Back when I was about 17, and had no stereo, I mounted a couple car speakers in 2 cube cardboard boxes, used some lamp cord as speaker wire and hooked them it up to a tape deck. Sounded like crap. But after a couple weeks, it was sounding pretty sweet. Now you tell me, was it the burn-in of the lamp cord or my ears adjusting to the sound? Pretty sure what I learned back then holds true today. Equipment makers tell us to wait for a few hundreds hours for a very good reason. Sure there are items like speakers that will improve with age, but for the most part I’m sure we become accustomed to what we are hearing.
Burn in vs perception
Posting here in speakers, but could probably go in any of the forums. Question of the night: how much of burn in of components is actually burn in of our perception? That is, is burn in partly us becoming accustomed to a change in sound.
I’m listening to my SF Amati Traditions that at first I found a bit strident, but I now find lush, dynamic, and generally brilliant. I bought them as 1-year old demos so theoretically they should have been played enough to be broken in. I haven’t changed anything in my system—I have been working on my room with more stuff, but that’s it.
Sometimes reviewers or arm chair audiophiles (me) will state that said component needs to be plugged in and left alone for weeks until it gels with the system. Could this simply be our own perception burn in OR is something real happening here?
For speakers I can buy it (woofers need to loosen up and all), but I almost always buy used, and I almost alway a) find a difference of a new component (good or bad), and b) in time, I couldn’t tell you what the change was. Maybe just me, but our brains are pretty good level setters.
I willing to bet this can be a large part of “burn in”.
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@erik_squires Can I ask what class D amps you had this experience with? I have a pair of PS Audio M1200 amps still in the boxes they came in (bought used). Not sure when I’ll put them in service, they’re more intended as backups right now, but I guess I may need to leave them powered up 24/7 if/when they do go in to service. |
It seems we all have different experiences concerning break in. I have 7 pair of bookshelf speakers and most seemed to change sound over time. I have a Loki Max EQ and I would need to control brightness for a time. After the so call burn in, I would no longer need the EQ, I have 4 integrated amps. Hegal Mac hybrid, Accuphase and Pass. Out of the 4 the Pass definitely went through some type of break in. When I first plugged it up, the bass was very strong and it sounded very dark. After about 200 hrs or so, it became very sweet and natural sounding. |
+1 I decided to be nice today. So as I read these various threads, I just kept quiet. But then I read your post and I nodded approval. So technically, I just fell off the wagon. Therefore: What is it with these people clacking away on their keyboards spewing nonsense. Of course gear has burn in and cables have burn in as well. Why all this, "well if I can't hear it then it doesn't exist." Where did all of these Luddites come from? Scratch that. Where did all these theoretical physicists and PhD's in Electrical Engineering come from? The new power cords for my amps took two weeks to settle in. The first 8 hours they sounded good. Then they got so bad between 8 and 30 hours I could not even listen to the stereo. I turned the volume down and walked away. After that it might sound good one day and bad the next with the variation diminishing over the second week. Suddenly one day the system sounded amazing. But for a week or so I was starting to think my purchase was a mistake. My HT system is mid-fi. I have some decent Monitor Audio Gold speakers and a Marantz receiver- killer OLED monitor. I bought some speaker cables for a few hundred dollars- didn't hear a big change. Bought some good AQ HDMI cables in the $100 range. Saw a little improvement, maybe in the picture but not in the sound. The big changes came when 1) I moved my Furman Power Conditioner to my HT system. That made a big improvement in the picture but I didn't notice much difference in sound. and 2) ran an ethernet cable to my Apple TV box from my expensive audio grade network switch. Again a large improvement in the picture. The sound is good. Typically, I wouldn't expect a mid fi system to have the resolution to reveal anything but the largest of changes. For some reason I demand near perfection in my 2 channel but with HT I'm more concerned about the picture. As long as the explosions shake the room and the dialog is clear, I'm good. Maybe it is from growing up with a 19" B&W TV. |
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