@denon1 "It costed me a lot of money to ignore burn in significance, system synergy, isolation and room acoustics."
100% agree. I like to look for low-hours gear put back on the market by people prematurely looking to move to other components as a result of this situation. Same happens with new speakers as well, by not letting everything settle in.
WORSE:
And, to your point, I was a show a 3.5 years ago where there was imo a really bad setup of Pass Labs amps and speakers. Omg it just sounded horrible to me, woah, compared to what I’d heard prior times in other setups. It was all new gear too, and break-in seemed to be limited too. The speaker pairing just did not work, at all. The cabling seemed limited, and could not say much about the room setup. Just weird.
Felt really bad for the presenters, and lack of care paid attention to the results. A total miss on that day imo. It clearly showed that good matching and setup can make a real difference. People did not stay long in that room, flowing in/out.
BETTER:
Then hearing the same amplifier(s) with better matching speakers and appropriate cabling, in a much better room setup, a very different and more enjoyable result.