Breaking in a new amp

Low volume is fine.

You don't want to crack your walls or get your neighbors angry with you. Just run stuff through it and it will get better over time. If you have a tuner, let it work while your not home. This will also keep the burglers away.

I purchased a used amp & subsequently used it to break in a new pair of VR4 GenIII spkrs, which suggest loud volume for 100 hrs.

During the first two hrs. of max volume, there was an electronic smell coming from the amp I hadn't noticed before & from talking w/my dealer & the amp manufacturer, found out the amp had never been fully broken in.

You don't have to run it wide open all the time to break it in but I would suggest opening it up for a few hrs. to see how it performs, how hot it gets & so on but mainly to see how well it sounds while playing the same music at different levels.

Honestly, does anyone ever run an amp at max volume? It can't be good for an amp to run beyond its limits as Driver suggested. Most amps acheive max volume before the volume control reaches its limit. If it won't ever be run that hard in normal use, why do that for break-in? I wouldn't do that to my amp......

Nope, I didn't say run an amp beyond its limits. I said open it up, which means at its max.

I bought a big-ass amp so I could listen over 100dB w/o audible distortion, because I like to listen that way sometimes. So yes, sometimes I do play my amp at max volume. Can't overdrive it, as I have a matched passive.

Power dissipation in the output devices is actually at its' highest level at 1/3 rated power output. If you really want to torture-test, that's where it's done.

From Bryston's website:
"Each and every Bryston amplifier undergoes a very extensive "burn-in" procedure. Following a complete operational checkout, every amplifier is placed on a test-bench and run for 100 hours at full output (one hour on/ one hour off for additional thermal stress), with a high frequency square-wave input and a capacitive load. This extremely rigorous burn in quickly "matures" components and weeds out any potential premature failures. The result is reliable trouble-free performance for many years, and is backed by Bryston's exclusive 20-year full warranty."

Driver, if I ran my amps at max continuous output, my wife would leave me and the neighbors would call the cops. I have 100 watt tube mono's running through coincident speakers. This will get me about 112db with peaks over 115db!

I'd like to hear a few cuts on your system. Heard some Coincidents w/Manley gear & liked it a lot!

One of the nice things about being home during the day is nobody cares what I do with the volume control but I don't always play loud. Today I'm being pretty mellow, staying in the low 80's listening to Paraguayan Harp & Indian Flute music.

Saw an ad with a smashed Naim amp on the concrete caption was:
"Sorry, I did'nt catch your Naim".

Ooppppps you said break-in not break.

Driver, thanks for the complement.
Paraguayan Harp & Indian Flute! Should be interesting. I wouldn't have a clue where to find that in Pittsburgh.
I've been disenchanted with cd's lately since I put a new Golring on my Sota table. The depth and imaging is unreal. Maybe I'll hit the used record store on the way home and look for some stuff from Parguay and India????