2. amps-preamps
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Break in time that extends to months or maybe even years!!

On another thread, we have a well known and well respected piece of gear ( and great sounding too, IME) that according to the member who is reviewing it, needs in excess of 1000 hours to fully break in!! 

While we have all heard of gear that needs immense amounts of 'break in' time to sound its best, usually gear that involves teflon caps, I question whether this very long break in time is the job for the consumer? Is it reasonable for a manufacturer of audio gear to expect the consumer to receive sub-par performance from his purchase for potentially several months ( years?) before the true sound of the gear in question can be enjoyed? Or, is it ( or should it be) perhaps the job of the manufacturer of this gear ( usually not low priced) to actually accomplish the 'break in' before releasing it from the factory? Thoughts...
daveyf

Showing 1 response by almarg

almarg's avatar
almarg
9,670 posts
 
While I hold the esteemed member who has been referred to in the highest esteem, IMO the only way to meaningfully test this claim would be to perform a direct comparison between two identical components, one of which has been broken in for 1000 hours or so, and the other of which has been broken in for a far lesser number of hours. And with everything else kept equal during the comparison, including the warmup state of those components and all of the other components in the system, the AC line voltage, and the temperature and humidity of the room.

Regards,
-- Al
 
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