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Burn in vs perception

Posting here in speakers, but could probably go in any of the forums. Question of the night: how much of burn in of components is actually burn in of our perception? That is, is burn in partly us becoming accustomed to a change in sound.
 

I’m listening to my SF Amati Traditions that at first I found a bit strident, but I now find lush, dynamic, and generally brilliant. I bought them as 1-year old demos so theoretically they should have been played enough to be broken in. I haven’t changed anything in my system—I have been working on my room with more stuff, but that’s it.

Sometimes reviewers or arm chair audiophiles (me) will state that said component needs to be plugged in and left alone for weeks until it gels with the system. Could this simply be our own perception burn in OR is something real happening here?

For speakers I can buy it (woofers need to loosen up and all), but I almost always buy used, and I almost alway a) find a difference of a new component (good or bad), and b) in time, I couldn’t tell you what the change was. Maybe just me, but our brains are pretty good level setters.

I willing to bet this can be a large part of “burn in”.

 

 

w123ale
erik_squires
17,570 posts
 

Oh, almost forgot.  This one has happened to me and a few other poeple.  Using ICEpower amplifiers (Class D) I came back after being gone for a weekend.  I had turned off the rack (fear of surges).  When I first got back I could not understand why my system sounded so bad.

I finally realized, 2 days later, it was that I had turned the amps off.  For some reason those Class D amps, and maybe others, really don't sound very good until you leave them on for 2 days.  They don't have to play anything, you don't have to listen to break in your ears. Just leave them on and they will sound better.

My Luxman however has no such issues. 

nonoise's avatar
nonoise
11,226 posts
 

If you can't hear burn in as it occurs, whether it be speakers or electronic gear, stop where you're at as you've achieved ultimate audio nirvana and can't/won't benefit from any upgrading from here on out.

Find a new hobby. 😄

All the best,
Nonoise

mitch2
4,754 posts
 

In the 30+ years I have been trying equipment, speakers, and cables, and outside of allowing 24 hours for warm up of circuits and several days for mechanical run-in of brand new speaker drivers, I have never heard sonic changes related to "burn-in" that I deemed significant enough to make me reassess my original opinion about how something sounded in my system.  In every case I can remember, I either immediately liked or didn't like the way something sounded, and time did not substantially change my original assessment.

I have had a couple of occasions where I wanted to like something because of reviews, popularity, or appearance, and tried to convince myself I liked it, but ultimately I have pretty much found my initial assessment to remain unchanged, as long as I was being honest with myself.

All of this stuff I read about equipment or cables needing days, weeks, or months of burn-in to sound good just seems like audiophile hoodoo to me.

nonoise's avatar
nonoise
11,226 posts
 

What a bunch of thin skinned pansies.

bigtwin's avatar
bigtwin
1,625 posts
 

Back when I was about 17, and had no stereo, I mounted a couple car speakers in 2 cube cardboard boxes, used some lamp cord as speaker wire and hooked them it up to a tape deck. Sounded like crap. But after a couple weeks, it was sounding pretty sweet. Now you tell me, was it the burn-in of the lamp cord or my ears adjusting to the sound? Pretty sure what I learned back then holds true today. Equipment makers tell us to wait for a few hundreds hours for a very good reason. Sure there are items like speakers that will improve with age, but for the most part I’m sure we become accustomed to what we are hearing.

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