phono stage break in?

As near as I can tell, both the CDs and circuit boards do the job and cost about the same. In my case, it's not costing me anything.

Ofcourse, one could always keep the money and just play records for a month or so. The phono stage is going to break in one way or the other.

Rolloff, the tuner might work for a MM stage but the best way is to use a CD that has been recorded special for the RIAA circuitry in the phono stages.

Larry, does PA make a disc for phono stage break in? Albert sent me one from Granite Audio (has MM and MC break in track) for phono stage and the PA system enhancer for the rest of the system and cables. I don't know if he just likes the GA cd better or if the Purist doesn't work on phono stages.

Best,

Dan

The hagtech board was recommended to me as well. I do think that may be the best way to do this. However, as with the CDs and the hagtech circuit board, once your state is broken in these are not going to be used much at all. I suppose one could purchase one of these and then sell it when done with it. The Cardas record that Neil mentions is really worth keeping around because you will use it.

The cover on this one saya "Model #CD-101.1 (with Bonus MC tracks)". All of the other tracks have been recorded at 4 mV output. Must be the one to get if you want to cover both MM and MC.

Neil, Larry, I get a bad ground loop when trying to use my BAT CDP connected to the phono inputs. I pulled out an old Marantz CD 63SE since it floats the ground. This fixed the ground loop, but it does seem to have a high noise floor. Sound right or is there possibly still something amiss? I know your not supposed to listen to the Granite CD, but I'm curious if that is also "seen" by the phono stage and if it is hindering the process.

How does this sound for a process. I'm going to let this CD run the MC track continuously when I'm not listening for the rest of the week. That should be me over the 200 hour point. Then play the Cardas a couple of times at the start of a session. I'm afraid to run the other 32 tracks through the MC input because of circuit overload.

Noams, the devices do break in much differently with a signal going through them, and not just a static signal. It needs to vary in amplitude and frequency just as the signal from the record will. Just turning on the unit with no signal does nothing except warm up the power supplies.

Steve, I agree with you for the most part. However, when it comes to breaking in tonearm wire I'm all for any method that will speed up the process. But this doesn't take anything special. All you need is a cheap cable that you can attach to the cartridge leads. Plug that cable into a CDP and the other end of the tonearm wire into the preamp and let it play for a few days. (Thanks Albert!)

I agree with Raul about caps needing break in time. That seems, based on my experiences, to be the component that does benefit from prolonged exposure to the signals of music reproduction. To take this one step further, it seems to me that any component with a measurable capacitance gains from this break in as well. DACs, and all chips, are composed of tiny capacitors. I've found that most tubes that I've used settle in within 50 hours or so.

I've not used CD's before this to break in a phono stage specifically. I'm sure many of us have left a CDP on repeat for several days to burn in other components. It does seem to have sped things up a bit, but I suppose it would take the break in of many phono stages to say for sure that this really does speed things up.

Noams, it sounds to me like you should get even more improvement as you continue to play through your preamp. What you describe is very much what I also hear as caps break in.

Think about this. Caps are voltage and time devices. This circuit is also affected by resistance, but I'll keep this simple for the sake of clarity. The time component means they are affected by signal frequency. If the signal is somewhat static as you describe then the range that the cap is operating in is limited to the frequency and amplitude of that static signal. Since this is probably nowhere near the range of frequencies produced by music playback, it is reasonable to assume that there are parts of the capacitor's capabilities that are not being exercised. This implies that the best way to break in compnents is to use a truly random sigal. That is random in both frequency and amplitude. This is why the test CDs and sweep records use tones that tend to sweep across frequencies.

All that being said, there is no evidence that I'm aware of that these test recordings do any better job at breaking in components than just listening to music. They're mostly a convenience, in my opinion, and probably do help speed up the break in by allow one to get those 200+ hours in just a few days of continuous CP play rather than spinning records for a month or two. I believe this is especially true for very low signal levels like one would see from many LO MC cars.

On the other hand, several folks that I trust have told me that they use the Cardas record on a regular basis, say once a month, and that they do notice an improvement in doing so. I'm just starting to do this so I can't say if I hear the same benefit or not.

Heehee! Doug, I don't think any amount of burn in would help those POS adapters! I don't think any amount of anything would help them!

I have to say that when it comes to playing burn in CDs that I have a distinct advantage. My system is downstairs and I can lower the volume and close the door.

In this case, Neil, it is a mediocre SE/XLR adapter. P.O.S, as in piece of shite.

Ok. I tried the Cardas sweep again today. First time since all the new gear went in. It does seem that there was a lot of grundge before. Now the voices and instruments are just that much more defined. The notes at both extremes are also cleaner.