Do power conditioners “burn-in” & thus improve with age?
My Bryston BIT-15 power conditioner has been running continuously for about 2 years. I used to have some harshness and muddy, hollow bass with my system.
over the last few months I have noticed being drawn in by the music. I’m not sure what got better but something did. I have Thiel CS3.6 speakers that did not sound particularly great when I first got them. My audiophile goal for them these past 2 years is to make them happier and happier. I have been told that Thiel speakers are great for auditioning components. You can really hear the differences that my different digital sources make.
Anyway, I was just wondering - does anyone know about burn-in with a good sized power conditioner? Mine does have a heavy copper toroidal transformer and I have been told that Bryston BIT power conditioners are manufactured by Torus. They just fit them with a Bryston face plate to coordinate with the other Bryston components, visually. I’m not aware of any difference functional, although I don’t know the equivalent Torus model.
Anyway - if you can attest to a sound conditioner whose sound changed over time as a result of “burning in” I’d love to hear about it.
The sound of audio gear can be temperature dependent. That’s a big part of why amps sound better warmed up. If your amp was on the carpet and overheating, then it’s outside of the temperature range the designers intended so that could affect what you were hearing.
I don't have any routers, streamers or wifi on my power conditioner.
I did get my speakers positioned better in my room. I had my Bryston amp on a cheap glass shelf tv stand and it got shifted to the floor. It was sitting directly on the carpet but it seemed to not be cooling on the bottom due to the feet sinking into the carpet. So it set it on some 1" thick squares of some dense Styrofoam that I had laying around which got the amp off the floor. Maybe it is imaginary but having the Bryston amp on the floor but up off the carpet I'd swear it is sounding better than it has yet.
If it has a wire, it improves as it burns in. Say again, if it has a wire. If it IS a wire- interconnects, power cords. So yes, power conditioners. But... two years? Something else going on.
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