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Burn in vs perception

Posting here in speakers, but could probably go in any of the forums. Question of the night: how much of burn in of components is actually burn in of our perception? That is, is burn in partly us becoming accustomed to a change in sound.
 

I’m listening to my SF Amati Traditions that at first I found a bit strident, but I now find lush, dynamic, and generally brilliant. I bought them as 1-year old demos so theoretically they should have been played enough to be broken in. I haven’t changed anything in my system—I have been working on my room with more stuff, but that’s it.

Sometimes reviewers or arm chair audiophiles (me) will state that said component needs to be plugged in and left alone for weeks until it gels with the system. Could this simply be our own perception burn in OR is something real happening here?

For speakers I can buy it (woofers need to loosen up and all), but I almost always buy used, and I almost alway a) find a difference of a new component (good or bad), and b) in time, I couldn’t tell you what the change was. Maybe just me, but our brains are pretty good level setters.

I willing to bet this can be a large part of “burn in”.

 

 

w123ale

Showing 2 responses by ghdprentice

ghdprentice
6,431 posts
 

I guess it has to be somewhat person and experience related. But for me 100% burn-in. I have been an audiophile for fifty years. I am sure I wondered for the first few years as I developed my listening skills. I have broken in dozens of components now and I have very good listening skills… no imagination or adjustment involved. I know exactly what I want and how the current sound differers from it, and if there is a small change.

 

For instance, over the last five or six years I broke in three identical copies of an Audio Research Reference 160s. It was hard not to hear the complex behavior of the change in sound on the first (typically they take 600 hours to break in). To my surprise the second went through exactly the same complex behavior. I couldn’t believe it… but the third did as well. Exactly the same sequence over the same timeframes. I also noticed a very small continuing improvement out to 1,000 hour befor no further change.

ghdprentice
6,431 posts
 

Tube burn in tends to be very short in comparison to the solid state components and wires. Ten to twenty hours for tubes. 

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