Your New Cables & Understanding Cable Break-In

Hookup Instructions:

Cable Direction: The signal follows the writing on the Morrow Audio label with the label end being the "output" end of the cable and the non-label end going to the source. With the MA1 and balanced cables, there is no direction for hookup, simply maintain the direction that you start with when you first hook them up.

Speaker Cable Hookup:
Amplifier end: Red is plus and Black is minus.
Speaker end: For bi-wired cables; Red is plus highs, Black is minus highs, White is plus lows and Blue is minus lows. For non-biwired, Red is plus and Black is minus.

For greater details, please go to the link string below for full instructions on how to hook up your new cables: www.morrowaudio.com > Products > Cables > Cable User Manuals. The direct HTML link is http://www.morrowaudio.com/usermanuals.htm

If you used our break-in service:

If you decided to partake in our cable break-in service, your cables arrived with around 200 hours on them, avoiding the difficult stage of breakin. You can begin using them, knowing that they will continue to improve over the next 200 hours.

Understanding the break-in process:

All cable products require a break-in time for the sound quality to reach the maximum potential for that product. It can be a sonic roller coaster ride during break-in.

The Morrow Audio line of cables are very different from most others, as well as their break-in temperament. The extreme high quality of these cables require a rather lengthy break-in period. This MUST be understood. If you are use to and believe that all cables require 50 to 100 hours or so to break-in, you will be deceived by this belief and miss out on an exceptional musical experience.

Avoid premature returns:
We receive very few returns during the 60 day audition period. Most of them have been from customers who did not complete the break-in process. Either they did not understand or made a miss-judgment during the difficult phase of the break-in process. 99% of returns have been from this fact. A pre-mature return have robbed these customers from the sonic beauty our cables have to offer.

Those who have waited out the break-in process were shocked with the improvement in detail, soundstage, tone and resolution achieved with the cables in their system. Many placed more orders, completely replacing every cable in their system with our cable line.

How to effectively break-in your cables:
There are many methods to break-in your cables, played at normal listening levels. They are...

• 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.

Using your chosen method of breakin, turn off the source every 12 hours or so and give the cables a 30 minute rest. This "rest" has great effect on the break-in process.

In the case of interconnects, it is not necessary to have the receiving device turned on. Plugging the cable into the preamplifier, etc "loads" the cable, allowing the signal to flow through it.

What you will hear:
With the Morrow Audio cable products, we have found that the sound is good at first, then there is a dip in quality with a sudden steep dip in-between where it is unpleasant to listen to. 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 300 hour period, sometimes as long as 400 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 breakin 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." Bob

"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.

"The cables went into breakin hell... shrill, mobil soundstage, and downright strange sonics... my house was suddenly relieved of its pests and vermin... local birdlife flapped away noisily... my dog ran off and didn't look back... fish in the acquarium gave me the stinkeye... the grass began to wither...but today, Mr. Morrow, heaven has been restored... remarkable cables... getting better... but oh what a ride! Btw, the dog returned and the lawn looks great!".

"Well, two weeks later, (as described in the breakin paper), things got worse. I remember thinking to give them a little time before you send them back. It was almost a full weeks 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 midrange and highs sounded a bit clinical"

"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 appears to be a little thin."

"Just want to let you know that I am very impressed with the cables. I have close to 200 hours on them. You article on break-in is right on the mark. Sounded really good right out of the box then at 60 hours sounded shrill, and now they are starting to really fill out. Great product!"

"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."

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.

"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!" Bob

"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 soundstage is huge! I'm very happy."

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

"I'm amazed at how much the sound improved after the break-in period."

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

Summery about break-in from a customer:
"Most important, break them in! I liked mine best after they were worked over by my Hagerman Frycleaner for the length of time Jim Hagerman specified (three days) and then another 50 to 100 hours on the system. Do not neglect this. This is not voodoo or bs. You will like these cables if you break them in at least 150-200 hours; if you don't you will not like them.

They get better and better week after week, month after month. It's the hardware settling in to the cables, not the other way around. It takes time, but you will be rewarded with patience.

Mike gives you 60 days from the day you receive them to work them in and get a proper listen. Other than that suggestion, I suggest that you buy all Morrow: SP4s, MA4s, and MAP3s... all at once. You will not regret doing so." Ed

Another consideration:
Understand that the products found on this web site are extremely revealing of the quality of the rest of your system. The "weakest link" in your system will be more exposed as you add our products.

As the resolution of your system increases with the addition of our products, the lesser resolution product will be more and more exposed. This may appear to be a defect of our product but in reality the addition of our product increased the resolution of the system as a whole, exposing the weak link in the system. When the weak link is replaced or corrected, the problem goes away and you are left with a very revealing and realistic system.