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Design & Technology : Construction & Signal Velocity : Cable burn in

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Everything we do is based on our extensive research and proven test results.
This ensures our products are completely consistent in manufacture and ensures a defined progression as you move up the ranges.
In other words, we not only know exactly what we're doing, but why.

Burning in cables:

The concept of running cables in may feel alien, since the term 'running in' is usually used to explain the improvements experienced with mechanical devices after a period of use. However, though not mechanical, cables do improve with use. In our experience it takes about 72 hours of use for a cable to deliver what it is truly capable of. However it is possible to hear an immediate improvement by listening carefully to the first track on a CD then returning to it after having played a few others; there is a subtle improvement; a smoothing off of the deliveries and improvement in pace etc.  There's no obvious reason for this, but it's possible that cable characteristics change as the dielectric tends towards a 'steady residual polarisation state' (vis. dielectric absorption). The dielectric can be polarized by an electric current. Charges do not flow through the dielectric like they do down the conductor, but they do cause a molecular shift in the dielectric. These molecules not only become polarized, they also reorintate so their symmetry axis aligns to the direction of the signal carrying wave. It's likely the signal then gradually finds it's route of least resistance down the cable as the molecules lean like the reeds in a stream in concert with the current.

After a cable is burned in, do not reverse the direction, as it will then need to be 'burned in' again to the new direction over some 70 hours.   

For those not in posession of one, Atlas supply a CD specifically for running in cables. It also acts as a system demagnetising 'work out' and will help to keep systems in tip top order.

Always let new cables run themselves in for a period before undertaking any critical evaluation.