Cartridge burn-in

Thanks to the suspension in all its parts and complexity the stylus/cantilever ought to act like a tuning fork only when excited at its resonant frequency, which response ought to be rapidly damped. Else we’re not going to have music.

Mijostyn, I’m a car guy too, so you need not teach me about flat spotting. Tires are filled with air, which has a lot to do with the phenomenon. So far as I know, cartridges are not filled with air. The subject is irrelevant.

On the original Cardas LP, bands 2a,b, and c encode wide frequency sweeps that are ideal for this purpose. That’s on the original 33 rpm version of the LP. The current version is at 45 rpm on side 1. I use tracks 1,2, and 3. (I own both the older and the new versions of the test LP.)

i am not sure whether Mijostyn agreed with me or not.

To be clear, I’m not saying that a bad sounding cartridge gets good once it’s broken in, although in individual cases that might happen since judgement is almost entirely subjective. I am only saying that cartridges that are either brand new or have been in long term storage audibly benefit from warmup. This probably has nothing to do with flat-spotting, a well known phenomenon that can occur with any car parked for more than a day or two on concrete or any very hard surface.

No matter how you design your experiment, unless you are willing to spend money to do it, the design is fraught with sources for error that could skew the results.  If you compare a used or broken in cartridge to a new one, then stylus wear could be an issue.  If you set up the two cartridges in the same tonearm, then there can be error in set-up that could affect the results.  But the experiment is unnecessary in my opinion; it is very obvious and logical (given that the suspension is so important to performance) that break-in for a cartridge is real.  However, if you are skeptical, go for it.

Reason why manufacturers might not want to do "break-in" in advance of sale:  Because, in my experience, no cartridge is happy just sitting around, whether as a freshly built virgin in a sealed gift box or on the end of a tonearm.  In both cases, the suspension, which has either never been worked or has stiffened up from lack of use, benefits from use, which is why I recommend playing a suitable test LP in advance of a serious listening session, if the cartridge was not in regular use prior to the session and especially if the cartridge is brand new.  I specifically recommend the Cardas test LP, but there certainly may be others suitable to the job.  Sometimes I don't have the patience to use the Cardas LP in advance of a listening session.  In those cases, one can easily hear that the cartridge gets much happier after 20-30 minutes, if you are intimately familiar with the system and the SQ of the cartridge.

There’s absolutely no question in my mind that cartridges need break in when new or even when they’ve been out of service for a week or more. I use a Cardas test LP to bring mine back to life. Bands 2a, b, and c on side1.