For Your Edification and Enjoyment re "Burn In", etc.

I addressed "break in" and "burn in" in the article as it pertains to the phenomena under assessment.

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As I said Douglas, several times before. I have NEVER heard the term "BURN IN" used by professional repairmen. ONLY by rookies. Just like the term "MOTOR" in lue of "ENGINE". The term is used all the time by WHO? Drivers not mechanics. The same with "burn in".
If words don’t matter to you, they do to the people like me.

Why? I can’t think of a single time you can substitute burn in, for break in in any way other than people in the audiophile community. WHY BURN IN? A lack of command of the English language, (not a first language).

My counterparts in other countries would use words like this, but would point to the word "BREAK IN" in the BOOK. If you mean breakin but type burnin, what other word salad, do I have to decipher.
I can’t hear a difference means, "Sometimes" I can’t hear a difference? or ALL the time?

Terms like brake in, conditioned, seated, lapped, settled, ran in, trued, lined up, within tolerance, out of spec, misaligned, tune up, etc.

Even BRAKES are seated, but NEVER EVER BURNT IN. BUT they can BURN UP, catch on fire, go up in flames, up in smoke, burn to the ground, become glazed, BUT they never burn in..
Is the MOTOR "blowed up", Goober. :-(
Aunt Bee, would have said "Are you having engine trouble, Andy"? Seized a piston, due to a lack of oil? :-)
That "Dipstick" Goober...

What next, you'll want to borrow a cable conditioner. :-)

Regards..

"Break in", rookie.... If someone tried to sell me something and said "It needs to burn in". I'd take my money and my comments and spend them somewhere else..

Regards

What can I say Douglas, "You’re a Peach". Not quite ripe yet, but a peach none the less.. :-)
This is a complement. BTW

I’ll offer this, I installed teflon caps in a passive external crossover.

Sounds simple. It was. It was so harsh for the first 100 hours NO ONE could listen to them. The sound was being thrown all over the place, the highs were thin and BOILED your ears. EVEN my deaf neighbor was impressed, he could hear something.. I thought I had messed up.. Well I did sort of... 250 hours it took to sound correct and sound correct they did.. Just wonderful. Two speakers face to face covered with moving blankets, 24/7 for 10 full days..

We uncovered the speakers (RM40s) and were amazed when they were moved back into position, all except the deaf neighbor..

You know how I test cables? ONE at a time always on my left ear, first for a whole week.. NEVER two at a time.. Mechanics 101, Scotty style..

Break them in the way you listen. BUT change the volume...

THEN add the right cable.. If you can’t hear a difference.. Something is wrong... REALLY wrong... It’s not the cable.. :-)

Regards

Here is one thing that I noticed about certain materials. Silver and silver clad are a real bummer to get broke in, plain and simple. I just thought silver cable was an expensive toy. I had 100 feet of pure silver # 12 with teflon covers. USAF surplus. Its 60 years old now. That cable took YEARS to break in. I’d use it, get pissed, and toss it in the cable box. This went on for 8 or 9 years, on 2 10 foot pieces.

The cable wars lit up.. EVERYONE was talking cables.. Me I used SC copper then, for the bass and a SC stinger wire (Cable wire RG56 stripped, no shielding just the stinger and the white cover for mids). It worked GREAT and still does. BTW.

My rich buddy brings over some pure silver stinger cable, silicone and cotton. I was floored.. That was a game changer for me...

I get the silver cable I had out and used it for extension cord for two months on my well pumps. They broke in to the point I could hear a good change. I was getting into ribbons at the time Infinity, Apogee, and VMPS.

That is when I learned, some things take a long long time to SETTLE, and to break in. The user needs to learn a LOT of patience.. Those cables took close to 10 years before they sounded GREAT and are actually my reference set of cables, to compare against. The funny part is a good hard run for 200 - 300 hours would have taught me a good lesson way back when.

This is a fun way and a good way to test cables. Just hook up one cable. I always hook up the left. 2 week at least, then the right two week later. IF you can’t hear the difference. TRUST me it’s not the cable.. LOL

BUT it will show you what I’m talking about.. Some folks don’t need to do that.. BUT I like to do it that way.. It’s a fun way....

Respect..

After reading everything I could find on your writing, Douglas, I’ve come to conclusion that you would make a good Grief Counselor. The "poor me" don’t work Kiddo, please read on...

I’m going to quote YOU and how you evaluate a system in comparison.

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"I seem to occupy a position in the industry and community that is fairly vacant, that of eschewing most forms of system enhancements/methods called "tweaks", and endorsing other methods that some ridicule. It all comes out of building hundreds of systems, not theory".

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Here is the thing Douglas, "hundreds of systems", I have a BIG problem with what you imply. It takes me a couple of days to set up and at least a week for things to settle. To hit 100 hours, on 100 systems, I’ll let you do the math, let alone (S) HUNDREDS, and 2-400 hours for "Break in" to complete.

By your own admission you either didn’t spend much time with the systems you built, OR you spent the last 12-14 year at and 8 + hour a day job just listening. That’s a 2080 hour 40 x 52 year.

I’ll leave your testing procedure alone now, but it’s really BROKE, and your psiphon is just, atrocious. That’s county talk from a Common Man.

Douglas, the numbers just don’t jive buddy.. What’s up? Where do you find time to make a living, listen, evaluate and write your reviews?

Coffee LOL those hours approach pure meth numbers and immortality.
Just sayin’

Just wonderin’..

It took me 10 years to find out about ONE pair of 10 foot cables, your and extraordinary fella indeed..

From the age of 6 - 15 I was taught HOW to listen by a Master Jet Mechanic.. 9 years of being TAUGHT, then I got to listen.... for 50 more...

Skunk at the hen house gotta go...

which of course, has not been demonstrated, but has been shown not to occur via my informal testing, they will get much more of nothing done.

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Douglas the point I was trying to make, is you have a view that is based on minutes, not hours, days, Weeks and MONTHS .. Do you understand? You said hundreds (100s) of systems. With minutes each.. That is NOT critical listening.. That is passive at best "a quickie".. PLAIN and SIMPLE..

Taking the time on just ONE complete system 1-400 hours. That is why manufactures have help lines..  You summed up your "DATA" in a nutshell, "more of nothing done".

The race is a mile long you quit at 50 yards pretty tough to say how you trained for a mile, but stopped at 50 yards..AND go on to tell others how hard that mile really is.

You can't talk about braking in something if you don't actually do it. 
Let alone assign 100s to the same analogy, it's just not good data.
You literally haven't done your homework...

You want that grade NOW? :-)

Respect..

Ya know Douglas, I kind of figured it would go that way.. Ya can’t do something 10% and expect 100% results. I’d say the conversation is over X two.

Null testing is as OLD as the people that use it . It is not a tool people use in critical listening. It is a tool developed for just that null testing..

https://incompliancemag.com/article/null-experiments-while-measuring-signals/

I love when sound Evangelicals lock horns with Engineers. It’s just fun.

I’m not an engineer, BUT I’ve worked with quite a few. NEVER on sound, "Sound Walls", maybe. Null testing is done all the time on pre made cables used in heavy construction. 30-150K (300 pigtails). They can’t have problems with outside, RFI, EFI. or onboard issues. Besides Germans are picky.. At least the ones I worked with for years.. SLOW as hell but smart..

You’ll think NULL test when you drill through a plate of iron pyrite 15 feet thick. All your test equipment goes NUTS. Hit a magnetic plate, with a conductive drill string. NULL TESTING.. LOL Nothing on the machine test the same again... Computers shut down, WON’T reboot. Have to demag the machine and change some parts.. Anything with diodes or transistors quits working. Not often, BUT stuff happens..

Do this, open the hood of your car and wet your hands, run your hands down the spark plug wires.. LOL Go ahead... Please video.. We will all enjoy.. Null testing.. Ethan Winer, mercy HE’S DEAF....
Wires leak, 500.00 spark plug wires LEAKS, you can't null test that... BUT I can change the environment to make  a cable more conducive to LET that happen... Moisture on my hands, or in the air..

Again do this, hook one cable to the left side, turn the system to mono (older equipment has this feature) and leave the old cable on the right. It's gonna be an eye opener to a lot of folks. Switch left to right in MONO, play through BOTH. Let them play for one week.. HOOK up the right side. Can you hear a difference? Maybe not..
I CAN..

(I don’t) Douglas is starting a "CLASS" of his own. Tough at the top, lonely too.. An army of ONE. LOL (Lots of Luck) "Eeyore Redux, Army of One".

Your too nice Master mahgister. :-)

If your quoting Groucho I’m quoting Confucius.
"Man who eat jelly bean Fart in Technicolor" :-)

Respect.. That is what it means to me.....A.F. rip