Value of burn/break in?

In the case of cables and wire, especially tonearm wire, interconnects but also any wire, complete burn in never occurs without resorting to some break in means other than simply playing music for several hours a day, or even ten hours a day. This can be easily demonstrated by using the AudioDharma burn in machine on cables that have already been broken in for, say, two years or whatever while in the system. Music is neither the optimum signal to achieve complete break in nor is it high enough in level. And it’s an old wives tale than fuses break in correctly no matter which way they were originally inserted. This can be shown to be false by reversing the fuses one at a time and observing by listening which ones were inserted in the correct direction and which ones weren’t.

If folks would use the speaker set up track on XLO Test CD or similar Test CD instead of guessing by trial and error they would probably find that speakers should usually have no toe in. They would probably also discover that their speakers are too far apart, which partially explains why they toe the speakers in. Trying to find the absolute best speaker locations by ear is like trying to solve n simultaneous equations in n+x unknowns. The best you can do that way is find local maximums.

almarg
I have no opinion about breakin CDs, though, as I’ve never used one and I have no particular knowledge of the technical characteristics of the signals they provide.

Generally the signal is a mixed sinusoid White and or Pink noise mid range signal played at a moderately high level continuously for a minimum of a few days up to two weeks or more. Works like a charm for everything in the signal path. As I mentioned earlier one can easily hear the improvements over the course of the burn in.

roberjerman
Tube equipment I like to turn on early in the day and shut off in the evening after listening is done. You may choose to do the same!

That’s neither break-in or burn-in. It’s warm-up.