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**Bill Hart** · 06-28-2016, 07:59 PM

So this is used only during the cooking/conditioning process, and is not part of "running" system?

**MylesBAstor** · 06-28-2016, 08:03 PM

Originally posted by Bill Hart

So this is used only during the cooking/conditioning process, and is not part of "running" system?

Exactly. Or touch up every six months as Alan recommends.

**MylesBAstor** · 06-29-2017, 08:18 PM

So I couldn't stand the suspense and ordered the adaptor to fully condition hot, ground and neutral of my power cords using the latest Cable Cooker. So will get to compare treated vs. untreated power cords here.

Nutty? Yes. But if it works as claimed ....

**Guest** · 06-30-2017, 02:41 AM

Interesting. Does the set include both 15 and 20 amp adaptors?

I'm vaguely recalling Jim Hagerman has a power cord burn-in thingie, but not sure that it does the ground. I've used the FryBaby - its not as sophisticated but it seemed to do the job for signal cables.

**MylesBAstor** · 06-30-2017, 09:59 PM

**alan m. kafton** · 07-01-2017, 06:16 AM

Hi, everyone....Myles asked me to comment, and I'm happy to take any questions regarding the Cable Cooker and/or the Ground Breaker power cable adaptor set.

Firstly, the Ground Breaker idea came about 3 or 4 years ago when I was seeing a variety of new products addressing signal ground in our systems. Some, like Jerry Ramsey's (I believe the first product of this kind) was installed inside a piece of gear at the IEC inlet. Dave Clark of Positive Feedback wrote about the positive effect it had on the musicality of the entire system. Later, others like Entreq, addressed the issue with cable leads connected from individual pieces of gear into a central connection box. Joe Cohen of PranaWire was making "enhanced ground" products, using a combination of larger gauge conductors and exotic noise cancelling materials, even incorporating them into his fine power cables.

I thought...."hmmm"....could there be a solution to properly condition the ground conductor & ground contacts within a power cable....it had never been done before. Since production on the Cable Cooker first started (in 2000), I had produced power cable break-in adaptors, supplied with every unit, but we only addressed the Hot & Neutral conductors due to the fact that we were feeding the output signal from the upper left set of binding posts, and of course, there are only two of them (one black / one red).

My first thought was to combine one of the leads (either Hot or Neutral) with the ground lead (on a custom set of adaptors), condition a power cable this way, and do a direction comparison with an identical cable conditioned with the regular adaptors. That worked....but after discussing the idea with my engineer, he came up with a better solution and topology. I built a new set per his topology and did a few blind tests with several local audiophiles, and also sent out this new set to a couple of cable manufacturers. To a person, everyone heard significant improvements across the musical spectrum....expanded soundstaging, improved depth / layering of instruments & performers, an even lower noise floor, and an enhanced, more organic presentation overall. In short, a product was born and introduced at Rocky Mountain Audiofest in October, 2015.

**MylesBAstor** · 07-01-2017, 01:26 PM

Originally posted by alan m. kafton

Hi, everyone....Myles asked me to comment, and I'm happy to take any questions regarding the Cable Cooker and/or the Ground Breaker power cable adaptor set.

Firstly, the Ground Breaker idea came about 3 or 4 years ago when I was seeing a variety of new products addressing signal ground in our systems. Some, like Jerry Ramsey's (I believe the first product of this kind) was installed inside a piece of gear at the IEC inlet. Dave Clark of Positive Feedback wrote about the positive effect it had on the musicality of the entire system. Later, others like Entreq, addressed the issue with cable leads connected from individual pieces of gear into a central connection box. Joe Cohen of PranaWire was making "enhanced ground" products, using a combination of larger gauge conductors and exotic noise cancelling materials, even incorporating them into his fine power cables.

I thought...."hmmm"....could there be a solution to properly condition the ground conductor & ground contacts within a power cable....it had never been done before. Since production on the Cable Cooker first started (in 2000), I had produced power cable break-in adaptors, supplied with every unit, but we only addressed the Hot & Neutral conductors due to the fact that we were feeding the output signal from the upper left set of binding posts, and of course, there are only two of them (one black / one red).

My first thought was to combine one of the leads (either Hot or Neutral) with the ground lead (on a custom set of adaptors), condition a power cable this way, and do a direction comparison with an identical cable conditioned with the regular adaptors. That worked....but after discussing the idea with my engineer, he came up with a better solution and topology. I built a new set per his topology and did a few blind tests with several local audiophiles, and also sent out this new set to a couple of cable manufacturers. To a person, everyone heard significant improvements across the musical spectrum....expanded soundstaging, improved depth / layering of instruments & performers, an even lower noise floor, and an enhanced, more organic presentation overall. In short, a product was born and introduced at Rocky Mountain Audiofest in October, 2015.

Thanks for the background on your product and welcome to Audionirvana Alan!

Proper breaking and conditioning of cables is one thing that many audiophiles overlook. Especially say when it comes to the tonearm leads. In fact, more and more cable manufacturers are cooking their cables before selling. I actually don't know why more stores don't do this for customers?

I never ceased to be amazed by the improvement - even one time accidentally and unknowingly using an untreated PC - and wondering why the system didn't sound like it should. Then I realized the error of my ways, put the right cable in and all was copacetic.

Also it doesn't hurt to periodically retreat your cables like Alan recommends. Follow Alan's instructions-though Instill find cables need a little time to settle in after treatment too.

**MylesBAstor** · 07-19-2017, 12:58 PM

So I started to burn some AC cords in with Alan's ground breaker for his Audiodharma cable cooker.

Here's one of my game plans.

I have two of Gary Koh's AC power cords that haven't been treated. One is used on the phono section and the other on the preamp. What I will do is first treat the AC cord used with the phono section, treat it first with the ground breaker for varying periods of time and listen each time. Then I'll swap in the treated for untreated AC power cord on the preamp using my reel-to-reel as the front-end source. Of course one issue is that once you turn the unit off, it takes 45 mins for the GAT Series 2 to come up to speed again. No matter how long it was on before.

Then what I'll do is take the untreated AC power cord and just break it in with the normal Audiodharma RX. That will be compared to the same cord treated with the normal + ground breaker in the circuit. Should be interesting. Then I can carry out the same experiment with two sections of Kubala-Sosna Emotion power cables.

**MylesBAstor** · 07-19-2017, 09:25 PM

**MylesBAstor** · 07-25-2017, 10:42 AM

Just a quick preliminary, unscientific update of trying the Ground Breaker. What makes these observations significant, however, is that I hadn't been overwhelmed with the sound of this power cord. Up to now anyway. Comparison of treated v. untreated power cords forthcoming.

So I hooked up and broke-in a length of Kubala-Sosna’s up to recently top of the line Elation power cord on the Cable Cooker equipped with Alan's new Ground Breaker attachment. As I said, the sound of this cable always perplexed me. It seemed that Joe and Howard in their quest to design a more neutral and less colored power cord than the Emotion line, had lost a bit of the magic of the latter’s midrange. Yes the Elation was more detailed, cleaner and linear from top to bottom but is was also colder sounding to me. A little bit of what I would call an Al sheen.

Onto the Ground Breaker equipped Cable Cooker went the Elation power cord for 48 hrs of toasting. Mind you the Elation has had four plus years of use under its belt too so being broken-in is far from an issue. Also the latest version of the Cable Cooker is among several things much more powerful than earlier versions among and requires roughly half the time to burn-in cables.

48 hours later and one cat disconnect (Tiger thought he should rub against the cable and mark it as his) it was time to connect the Elation power cord to the Doshi Audio tapestage and listen. First up was one of my favorites tapes and recordings Kenny Burrell’s Midnight Blue. What a difference. The Elation’s midrange was now back in balance with the other frequencies; there wasn’t that thinning out of the midrange. That would have been worth the price of admission if that’s all the cooking did. But it wasn’t. Low level resolution and in particular the subtlest added reverb was revealed in all its glory. Transparency, one of the power cords strength, was even better and really shown though on the next tape. Low end, probably the recording's weakest points, was a bit less boomy. Bit more so, subtle rhythms now came through and there was less blurring. And imaging was up up the wazoo, maybe a touch wider and most certainly even greater separation of the guitar and congas.

The Rosselet Yarlung solo cello recording was up next. Oh my gosh. The transparency was such that the cello alone was just sitting in front of me. Now we talk about the feeling of space and air but there was something here that I had never experienced before. A clarity such that the space had its own real presence. A weird feeling. Nothing having presence. Not to mention the tone of the instrument was improved as well as tightness of the image. Perhaps the scariest part was how much more sound and harmonics were coming through. Oh did I mention I was listening to a Class D amplifier?

Last up was the Bobby Broom (Int. Phonograph) recording. What struck me first was just how much more of the music was coming through. By that I mean the punctuations eg. rhythm was coming through. Especially how Bobby uses those subtle 1/4 note, half note, whole note rests and ties during the playing of his music. Something that I appreciate more and more as I learn to play guitar and carry over to my reviewing. After all, the musician speaks with their instrument.

So the cable will take a little more time to settle in but if the cord continues to get better, the Elation will once again take up residence and be one of my go to power cords. Perhaps I’ll give it some listening time on the phonostage too.

I am beginning to wonder whether all dealers should as part of purchase break-in the customer’s cables. After all, break-in will enable the customer to realize and attain the whole value of their purchase.

More to come.

**Guest** · 07-26-2017, 04:32 AM

Originally posted by MylesBAstor

...

I am beginning to wonder whether all dealers should as part of purchase break-in the customer’s cables. After all, break-in will enable the customer to realize and attain the whole value of their purchase.

Nice report.

You're not the first I've heard with this suggestion. It probably should be mandatory for tonearm and phono cables, otherwise they may take years, if ever, to break in fully.

Offering break-in feels like something a full-service dealer should have available as a matter of course, along with opportunity for renewal every so often. It could be another way for a dealer to stay in touch - send a postcard: "time to bring in your wires for a refresh." If a customer is skeptical, offer to break-in, say, one power cord, while sending them home with that and a new one not broken-in for comparison. "If you like what you hear from the one broken-in, bring back the new one and I'll run it through the Cable Cooker for you."

**MylesBAstor** · 07-27-2017, 12:05 AM

Part two starts tonight. Will break in a well used length of Kubala-Sosna Emotion power cord on the Cable Cooker and then compare against an untreated length using my phonostage.

**alan m. kafton** · 03-13-2018, 04:03 PM

It's been a while, but anything new on the Kubala-Sosna power cable comparison?

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