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  3. 128646-38

break in

Do you ever not purchase something because of the time it takes for it to break in? I personally consider it when I am looking a another component. For instance if the fall season rolls around and I think about spending more time listening to music I do not like to go through 150 or more hours of break in and not enjoy my listening sessions as well. I have had things take much longer than 300 hours to settle to that level I like. And I don't like to leave my stuff running 24/7 just to break in, so that doesn't work for me.
And on a side note can you roughly guess at how many total hours of break in you have had on all your equipment?  Things I can think of to avoid some break in is get used items or integrated components like amps and such. I take those things into consideration when I am looking at equipment.  

marqmike

Showing 2 responses by nonoise

nonoise's avatar
nonoise
10,547 posts
 
Marqmike, I like that we can both approach that destination of listening pleasure from different perspectives. "All roads lead to.." kind of thinking.
Also, I can empathize with your loss of pleasure when things don't come together. I got into this hobby with the express purpose of deriving pleasure. I tried not to get caught up with the equipment but that turned out to be a fool's errand on my part. The break in part I had to settle with and learned later to appreciate so as to not go nuts.

All the best,
Nonoise
nonoise's avatar
nonoise
10,547 posts
 
I'm of the other mind on break in. Sorry, but everything needs to break in to some degree. To me, it's no biggie to leave something on 24/7 for a few days. All it takes is to put on some FM station at low volume and go about my business. I also take pleasure in interrupting said break in and giving it a listen to see how it's faring. And then a week or so later, done.

As for total hours of break in, I really can't put a number on that one. Some components were assembled around the same time and they don't all take the same time to settle in so it'd be a rough hazard of a guess and not informative in the least. What I can say is, even after something has broken in, to my satisfaction, it's always nice to find out I was wrong and something wonderful happens to further increase my listening pleasure. I always liked that.

All the best,
Nonoise
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