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
Nonoise
I truly get a great deal of pleasure from my system. I am glad you a and everyone here does also. I like my system to communicate to me. I like the emotion that a musician emotes through his instrument, or groups of musicians through their instruments. The tapestry they paint is a unique piece of art. I have played around with music and have many friends that play and that is kind of my base point for enjoying music. That is where music means a lot to me, the beauty that is painted by a musician.
stringreen
schmakin is what comes out of the oven when my kids used to cook. It tasted like bacon.
gdnrb
I have been fortunate that everything I have purchased sounds better and as good and ussually better than I would have hoped for after it break in.
reubent
That is nice service and a good idea. I thought of purchasing a cable cooker but only after I only had one cable to do and then one more and so on, you know how that goes.
jcmcgrogan
That's gone into my thinking also along with breakin.

I should be happy that my stuff settles in nicely. I am finding that there are many things to be happy about.
I personally don't really pay attention to break in, I pretty much need to have my system playing from the time I get home til the time I go to bed unless I'm watching something. So if i drop a new piece in and don't love it I let it play for a few weeks every night and if I still don't like it move on. I guess I've gotten smarter, or luckier, as I've gotten older but I haven't bought anything in a while I wasn't happy with. Just dropped in a new dac and loving it from note one and I will say its gotten better over the last week it's been here, to me that's an added bonus.
Do you ever not purchase something because of the time it takes for it to break in?

No, but I have not bought many items due to the hassle of having to sell the item it replaces.

Break in is not a problem for me, I use nonoise's method.
Selling gear is a headache for me these days. That's what keeps me from purchasing many items nowadays. ;^)
I just ordered a new phono cable today. Because it's not possible to leave the TT playing 24X7, I paid a few dollars extra for break-in service on a cable cooker. Don't know if it will make any difference, but I felt better spending $10 CAD ($8 USD) for 48 hours of break-in service.

I will admit to being skeptical of the 'break in' belief, but I can say that it is true.
Everything from speakers to cables to high pass filters changed from the time I connected them.
I will also say that each time I noticed a change, it was for the better.
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
I believe in break in but up to a point.  If I insert a new component into my system and the sound sucks, no amount of break in will magicly make it sound better.  I learned that the hard way.  The only component that I noticed a big difference in was my Odyssey amps.  They sounded great out of the box and sounded even better after a few weeks.  Break in would never stop me from getting a new piece of equipment.
No offense Eric. I pretty sure your being funny and serious. I laughed at your comment if thats ok. It is good to laugh at ourselves. I am probably acting spoiled.
I still enjoy my music but not near as much as after break in. Maybe I love sound more than music but when the system is noticeably off I don't connect as well. Sometimes I just want to hear the weepy blues of an acoustic guitar and the setting it'seems in, and it isn't the same as when something is breaking in. Somethings sound fine, some real good, some kind of ugly when it's breaking in.
It's not like you can't listen through a component that isn't fully broken in. I mean, the sound isn't so bad as to be unlistenable, is it? It's only a matter of degree, right? How spoiled are we?! No offense intended Mike!---Eric.
I appreciate that Nonoise. And it is a treat to have some unexpected improvement small though it may be. The pleasure of a finely tuned system.
I like that emotional response to music and when my system is a little off as it is during break in it just loses that for me and my other system sound much better at that time, my car even can sound better. But I kind of depend on my system for emotional support a little bit and I miss it when it is not quite there.
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