, will improve a cable’s performance over time, it must also be accepted that the overall effect is limited technically. Cables conditioned in this way will never reach their true performance potential. Thus, an alternative method is required.

The challenge is two-fold: burn in time and burn in effectiveness. How can a cable be fully conditioned, and the time required to undertake this conditioning decreased from several months to just one day?

It is critical to not only concentrate on the conductor, but also the dielectric. Ideally, cable burn-in needs to force electrons into all areas of the cable; this is something that simply playing music through an audio system can never achieve.

Simply Audio offers a Cable Burn in service using the Blue Horizon Proburn device. This way you can enjoy the best results of your cables. The cost of burning in (48 hours) your cable is 30 euro per cable set.

Read a review of the blue horizon proburn device here.

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