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"Wylie Williams" wrote:

......large snips.....

As for wire break in, that too is real, though not always dramatic. My most
dramatic personal experience was when using 25 foot silver coated speaker
wire in my home. The first listen was dreadful. Extremely and unlistenably
harsh. At that time I was already a believer in cable break in and I had a
device called a cable enhancer that used a proprietary test tone to break in
cables and interconnects. After 10 days of break in I found the cables to be
vastly inproved. My wife, an impartial observer, had hated the cables first
time.

Ah the Cable Enhancer. This product brings back an anecdote that some might
find interesting about misinterpretation of data and how bias and hidden
assumptions are introduced in listening sessions.

At a CES a few years ago I walked into a display where the Cable Ehancer was
being exhibited. I spent a moment and decided to leave, but the exhibitor
snagged me by the collar and said that I just "had" to listen to wires
'enhanced' by this device.

Sensing an odor of bovine feces I said OK but asked that he start with the best
possible material so the 'differences' would be most dramatic right from the
start. In the meantime a writer for another magazine had appeared in the
exhibit.

So the demonstration began with me, him and a 3rd party whom I didn't know as
listeners. The Exhibitor held up two sets interconnects one which was said the
be new and other had been broken-in overnight with the Enhancer.

One set was hooked up to this cd player and we listened for 2-3 minutes. Then
the other set was installed and we repeated the test for roughly the same
duration. (Recall this was with, what was agreed to be the most dramatic
programming.)

The Exhibitor then asked expectantly "what did you think?" One of the other
listeners thought the 1st one sounded 'better' while the other said that the
2nd sounded better. I said they sounded the same to me, which they did.

The Exhibitor then said "Let's try again with BETTER program material" and he
repeated the test. This time the other two had reversed opinions about which
sounded 'better' and they still sounded the same to me.

So....we did it one more time and both the other listeners agreed that the 2nd
alternative sounded 'better.' My answer was the same as before. Because this
time the enhanced cable was said to sound 'better' the demo was finished and
the others began chatting animatedly about cable-enhancement and I sneaked out.

Well we've all been in simialr situations before but I was surprised to read in
the other guy's column a few months later that he had been 'amazed' that this
demo had shown the Cable Enhancer was able to 'change' the sound quality of
wire.

But there was no evidence of that from the event. Of course, there were no bias
controls employed. We had not been officially informed of which cable was
enhanced and which was not, but it wasn't too hard tofigure that out....the
demo ended when the 'right' answers were given.

But, even so, the differences were not such that the 1st run with the already
agreed upon 'best' program had inconclusive results. The Exhibitor agreed to
use his best stuff first. When that didn't get the right response then he
resorted to "better" programs.

Furthermore the test only ran long enough to get the 'right' answer. Once that
was garnered no more data was gathered and all that went before was ignored.

Let's dredge the data. We had no statistical evidence that a real difference
was heard; opposing responses on the first 2 trials and 'no difference' on 3
trials. The chances of getting 2/3 to give the same response when 2 identical
sound presentations are given is practically assured.

So wrong answers were ignored. No difference, the most radically wrong
response, answers were ignored. Only the proper responses are accepted.

I see the same kind of thing happen when people will try to negotiate
differences in demonstrations. "We'll maybe you didn't hear the suave midrange
but surely the lack of hoodedness in the lower treble was clearly audible" is
the kind of thing I see all the time in group demonstrations or sales
presentations.

But my point here is that wires don't break-in, speakers don't break-in and
nothing in audio breaks-in except lps and they ain't breakin'-in they're
wearing out. But, it's easy to convince yourself otherwise.

But even if there were a break-in process components would naturally break-in
anyway. If break-in makes you feel better go ahead but observe caution with
speakers. The speaker break-in procedure of feeding a pair of speaker placed
face-to-face and wired in reverse polarity with noise is potentially dangerous.
It's not that hard to drive them hard enough and long enough to cause the voice
coil glue to heat up and bubble in the gap. Be careful.