Avalon Eclipse speakers. Six months at least, but really, I'm not sure they ever broke in. |
600 hours Audio Aero Capitol Mark 2 |
Four years - Wife. Getting better and better with each passing year! She got pretty pissed when I tried to hook her up to the fridge to make the process go faster though!
Marco |
Phono carts always take me forever since they're something I can't leave going while I'm out ;) |
Two years. Shahinian Diapason loudspeakers. They sounded like crap new and are heavenly now. |
I agree with Boa2 on Soliloquys. I was tempted to sell them at least a dozen times in the last 6 months....They began to sound spectacular close to 800- hour mark. I do love the sound (even though it's totally different from my Dali Grands), but come on now! 700 hours to break in- that's beyond ridiculous! |
Soliloquy speakers....months...and months...and months....and finally....bliss. |
'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+ |
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. |
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. |
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. |
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. |
My brother bought a bose system 6 years ago and is still waiting for it to break.................in |
VSA VR4jr speakers; took about 400-500 to fully break in. I put on some digital cable radio and closed the door to the a/v room for about a month. |
Teajay,
Equipment and or cable break in is dependant on the sorcing of the materials used in thier construction (but basiclly most are composed with high quality to start with). I have recently upgraded my system and even though the componets had been broken in (pre enjoyed componets) it took 40 or more listening hours for them to readjust to my enviroment (much to my releif) but I was very wary in the process. My ICs/speaker cables take more time UNLESS the manufactuer does some pre conditioning for you (Ex. Ridge Street Audio Poeima!! Sig ICs plus material are top quality). Prior as I have broken in ICs and Speaker cables I found that it took into the 100+ hours and then I began to hear the real bloom and enjoyment of what I had anticipated, and still they seem to just keep getting better. I can attest that I have the usual short patience wanting the bloom to appear and yes sometimes it just doesn't (been there too and started again from scratch). I would say new electronics need at least 50hrs of use before they start relaxing to show their true potential, Cables pre conditioned can be immediate and just get better, non conditioned minimum 50-100hrs to open and settle MHO. I've been mostly lucky with my choices, I hope that your pursuit is also as successful |
The longest time something of mine took to burn in was when I switched my system to active.... those Linn active cards and switching out the crossovers for the active plates seemed to take 200+ hours to settle in. |
My Audio Note kit 2 speakers are just finishing breaking in after about 10 weeks or so. They sometimes did not sound very good at all during the first few weeks. They started out bright and then had too much bass but now sound balanced and very musical. I think they are now broken in...
My Maggie 1.6 speaker had a similar length of break in time but always sounded pretty good even at the beginning. |
