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”.

 

 

w123ale

I can't speak for cables, but some speakers and headphones most assuredly do need some break in time; there is nothing psychological about the difference between some headphones right out of the box and the same headphones 100 hours later if the only listening in the meantime was done by the headphone stands. I've had speakers that sounded great right out of the box, and I've had some where the different frequencies sounded like they'd never met each other for the first several weeks, but when that changed, that changed fast. Can't make any blanket statements. 

Agree 100% mechanical movement, materials flexing, etc. No imagination there. 
 

Cheers 

These kind of threads remind me of "oil" threads on my motorcycle forums and to sound cliche, opinions are like a*******, everybody has one.

And, if you want to believe there is an actual difference in sound, there could be, the mind works in mysterious ways. (cliche again)

I've had numerous different pieces of equipment over the years, never could tell any difference.

 

@curiousjim 

Has anyone bought two power cords and left one in the box and used the other one for a few months?  Then pulled out the unused pc and done a A/B test?

 


curiousjim

Yes, I have done this exact power cable A/B test to test the theory!

I bought several mains cables from a well known cable supplier. These were 10 times the price of my original cables and had many rave reviews. So I was confident that these will sound great.

These were very well made cables with high grade plugs. When I first connected these, I thought the sound appeared to have improved! but I wasn't sure! Problem was powering down the system, switching cables, powering up and remembering what the previous cables sounded like!!

I am an engineeer so I decided to design a test jig.  I bought several IEC sockets, rocker switches and made myself a test box. The two rocker switches were wired to allowed me to switch any of the two cables in or out of the circuit. When both switches are ON then both mains cables are running in parallel. This enabled me to switch between any two cables almost instantaneously from my listening position without powering down the equipment.

With CDs in my Oppo 205 player running on repeat  and able to switch cables without powering down surely I should hear any differences. 

Unfortunately, I heard no difference, good or bad!

I also did a burn-in for 4 weeks as recommended by the manufacturer. Still I heard no difference! 

I spoke to manufacturer regarding my test, They suggested I may need a longer burn-in!

I did a longer burn-in as these cables had all these good reviews so I was happy to give it more time but still heard no difference in sound.

I also tested another same out of the box new cable against the now burned-in cable. No difference!!

By now the cable return window had closed.

May be I need a 600Hr burn-in. My mind keeps telling me that these are expensive well built cables and should sound better.
May be they do sound better but I just can't hear it! May be if I had not done the A/B test they would have sounded better in my mind. May be if I keep going  one day I will hear the difference.

Burn-in or perception, you decide.

But hey, these cables fo improve the appearance of  system so all is not lost.

Good threat. There are (mechanical ) things that need break in. But perhaps most break-in in electronics/audio happens in our minds which are highly adaptive, and our desire to be satisfied of what we have (except that it is virtually impossible to be adopted to a really bad sound). Finally, what God helps us to find our satisfaction.