2. analog
  3. 189818-144705

How Soon Do You Realize You Don't Like a Piece of Gear?

I've been running all Allnic H3000 for a bit and love it. I decided to try a solid state transimpedance phono, The Grail by Van Den Hul and am coming out unconvinced of the change. The VDH has only been powered on for 24 hours and not fully broken in yet, which is estimated to be around 50-100 "listening hours". 

I don't hate the VDH, but am curious if it's going to grow on me or not. It has the detail, silence and linearity in spades, but my Allnic has the gravity, lushness, depth and ethereal timber I've grown to absolutely love. How soon until I should cut my losses and move back the Allnic and what are your thoughts on break-in time and waiting it out? 

128x128j-wall
grislybutter
2,657 posts
 

30 minutes. In that time, I would have fixed anything that might affect it, where I sit, what I play, what I might have missed, crossed connections, etc.

inna
7,296 posts
 

Yeah, I would do at least 200 hours of burn-in but it probably wouldn't change your overall impression. Personally, I no longer even consider transistor equipment, well, except for tape decks.

pindac's avatar
pindac
2,603 posts
 

If a Reverse RIAA is used between the a cheap CDP and the Phon' .

The CDP can be used on repeat, enabling multiple hours of playtime of the best CD maybe heard, through such a CDP and the Styli is not needing to take a beating as a Burn In ancillary. 

My experience as a Long Term user of Phon's in both SS and Valve, is that it will take a very special SS Phon' to Woo one from a well thought out design for a Valve Input / Output Phon' or Valve Hybrid Phon'.

Through experiencing both SS and Valve Phon's at Bake Off's, the comparisons have revealed to me a few SS Phon;s at very reasonable monies, that I am confident have competed extremely well in a Comparison to SS Phon's costing from £8K - £20K. Longer periods of listening to such devices may have increased my confidence, and suggested there is little to be discovered as a separation to the SQ, maybe just a variant of a end sonic?   

I know confidently that if these Phon's were to be welcomed for a Demo' in the Home System, these would be Phon's that would be very attractive and desired to be maintained as a option for replaying Vinyl. 

There would be no sitting on the fence, if a device should be kept or not, maybe Bake Off's and broad experiences of Audio Equipment harden an individual to their sureness of what is attractive to them.

There would be a Burn In put in place, I am a advocate of such a practice. Not using Burn In as a means to convince myself the device is a keeper, a device is usually immediate with a capability of making a good impression. Burn In is my experience is a method for bringing out a coherence and tidy up to the overall end sonic through the exposing the circuit to an intense period of electrical current running through components and Solder Joints.      

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