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Denefrips Pontus "burn in" period?

Hello all

 

Now there's a chance I may be a little premature with this, but I've received my Pontus 8 days ago and have had it running ever since, powered up, most of the time with signal going through it, and so far I'm a little concerned. I am aware that with this particular dac it is recommended to run it roughly 10 days before it really burns in, but being only a couple of days away, I can't say the sound has changed very noticeably. Matter of fact, when I A/B with my project S2 plus dac, and even my blue sound node internal deck, I can barely tell a difference! Does burning happen gradually? Is there all of a sudden a hallelujah moment where this thing starts kicking ass? Does anybody have more experience with this particular piece of gear? Current system is rogue audio ST100 amp, rogadio RP1 preamp, upgraded tubes, blue jean cabling, upgraded power cords on power amp and preamp. I had high hopes that this dac that has received so much high praise was going to blow my meager dacs out of the water, and so far not the case at all. I must say, the thing weighs a ton and looks gorgeous, but I'm getting a little concerned at this point that I may end up disappointed. Talk me off the ledge!

 

128x128jin78
fuzztone's avatar
fuzztone
5,498 posts
 

Don't hold your breath.

 

ghdprentice
6,363 posts
 

Every piece of equipment is different. Audio Research I have noticed has a very definite and incrediblly reproducible pattern (I broke in three Reference 160s amps… and 2 Ref Preamps.

 

But the real question to ask is, did your new unit sound great? If it did, forget about burnin. It is when you get a unit and it sounds closed in, harsh, and with ill defined bass that you have to calm yourself by saying… it need breakin.

 

My ARC gear needs roughly 120 hours to stop sounding trebly with poorly defined bass. Then it sounds great… then back and forth for about 40 hours. Then it reverts to sounding great…. And slowly improves to around 1,000,hours.

But every piece of equipment breaks in differently. So, unless it is not meeting your expectations, relax and enjoy your new piece of equipment… and I bet over time you will say, “wow, you know, that sounds better than when I first got it.”

jin78's avatar
jin78 OP
37 posts
 

When I first fired it up I wasn't blown away, matter of fact it sounded kind of congested and stiff, bright, etc. I thought I heard some improvement recently like it was kind of starting to relax, but went ahead and compared to the other dacs and its not as improved as you would expect it to be, even though it hasn't been the "ten days". I just sat there changing inputs back and forth, not noticing a very noticeable change. Very little. I mean, my Pro-ject was a $350 dac, and this Pontus is $1700, with SO MUCH PRAISE, I'm having a WTF moment right now. I'm crossing my fingers hoping this thing starts sounding "more analog" like everyone is saying...I threw on my Rega P2 with Dyna 20X2 cart and started thinking maybe I should have bought more records...LOL. It's not like my analog rig is THAT fancy you would think this DAC would hold its own...IDK. 

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