Break in time that extends to months or maybe even years!!


On another thread, we have a well known and well respected piece of gear ( and great sounding too, IME) that according to the member who is reviewing it, needs in excess of 1000 hours to fully break in!! 

While we have all heard of gear that needs immense amounts of 'break in' time to sound its best, usually gear that involves teflon caps, I question whether this very long break in time is the job for the consumer? Is it reasonable for a manufacturer of audio gear to expect the consumer to receive sub-par performance from his purchase for potentially several months ( years?) before the true sound of the gear in question can be enjoyed? Or, is it ( or should it be) perhaps the job of the manufacturer of this gear ( usually not low priced) to actually accomplish the 'break in' before releasing it from the factory? Thoughts...
128x128daveyf
Sounds like a plan. A better plan would be a get together to listen to our favourite music, then to downtown Montreal for a superb restaurant dinner, or to one of our Irish pubs.

I've been cooped up too long. Must. Get. Out.
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Okay, here’s the solution to determine if speaker break in is a thing.

Buy 1 pair of speakers; connect only one, play it in mono for 6 months. After 6 months connect the other one and listen for the difference. A perfect test, n’est pas?

These are the kinds of things people think up when they have yet to develop any real listening skills. Its like in the beginning its real common to use one special recording and play it over and over again. To sit in the same spot, obsess over matched volume levels, on and on piling one ritual on another, one check and balance and qualification (reliably? double-blind? are you sure? really really sure? really really REALLY sure???) on top of another, with no end in sight.

This is all goes away once you learn what’s what. Then all of a sudden it hits you how mind-numbingly soul sappingly boring it is to play the same little bit over and over again. Or even the same track. Or even to pause the track. All these crazy ideas of having to do it fast and everything be just a certain way it all goes POOF! When you learn to listen.

Best example I know, one time at CES they had this crap PA system and it had some problem and it was outdoors and packed and from where I was way in the back it sounded like just your typical crap PA system. But to the guys up closer and towards the middle, they were complaining. And so people are running around back and forth trying to figure out what it is. And then someone in the middle yells out check the something or other. I couldn’t hear. Like I said, way in the back. But even from way back there it was clear something happened. Now instead of running around one guy is looking at one specific thing and then a few minutes later its fixed and the show goes on.

Word travels fast. Within minutes the word reaches even to me way in the back. The guy was Stan Ricker. He said there’s a bad resistor in the crossover. Or cap. Something like that. Been a long time. Anyway, point is, this guy listening for the first time to an absolute piece of crap system, outdoors, and with mega-distractions, was able to diagnose an electrical fault right down to the discrete part involved BY EAR!

And he didn’t need no double-blind A/B or any of that.

Listening skills. Get some.
heaudio123
I believe that is the suppliers making the 1000 hour break-in claims ...
That's an interesting belief. Is that like a faith-based belief, or do you have something that actually leads you to that belief?