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How Long Did it Take to Burn In a new piece?

What was the longest time period you ever had to go through when burning/breaking in a new piece of equipment,regardless if was electronics,power cords,speakers,wires,etc.,untill it finally was broken-in and showed its true colors? Would you fellow GON members be willing to share what equipment/timespan you went through this with,and was the transformation gradual or a sudden snap at a specific time? Also,were their certain pieces that never "blossomed" and lived up to your expectations after a lengthy burn-in period,so off they went after your hard work waiting for them to reach their potential.
teajay
coffee_nudge
120 posts
 
My Wadia 861 with GNSC's Statement modifications took about 500-600 hours to start sounding consistently good (after the mods). Kept improving through about 1200 hours, then seemed to settle in and now just gives me outstanding tunes.
drewfidelity
178 posts
 
I have found that speakers take the longest period of break-in time to sound their best. I cannot tell you how many times I have sold a pair of speakers off before they had the chance to settle in. It is because of this that probably the best buys on Audiogon are for speakers that are 3-6 months old. This gives the buyer the benefit of not having to suffer through the break in period with a discounted price to boot.

The speakers that I have had that took the longest to break in were various pairs of Vandersteen speakers. I had a pair of 3A Signatures that did not fully break in until after 6 months of daily play. Once they did the biggest difference from the previous six months was their ability to throw a deep and wide soundstage.
garys
65 posts
 
I had a Sony SCD333ES SACD player... took a couple hundred hours to break in. After about 100 hours, the sound quality took a nosedive, then it improved better than ever. In true audiophile spirit, though, I couldn't leave the thing alone. I had it modded, so the unit went through break in all over again. Nice unit, as it turned out.
avguygeorge
2,300 posts
 
Autio;---Good one!!! So what'cha think?? 6 more??
The Celtic Silver spk.wires sounded painfully crappy for a week of 24/7. I guess the salt in the wound was reading this sellers--no breakin required--crap.
rooze's avatar
rooze
635 posts
 
'break-in' is a psycho-acoustic phenomenon and doesn't exist outside of our minds. It's our way of handling the disappointment of a new component, without having to consciously admit to disappointment. What actually happens during break-in is that the memory of the initial disappointment fades, and our brains compensate by telling us that things are getting better. The older we get the less time things need for break-in (since our audio-memories become shorter). Therefore break-in time may be directly proportional to age, though some factoring is needed for mental agility/capacity.

I'm just errrr....kidding :)

Rooze

PS - Jensen caps, 2-300hrs+
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