A am utterly fascinated with cable break-in.
For many people, the idea of a piece of wire breaking in or changing its audible character over time is questionable at best and for others bordering on the preposterous.
And yet, cable break-in is as real as the sun rising each morning.
Recently we have been assembling Music Room Three into a reference room with the new FR30 loudspeakers at the forefront. Spearheaded by engineers Chris Brunhaver, Darren Myers, and Bob Stadtherr, along with acoustic engineer Tim Gulsrud, we've spent a great deal of time and money getting things right.
MR3 has, since we first built it, been plagued with acoustic problems like boomy bass and overly reflective walls. That's where engineer Tim comes in. Tim spent a good deal of time measuring every parameter of the room to form a plan to tame its acoustics. Now, finally, the bass traps and acoustic modifications to the walls and ceilings are nearly finished.
Meanwhile, we've had the pleasure of listening extensively to both the FR30 loudspeakers as well as prototypes of Bascom H. King's newest masterpiece, the BHK 600 monoblock amplifiers. Holy crap. I am still shaking my head attempting to sort out all that I have been hearing. It's delicious beyond words.
For cables, we've duplicated what Music Room Two and the Infinity IRS are connected with, Audioquest Dragons. They are, by far, the best sounding cables we've heard—and yes, they are crazy expensive. And when first connected and powered on they sound, well, in some respects, questionable.
From what little I have come to know the FR30s (because of my limited time with them) I have a couple of observations that are ironclad: the speakers are seamless—as if they had but one full-range driver. And the music is completely divorced from the enclosures. It's as if the drivers and enclosures did not exist. And yet, when first connected with the Dragons the wider edges of the musical soundstage are trapped in the left and right enclosures. The center image and soundstage are great, it's just those outside edges.
Something's not right.
Darren calmed my jitters explaining that the Dragons do that when connected without any break-in. They do that for at least one hundred hours of play.
I trust Darren.
As we burn in the cables and system with 24-hour music I find his advice to be correct. With break-in, the sound is divorcing itself from the enclosures. It's like someone's slowly turning a divorce valve. Every morning I come in to check they are better and better.
I know this is lunacy to some and honestly, I don't care.
It's real. I am living with it daily.
