Burn-in time Vs. Getting used to a sound


I have had much in the way of high end audio over the years. ...and the idea of an electronic item needing several hundred hours of use before sounding their best..is an accepted idea now (for the most part). Recently I have heard a growing thought of this just being the user getting used to the sound of a product.. Truthfully in the early days of Large Advents, DQ-10 Dahlquists and other gear..there was never any talk of burn-in time... Any thoughts out there on this.... Truth or Hype?
whatjd

Showing 2 responses by subaruguru

If a man speaks in the forest and there is no woman to hear him is he still wrong?? (couldn't resist....)
Bought some used Red Dawn rev II Nordosts which were multiple-spades (shotgunned?) at one end. Since I have non-biwirable speakers (Verity), but have amps (Alephs) with two sets of output jacks it made perfect sense to wire 'em that way. Sure enough they sounded ragged and bright. The seller confirmed that he had used them "the other way", and Nordost suggested I'd need EXTRA break-in time to "reverse" the "orientation". Well, they were right...the cables smoothed out, developed GREAT soundstage depth, and gained LF body, after use. How much of this was my aural accomodation? I don't know, but since the cables are threaded through the floorboards to amps hung under my joists, I'm not about to reverse 'em to satisfy a single-blind test!