Burning/breaking in new equipment?


I am a complete beginner to stereo equipment, never having even owned so much as a record or CD, but I have been reading about it and found what I thought were good deals, so I pulled the trigger this weekend.

The following are on their way:

Benchmark DAC3 (DAC and preamp)
Bryston 4B3 (power amplifier)
KEF R900 (speakers)
XLR cables (from Benchmark)

I have read that new equipment needs to be broken in for about 100 hours. Does that mean I have to play music through them for 100 hours at the same volume I would use when listening or can I play it at a much lower volume?

Note: I am a little worried that the above system might be too bright, sharp or clinical (as I have read about the previous generations of Bryston amps) but I am trying to go for clean, pure, true, honest, accurate, transparent — whatever that means, but I am thinking I want it to sound like what the artists, producers, directors, audio engineers, etc intended when they created, mixed and mastered each track, with nothing artificial added by the equipment. I also went with companies with more solid engineering and less marketing.

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bobk3

Showing 4 responses by willemj

Well done. I also agree with the attitude that gear should be neutral, accurate etc. These electronics are just about as good as it gets, irrespective of price, and irrespective of what snake oil sellers and the voodoo priests on Audiogon may say. The electronics exceed human hearing acuity by a pretty wide margin, and have no sonic signature of themselves at all. Since they are also exceptionaly well built, they may last you a life time. You have been very well advised, and that includes the cables.
So I am bit surprised by your concern about burning in. The speakers may need a few hours, but that is all. And if electronics need warming up, in my book that counts as defective design. For the same reason, I would simply turn them off once you have finished. There is already too much waste of energy on the planet. In fact, leaving them on will reduce their longevity (electrolytic capacitors in particular do not like heat).
The only component with a sonic signature will be the speakers. Even the best speakers are very imperfect compared to electronics. I take it you have auditioned those and like them. However, if you will ever consider upgrading anything, look at the speakers, because there may well be room for improvement in that area (at a price). Think of something like the Harbeth M40.2 (provided the room is big enough). But stay away from changing the electronics.
Finally, as others have said as well, look into the in-room response of the speakers. The room is the elephant in the room. Above the so-called Schroeder frequency rooms are plagued by reflections that may give an overbright and fatiguing sound, but that you can damp with carpets, book cases or more techno stuff. Below the Schroeder frequency, this will not work and you have so called room modes (low frequency resonance peaks at the room’s dimensions making for a boomy woolly bass). You may need bass traps to cure that, or room equalization. A first step would be to measure the in-room response with the REW software.
But first, just enjoy.
There is a good argument for not getting into audio discs anymore, now that redbook cd streaming of a huge repertoire is available. Similarly, internet radio offers a huge choice, with often pretty decent or even superb sound quality (usually better than FM radio). With video it is a different story, however. Netflicks has its own series, and some B movies, but very little in the way of art films, or opera/ballet etc. And I know of no streamed alternatives. For that, you still need (UHD) Bluray discs.
Good to know about Itunes for movies. I did a very quick check and found quite a lot of major art films of the kind that I was looking for in vain on Netflicks. I will need to think of how to store the ones that I would want to buy ( I am not using a computer with my audio/video system).
Thanks.