Amp burn-in..Best technique

Hey everyone.

Thanks for sharing and taking it easy on me. Some posts made me smile.

Points taken. I'm just going to play music whether it be streaming from a computer, CD or Turntable sit back relax and enjoy the music. I don't have a cassette player anymore to play music from.

I'm really fighting the urge though to try the burn-in method Jl35 did for his Pass X250.5.

I think it's interesting to listen to an amp or other component as it breaks in...unless it sucks so bad before break in you can't take it (recently had some balanced cables with precisely that issue...they were banned forever from my system in one day). My Silverline speakers took a while to develop their mojo, as did my Kavent preamp...both eventually found their way, and I'm glad.

10-05-11: Jedinite24
"My question is when doing amplifier burn-in is it better to have the amplifier put out varying wattage or put out stable wattage?"

You should vary the wattage in 20% increments in what is simalar to a star pattern you tighten wheel lugnuts in: 50% max power to 30% to 70% to 10% to 90%, then repeat. Do not go over 90% or below 10% for the first 4 days, then ONLY go from below 10% to above 90% for the remaining 4 days of break in.

Or you could just play the damned thing.

Just play music and enjoy.

For my Pass X250.5 I was told to run it 24 hours a day for 4 days, then for the next 4 days to run it 16 hours and turn it off (not standby) for 8 hours. This was supposed to break it in 90% - 95%.

The way to break in any component is to use it as you normally would. That means cycling the power. Leaving equipment on for 100's of hours at a time doesn't help. Just use it and enjoy it.

My guess would be to plug and play as recommended per manufactures standard instructions. Be that as it may, subjecting your amp to gangster rap or death metal during it's developmental formative break-in period may result in severe behavioral problems later.

Greetings everyone

Sorry to bump this old thread but I need some help.

My question is when doing amplifier burn-in is it better to have the amplifier put out varying wattage or put out stable wattage? I’d be keeping the volume at the same level.

Some background.

I have a Kavent P-3300 solid state amplifier that has meters in the front that show how much wattage the amp is putting out. When I have my CD player playing music at a reasonable volume level the meters would show .04 to .06 watts and it would stay that way throughout the songs.

Now when I stream the same music from my laptop via the Outlaw Audio OAW-3 Wireless Audio System the meters go wild. I’ll see the meters go from .02 to up to 7.0 depending on the parts of the song. I play good to high quality recordings on youtube. When I saw the difference in wattage I kept the volume the same on my preamp when I played the same music from my laptop and on the CD.

Info on the Outlaw Audio OAW3.

http://www.outlawaudio.com/products/OAW3.html

So would it be better to burn-in the amp by playing music that will make it put out varying wattage or steady wattage? If I do one way or the other would I be doing the burn-in for the same amount of time?

Thanks in advance and if I’m missing some details let me know.

I agree Gliderguider. If I am buying a piece of equipment that I know I am going to keep for a while. I will do exactly that. The McIntosh MC501 is one of the best, great sound! By the way I have one coming my way. Noonan, you will certainly enjoy it. Just let it break in naturally and enjoy the music.

There's a much simpler approach, which I take with most of my gear. Just play it normally, and accept that it will take a while before it starts to sound its absolute best.

Yes, the amps should be connected to the speakers whenever turned on unless there is a dummy resistance load simulating speakers being used.

Put the amp through normal paces and verify that it is working properly before messing with anything else. Throttling the amp hard will break it in the fastest as it pulls the most current and generates the most heat / temperature swing. Leaving the amp play on a steady state basis, even at lower volumes, also helps. The cycling of the amp, especially if it is of a high bias design, may also help. Lower bias amps will benefit the most from leaving them on and playing them as much as possible rather than cycling them off and on. That's because they don't get nearly as hot, so there's not much temperature swing from being off to being powered up and running.

All of the above is for SS amps, NOT tube amps. Tube amps should be played as needed with sufficient warm up time prior to throttling. Not only should tube amps be allowed to "warm up" prior to cranking on them, they need to be allowed to "heat down" prior to turning them off. One can do this by putting them into "standby" mode when done listening and letting them cool for 15 - 30 minutes. This will increase the lifespan of the tubes and longevity / stability of the circuitry too. Sean
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Thanks guys, correction....Mcintosh MC501, not 591. Not that it matters.

So how often am I supposed to turn the amp on and off? And this may be a dumb question, but I would think that the speakers offer impedence which forces the amp to work harder and break in. If that is true, would you not need a reasonable volume level to offer a certain amount of impedence?

If you just need signal coming from the amps, do they even need to be connected to the speakers?

Just a little confused!

I agree, low volumes are fine. As long as there's a signal. BTW, be sure to cut the amp off for long enough for it to cool and then fire it back up. This will allow the amp to cycle through cooling and heating up which will help speed the process up.

Low level will do fine.