Phono Section Break-In CD ??

Better yet, break your phono stage in while listening to your CD. Jim Hagerman sells an inverse RIAA circuit (http://www.hagtech.com/iriaa.html) that drops the signal either 44dB or 66dB. Plug your CD output into one side, the output into your phono stage and let 'er rip. A couple or 3 days of this is the equivalent of 50 hours or 150 LP sides ... with not obnoxious test tones.

Disclaimer - I'll be exhibiting with Jim Hagerman (and John Chapman - Bent Audio) at VSAC, but I got to know Jim first by being a very happy customer (with my Trumpet phono stage).

Cheers,
Thom @ Galibier

A+ Q, Motdathird!

Do you keep a straight face when cashing checks for those phono Burn-In CD's? :-)

We just came out with a new version of this Phono Burn-In CD for MC cartridges too. It's the #CD-101.1 .

Info at
www.graniteaudio.com/phono

Don Hoglund, President Granite Audio

Thank you all for the great comments. I've decided to go with the KAB Precon. In stock @ Elusive Disc.

Get one or two used DJ singles and play them over a few times. Will give your cartidge a good workout, too!

I can see the commercial applications.

Well I suppose one could argue that for an individual it is not the best use of money. For a store like mine we burn in so much equipment, and we can only have so much playing at any one given time, hence burn in devices (including cable cookers) are invaluable. Also given how much equipment we evaluate prior to picking up a product line, we want to make sure the gear is fully burned in prior to auditioning, and typically we only have a week to do so - thus anything which catalyzes the burn in process is deemed good in our eyes.

It is also true thath you would have to play a lot of records to burn in the phono section given the play time of an LP, and also LP's do not contain full spectrum bursts, and other tones which will more thoroughly burn in the phono stage. For this reason looping the phono burn in overnight will do the trick.

I am not necessarily implying that ever audiophile should own one - of course that would be silly. Just some food for thought...

I agree with Twl. Seems completely unnecessary (and a waste of money)

There is also this box from KAB:

http://www.kabusa.com/preconlp.htm

I purchased a PCB model with connectors (in other words, without a case) from this Hawaii source for less:

http://www.hagtech.com/iriaa.html

Hope this helps!

Todd

This may be considered old-fashioned, but how about just playing records through it? I've always done that, and it has worked just fine for me. Personally, I like to hear the gear burn-in.

Without a box in between the output of the CD player and the inputs of the phono stage you're likely to do damage.

The best burn in I've ever run into is from Thor Audio - it has a box which goes in between the CD player and the phono stage (an inverse RIAA stage among other things) and includes a CD with both MM and MC tracks on it for burn in.

It can be purchased through Thor directly or any Thor dealer. I am not sure if any of the major mail order stoers carry it or not.

better idea: turn-on phono with arm connected and unmute.
run for 2...4 hours with no signal and you should be ok without spending on burn-in cd unless you want to eliminate your thirst to experiment...

Do a search for Granite Audio. Believe they have one; but if I'm not mistaken, it's for moving magnet input only.