I think strings should be swapped out every year to 18 months. When I was shooting compounds, I generally changed cables every other timeI changed the string. The expense of keeping compounds up and properly maintainedis yet another reason I quit using them.

I do think changing cables after having a string break is a very smart thing to do though!

Even with stickbows though, I've seen fastflight and 450 strings go bad long before showing signs of it. After a year or so, it would suddenly seem like all the life had gone out of the bow, not much snap in the limbs, arrow flight would go bonkersand arrow speeds would drop off. No amount of tuning would get it all back. Put a fresh string on the bow and it was like brand new again.

I think it's easier to see such problems with stickbows though. When you don't have a lot of speed to start with, a 10-15 fps drop will stick out like a sore thumb. With a compound shooting 100 fps faster, the problem will stillbe there butbarelynoticeable.

Maybe some of these professional string tycoons and magnates () could give us some insight on why performace would drop off like that. I think it's a warning sign, although a compound shooter probably wouldn't really notice unless he regularly shot through a chrony.