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Burn-in and Equipmemt Value

A lot of people strongly believe that burn-in results in better sound quality and some will even pay more for cables that have the burn-in done by the manufacturer. If burn-in is real, then why isn't used equipment worth more than it is? At a minimum, shouldn't the demo equipment from a respected retailer be worth more when manufacturer warranties are still in play and the equipment is essentially new?

As a side question, why is it that any perceived change in a system where burn-in is credited it is assumed that the burn-in was on the newest piece of equipment? Some users report changes from burn-in hundreds and thousands of hours down the road.

I understand break-in on speakers and tube amplifiers, but struggle greatly with things like cables and digital sources.
mceljo

Showing 2 responses by bifwynne

bifwynne
2,206 posts
 
Mceljo, I for one have zero issue with buying used gear -- period!!! In fact, I prefer it for the reasons you just mentioned.

Case in point: ARC says that most of its gear requires 600 hours of burn in. Who the heck wants to wait 600 hours!!! So when I bought my Ref 5 with 1000+ hours on it, I was quite happy. Ditto with my PH-8 (ARC refurb with 750+ hours) Ref 150 (pre-owned with 1050+ hours) and my Ref CD-8 (??).

I mentioned in another post that my CD-8 is about 5 years old now. ARC says that it's pretty maintenance free. Just use a camel hair photo lens brush to kick the dust off the lens in the transport.

I think a fair point is that good quality equipment like ARC (and many other fine brands) just doesn't age like cars did in the 50s and 60s -- 60,000 miles and you had one old car. :)

Hey, who ever heard that an I/C or speaker cable ever wore out???? ;-')
bifwynne
2,206 posts
 
Mceljo .... You write, "I am not sure how much of what I hear with my tube amp is just warm up vs. actual break-in, but it seems that something has changed. I don't believe that solid state really benefits from warm up or break-in and this goes for cables as well."

As far as tube amps are concerned, I can speak with some experience. ARC states that its gear requires "break-in" to sound its best. IME, that is a fair statement. It is also my experience that "warm-up" is also real, between 30 and 60 mins for my rig to loosen up.

I surmise that many transistor heads would maintain that most SS amps need time to break-in and time to loosen up too. At least I recall the same being posted elsewhere on the Forum.

You ask "[w]hy is it that burn-in is generally assumed to always result in positive change?" We are fortunate to have many technical A'gon members who contribute to the Forum. I'll let them provide the technical reasons why burn-in is a fact of life for most brand-new equipment.

From a non-technical perspective, I recall that certain electrical components, like power supply caps, electrolytic caps and so forth, do take time to settle in. Why?? I don't really know. It may have something to do with molecular/chemical changes that occur with the di-electric used in the caps. Kijanki and Gary (Hifigeek).... heeelllp!

Finally, you ask why can't speaker cables wear out?? Haven't a clue. Never heard anyone complain that their speaker cables wore out. Same with power cords. I've been using the same cables and cords for years. I guess if I constantly stepped on the wires, something could give. But so far, so good.

Hey ... you and I own tube amps. Do I have to tell you what does wear-out?? Friggin' power tubes. Da*n expensive.

Cheers. ;-')
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