Used Audioquest F-14 Speaker cable .

I recently bought a very long set of these off e-bay they were well used and frankly dirty so needed a good wash which I gave them . Main reason for buying these was they were cheap £30 including postage and they are solid core copper which i have liked in various forms in the past Mission , DNM and others .

Being the lazy sod that I am these have just been on the floor all washed and ready to go but they are a bit long at 7 mtrs each . What I should do is cut them to size use some new Banana plugs and give them a whirl . Well as noted earlier instead I just put them in place of the NVA cables that were in place made sure everything was a secure as it could be then switched on .

What have I done it sounds awful screechy and very hard treble not nice at all . I was going to just take them out and swap back when sort of remembered Oli on his DAC upgrade and having issues with putting in new components and needing a burn in time . Now I have noticed burn in with brand new cables be they interconnects or speaker cables and it varies with the make and construction . These however were quite an old pair but I have no idea how long it was since they were last used and given the dirt I suppose it could have been quite a while . So left them in place and ran some music through them . Wandered off to shower and do a few messages and other things . probably just under an hour later back in the music room and things were sounding much nicer the treble was much calmed and had started to blend in with the rest of the spectrum . Bass was now very good exactly what I remember from when I last used solid core . Very unshowy sound because it is neutral but then little bits of detail start to seep in and you find things are just there and sound right , horrible description but i know it when i hear it . I am sure they have more to go .

This is first time I have come across cable that needed burn in when well used but in this case it is a real thing so glad I did not just give up and swap them out . I have ordered a new set of pure copper banana plugs which will arrive later in the month from ali express (my first order on this site) when they come in the cable will be getting a drastic cut and fitted in to place . Happy with how it is sounding and a very nice cheap upgrade .