Morrow Audio Cable Break-In Signal Direction and Hook-up Instructions

Understanding Your New Morrow Audio Cables
Cable Break-In, Signal Direction & Hook-up
Instructions

Cable Break-In Signal Direction and Hook-up

A WORD ABOUT OUR DESIGN:
Depending on the model of the cables you received, you might notice that they appear to not have much substance to them; feeling like there is not much there under the outer mesh, or it lays flat and does not have a round shape and solid feel like the other cables that you might be used to.
At Morrow Audio, we design our cables with a minimalist approach, which is not the norm, but is fantastic for the sound!
Most other cable designs use large cable jackets or even heavy insulators in their cables.
Inside common cable designs are internal conductors with an extruded insulation of some sort. The insulation material is in close and immediate contact with the conductor along its entire length.
Wrapped around all this is the outer casing of the cable, made out of rubber, PVC, Teflon or some other material.
These insulation elements all form the dielectric of the wire, which has a tendency to absorb and release energy to and from the conductors. This occurrence produces a negative sonic affect; smearing of the signal and other distortions. The greater the number of insulating layers there are, the greater this distortion will be. The thickness of these layers is also a factor of concern, with thicker layers being the worst.
Morrow Audio cables DO NOT use heavy insulators. Each strand of wire is individually insulated from one another and held together with cotton weaving. These wires are very small, so do not take up much room. This is then covered with the outer nylon mesh that you see on the outside of the cable. This allows the least amount of reflection back into the cable, retaining the quality of the music you love.

CABLE DIRECTION

The Morrow Audio label depicts the direction of the cable. As an example, if you were hooking up a CD player to a preamp, the label end would be on the preamp. If hooking up a turntable to a phono preamp, the label end would go on the phono preamp. If hooking up speaker cables, the label end would go on the speakers.

HOW TO HOOK UP YOUR SPEAKER CABLES

On regular speaker cables (non-bi-wired), the red is plus/positive and the black is minus/negative on your speaker cables.
This also corresponds with the binding post colors on your amplifier and speakers.
BI-WIRED SPEAKER CABLE HOOKUP:

Amplifier End:| Speaker End, High Frequencies:| Speaker End, Low Frequencies:
---|---|---
Red is positive
Black is negative| Red is positive
Black is negative| White is positive
Blue is negative

ADJUSTING BANANA TIGHTNESS

The tightness of our standard bananas can be easily adjusted to be looser in the receiving binding post by gently squeezing together the flanges of the banana. They can likewise can be tightened by spreading the flanges out with a screwdriver. On Elite and Anniversary cables, the bananas are the locking type, adjusted by turning the outer barrel of the banana housing.
ADJUSTING RCA TIGHTNESS:
Depending on the equipment you are using, there might be slight diameter differences of the female RCA sockets in the equipment. We provide industry standard RCA’s. If however you find them to be a little tight, take a small flat head screwdriver and gently spread out the ground flanges. This will make them easier to insert and remove. A little WD40 can also aid in this.
CABLE BREAK-IN:
The breaking process is a normal and natural process. All equipment… speakers, amplifiers, cartridges and cables require time to breaking, or settle into your system. Think of it as you would a new pair of shoes. At first the shoes are stiff. After time, they soften and become easier to walk in.
I personally recommend that you just hook up the cables and enjoy! If you hear any anomalies, they will soon go away with further playing, or you can follow some of the suggestions below to speed up the process. Sit back and experience the great enjoyment that our cables provide.
Our cables require a total of 400 to 500 hours to completely break-in, depending on the model. If you ordered our breaking service, the service is equal to the same amount of time as playing music through the cables.
Again, the break-in process should not cause any concern.
How to effectively break-in your cables:
If you would like to speed up the process, follow one of the methods below. Playing at normal listening levels will break-in your cables:

• An electronic device designed for breaking-in cables.
• An FM tuner, tuned to inter-station “hiss”. This “hiss” is white noise, covering the full spectrum of frequencies, breaking-in your cables.
• A CD player on repeat can also be effective. Use a CD with a full spectrum of sound like heavy rock music, or a CD designed for breaking in components or cables.

Short Cuts & Helps:
PHONO CABLES: If you have RCA to RCA phono cables to breaking, do not break them in on your turntable. The signal is too small there to provide proper breaking. Instead, put them on a CD player, or other source mentioned above. If your phono has a DIN plug, you will need to break them in on your turntable. We recommend just playing them while you listen, to lesson wear on your needle.
DIGITAL CABLES: Breaking in your digital cables in a position other than from transport to DAC will speed up the breakin process. IE, between a preamp and power amp. Digital signals are typically small and will take longer than usual.
ALL YOUR EQUIPMENT NEED NOT BE TURNED ON: All you need to do is to be sure that your cables are plugged in and the signal is flowing. The input impedance will allow the signal to flow. See the chart below.
Breaking in one pair of interconnects: CD Player (hooked up, on and playing)

Preamp (hooked up only, need not be turned on).
Breaking in 2 pairs of interconnects: CD Player (hooked up, on and playing) Preamp (on and playing) >>> Power Amp (hooked up only, need not be turned on)
SPEAKER CABLES: Your system must be turned on and the speakers playing.
POWER CORDS: These must be hooked up to equipment that is turned on.
What you will hear:
With Morrow Audio cable products, we have found that the sound is good at first, then there is a dip in sound quality. This dip quickly rises back to a comfortable listening quality with a steady improvement, rising far above the first listen until the end of the break-in process. This whole process generally occurs over a 50 to 400 hour period, sometimes as long as 600 hours depending on the cable model.
In order to help you know what you will hear during this process, we have provided below an explanation and actual customer testimonials for the first hours, mid-way hours and then the sonic glory of a fully broken-in product.
The first 50 hours:
When you first hook up your cables, you will hear about 70% of the sonic potential the cables have to offer. The highs might tend to be a little peaky and/or harsh, bass may lack and the midrange “sterile”. This will soon go away and the frequencies will even out as the break-in process advances. Note from the testimonials below that the “high frequencies” is the area most noted.

• “After receiving the new Morrow cables, I immediately began playing music on them. They sounded thin, no bass, but the highs were rather promising.”
• “I could hear early on how good the clarity and definition were.”
• “At first, they sound rather lean…”
• “The highs were flighty in the beginning, but the promise of something good was there, so I hung in there, and am very, very pleased. Clean as a whistle.”

Mid-way through the break-in process 50 to 100 hours:
Between 50 and 100 hours you will experience the “difficult stage” of the break-in process. The sonic potential of the cable drops to 50%. It may be difficult to listen during this time. This is when some of our customers make a pre-mature return, missing out on the full sonic glory of the product.

• “Well, two weeks later, (as described in the break-in paper), things got worse. I remember thinking to give them a little time before you send them back. It was almost a full week before they started to improve, but when they did, what magic!”
• “Things are starting to happen. I came down last evening to have a quick listen. I estimate that I was at the 55-60 hour point with the interconnects. The sound was flat and uninteresting; the sound-stage seemed to have collapsed. Instruments that had been ‘hard right’ before were now somewhere in the center. I put the CD back on repeat and left. This morning…what a difference…67-72 hours …exactly as stated by your users. I am going to China on business for about a week but will be ordering more cables when I return.”
• “The highs can be a little peaky during the mid-hours of break-in. There is a dip in quality from what was heard during the first hours. Bass and midrange appear to be a little thin.”
• “The cable opened up tonight. What a difference a day makes. Dynamic, clear, full and weighty. It is a very musical speaker cable and images very well. Was nasally yesterday and the day before for that matter.”

A few 170-hour testimonials:

• “Changes? Absolutely! I must tell you that I was somewhat skeptical, not necessarily about the actual existence of a break-in process because I have experienced some of it with other cables. However, I must tell you that about 10 days ago, with around 170 hours of playing time on your interconnects, the sound changed dramatically! Even my wife noticed the changes. Both of us are very impressed with the changes that occurred.”
• “Suddenly, the soundstage opened up significantly, timbers became fleshier and more realistic; dynamics [micro and macro] are more organic, and articulations [staccatos, pizzicatos, etc.] are more natural. But the most dramatic change occurred with the sense of ‘physical space perception’, as I can best describe it. My wife nailed it: it sounds like live music now! This perception is more evident in our several recordings from the Mapleshade label, which has wonderful jazz recordings.”
• “Mike, I am a professional conductor, so I’ve been working with college choirs [and occasionally with orchestras as well] for a long time now, so I know a thing or two about musical sounds. I must say that your cables have definitely helped my stereo gear get closer to what real music is!”

After full break-in:
As you reach the end of the break-in process, the frequency extremes fill and smooth out, the midrange bloom returns and the cable takes on a very natural sound presentation.

• “I just wanted to let you know that after 336 hours, the MA3 interconnects are awesome in my system!!!!! Your 5day burn-in helped a lot and then I ran them in another 96 hours. WOW! Want you to know that your MA3 kicked major butt over the 4 times more expensive interconnects I was using. Now, I am a believer.”

• “After this break-in period (280 hours), I played disc after disc and became a believer in Morrow Audio’s hype.
  The bass was spectacular, the highs were open and nicely extended, but the midrange with female vocals or acoustic instruments, like guitar and piano, became surreal. Whitney Houston and Karen Carpenter came to life. Recordings which were really good became great!”

• “As the cables break-in, the bass and lower midrange fill out, and the cables become much more extended at the frequency extremes.”

• “Amazing clarity of sound and deep bass.”

• “Clear, precise, great rhythm, deep clear bass, inner detail…”

• “They have great clarity, presence, extension and just sound beautiful! I believe these are quite special.”

• “The cables have a very natural sound and do an excellent job of preserving the natural timbre of instruments.”

• “The sound stage is huge! I’m very happy.”

• “There is substantially more bass with no loss of clarity/ definition. The midrange/ highs sound very natural.”

• “Great audio cables Mike! BIG improvement on my audio system… soundstage, focus, tone quality, it is all there.”

TRADEUP CABLES

If you used our cable Trade-up Program, ship your trade in cables, according to the trade up policy to: Trade Up Department, Morrow Audio, 6608 Dixie Hwy, Florence, KY 41042

Morrow Audio 6608 Dixie Hwy, Florence, KY 41042
morrowaudio@gmail.com
859-356-6994

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