Is it the beer or do speakers/electronics really need some extended warm-up period?


To me, one of life's best times are a cold beer and listening to good music.  I have noticed that the longer the listening/drinking session, the better the sound.  Is it the beer or do the electronics/mechanical components mellow out after some burn-in period?  Thought about listening with no beer, but that's not happening.
gvlandin

Showing 4 responses by douglas_schroeder

Time to play "March of the Self-Confident Audiophile"! 

Sorry, guys, you are wrong. You're living in a fantasy where you can purportedly distinguish between warm up and burn in, and can hear equipment changing in sonics over hours or days. It's great for the ego, not so good for building superior audio systems. :( 








Geoffkait, doesn't matter, both are the same futile activity, horridly nebulous and fraught with subjectivity. Split them, merge them, either way they are useless. I'm a cable proponent, but that's different in that when I swap a cable I'm hearing the change immediately. What's being discussed that I find impossible is the notion that humans can accurately hear changes to gear over hours, days, weeks, months, etc. The belief in that is predicated up on the arrogant concept that humans have more consistent perception of what we hear than equipment has consistency in playing it back. That's laughable. 

I showed that the entire affair, including the concept of component burn in as well as purported benefit to warm up, is a waste of time and energy. The moderators here have a problem with me pointing to my writing, as though I'm somehow benefitting from it (even though I'm not paid), so they will pull a direct reference to it or I would post it. You'll have to do a search for my name and the phrase "burn in". Having actually conducted comparisons and finding no difference sonically between both new/old and warm/cold systems at the same time, I have little regard for promotion of either one; they are summarily a waste of one's time. 

Feel free to disagree, but I'm not interested in extended discussion of it here. I wrote my discovery and conclusions for all to read. 

physus, you asked some good questions; I believe most will be answered in my article. 

mesch, it might be reasonable, but in the comparisons of gear I conducted it was not audible. i.e. it's not significant