Rsbeck,
With all due respect, I think you're either missing the point or haven't been around here long enough to recognize that this is an old debate with fairly clearly drawn sides. Although I'm a relative newbie compared to Tom (Twl), Redkiwi, and several others who regularly post on this site, I have experienced the reality of break-in several times with new equipment. I remember quite clearly being shocked when I dropped my brand new out of the box Bel Canto amps into my system and discovered, to my amazement, that some of the music was suddenly missing from some albums I had played so many times I knew them note for note. After trying everything I knew to fix the "problem," I immediately posted a panicky message on this board and placed a call to my dealer. In a short time, several more experienced members told me to settle down and give the amps time to break in. I let them play for several days pretty much non-stop, and believe it or not, after about a week, the "missing" parts reappeared, the sound became much richer, and I was able to start breathing again. Bear in mind, I had NO preconceived ideas about break-in at the time--I just knew something was way wrong with the music when I hooked up my new amps. I didn't need an audiophile or any sophisticated instruments to tell me this--it was just obvious. The break-in for my new Piega speakers was also obvious.
The notion that those people who have experienced this phenomenom are delusional or elitists is, quite frankly, insulting. Now you want to add that we are also just imagining the debate about it as well.
With all due respect, I think you're either missing the point or haven't been around here long enough to recognize that this is an old debate with fairly clearly drawn sides. Although I'm a relative newbie compared to Tom (Twl), Redkiwi, and several others who regularly post on this site, I have experienced the reality of break-in several times with new equipment. I remember quite clearly being shocked when I dropped my brand new out of the box Bel Canto amps into my system and discovered, to my amazement, that some of the music was suddenly missing from some albums I had played so many times I knew them note for note. After trying everything I knew to fix the "problem," I immediately posted a panicky message on this board and placed a call to my dealer. In a short time, several more experienced members told me to settle down and give the amps time to break in. I let them play for several days pretty much non-stop, and believe it or not, after about a week, the "missing" parts reappeared, the sound became much richer, and I was able to start breathing again. Bear in mind, I had NO preconceived ideas about break-in at the time--I just knew something was way wrong with the music when I hooked up my new amps. I didn't need an audiophile or any sophisticated instruments to tell me this--it was just obvious. The break-in for my new Piega speakers was also obvious.
The notion that those people who have experienced this phenomenom are delusional or elitists is, quite frankly, insulting. Now you want to add that we are also just imagining the debate about it as well.