Equipment Break-in: Fact or Fiction

With speakers, I think it's fairly logical to assume the speaker will improve after some break-in. The drivers do require some air, to provide some deeper bass. As a Triangle Celius owner, I can attest that the speakers are far better after 200hrs of play than they were out-of-the box.
Question about CD player burn-in: Do you have to play music at decent volume levels, or can you just run your CD unit alone to burn it in? What normally happens after CD burn in? Do you get smoother highs and extended bass?

Need some help,
CB

The cd player needs to be on repeat and the dac or pre should be powered up.--That's all. What improvements there are is up to you to decide. I have always found lower bass/detail--and clean no sibliant treble to be the last to occur.

It's a fact but don't expect a silk purse out of a sows ear.

Chuck

As I noted in a parallel thread a few days ago, the rationale for burn-in of speakers is perfectly obvious from a material sciences perspective. It is not too farfetched to hypothesize that something similar might happen at a micro level in the circuitry. Alas, this is the point at which the objectivists suggest ABX comparisons and the subjectivists scream in rage and leave the room so we mostly don't really know.

Now, when people start telling me that the CDs, themselves, sound different after a few plays I find my eyes rolling involuntarily.

YMMV, of course.

will

I am constantly amused with the perception out in audioland that the Audiophile community is more about delusion and illusion than the pursuit of the absolute sound.

Why it is difficult for people to accept that components, cables, and speakers do need burn in time actually shocks me.

Granted I have a much greater opportunity to listen to different pieces of audio gear than most being a dealer but I have never heard a piece of audio gear that has not changed some over time.

One of the reasons that sometimes systems do not sound that good at shows is because very often what you are listening to is all brand new stuff fresh out of the box. All manufactures and dealers do not always get a chance to burn things in because they are being loaned product and can do nothing till they receive it - - very often at the last moment. Granted the rooms are also a factor but if it was all just the room certain rooms would not always sound good versus others. Those that sound good are manufactures that have all that they are showing months in advance and have had it playing before coming to the show.

Caps, resistors, diodes, all the wiring, drivers, tweeters, crossovers, tubes all take time to burn in and settle. If this was not the case some manufactures would not spend the time and money to burn in the product for a while before shipping.

I believe that one of the reasons so much product is sold and resold is because the consumer has never heard what it can actually sound like. Hell when you sell a totally burned in piece of audio gear and ship it to someone it is still going to take a few days to settle back and sound as it did.

I am sure many of you have been able to smell a change in the room as certain components burn in. If things are cooking in and you can smell it why would you not believe that you can hear it?

Think back over the years. 20 years ago the myth was that cables made no difference. Well accepted now. Then that cones, or carbon fiber, aurios whatever could affect the sound of your system. Now accepted. Recently that powercords could not matter because you were running such cheap wire in the walls. Now accepted. Then that better wall outlets could not have any effect. Now accepted. At one time their were critics of cryogenically treating products although it has been used in other industries for years. Be grateful that there are people out there willing to go beyong the skeptics that never want to believe anything and take the risks to try new things.

I do not know of a single manufacture who does not consider break in as important to their product. Could they all be wrong? I guess it is possible. There are numerous that after years of not believing are now advocates of powercords.

So it is obvious that no one has all the answers. So you are only left with your senses, and maybe most important with Faith in the belief that we live in a magical world and that all things do not have to fit in with our conceptual constructs of the universe.

As I tell my customers, "if they cannot tell the difference between cables accept it as a blessing you just saved a lot of money."