Love getting new equipment, hate the break-in

I remember when I was an audiophile newbie, I think in the late 90's, there was a buzz about a "state of the art" CD player, Ultech UCD 100, a unit that was rated in Stereophile recommended components. I bought it from a high end store in Chicago, who shipped it to me on Long Island, ny. At first listen, it sounded terrible, like a 99$ Technics or Pioneer.  There was no bass, awful midrange, and very dull high end. It sounded very unengaging. Granted, at the time it was only 16 but processing, but it did have the HDCD chip and dual Burr Brown dacs. I called and complained. Before I could even describe the sound the salesman beat me to it: describing to me how it probably sounded "out of the box". He told me to put in a CD on repeat and leave it for a couple of days as I went to work. Within about 70 hours of constant play it sounded like a different player; great soundstage, much more bass slam, very clear and comfortable high end, just so much more engaging. I still have the CD player today, but use its coax output to a dac. I've never really had to break in anything like that since. But that early experience sure made me respect the concept of break-in.

The most disturbing issue is when you prefer the sound of something in its "not broken-in" state and have to keep replacing it before it's broken-in. Another thing is when something takes only a few minutes to break-in and you miss the tonal change completely because you made a sandwich or painted your toenails. Or something takes so long to break-in that you lose interest and forget all about it and just enjoy the music...what a drag.

No worries. Your ears....er.... I mean gear.... will break in.

In order to avoid listening to break in I've acquired multiples of amps, pre's and dacs. I can break in on a second system and bonus is I can provide various presentations with my main rig. The single event I most recall from days of having to suffer through break in was this point when suddenly everything came on song. I remember many a time suffering through long incremental improvements when suddenly the system 'bloomed', in mere moments sound went from somewhat uptight, analytical to relaxed and spacious, never ceased to amaze.

I also agree our minds are part and parcel of this break in process, no doubt analysis of sound tends to dominate when changes are made. I'm going through this analysis period with new to me (already burned in) amp and pre. What I've learned over the years is to expect this analytical period so as to not get frustrated and relax the mind so it just lets sound wash over you and get into musical enjoyment mode. Yes, you lose a bit of pure analysis time but the 'true' presentation will come of it's own accord given enough time. Assuming you've made good choices with new acquisitions, there should be no glaring anomalies, it will take some time to make a fair evaluation, for used equipment I generally give it five to ten listening sessions that are four to five hours duration, new equipment may have to add more.

Over three weeks ago, I replaced the ASC capacitors with AudioCaps in my Concert Fidelity DAC.    This DAC been in my system for many years.  I know its SQ very well.     It’s taken over 200 hours of burn-in for Andrea Boceli’s voice to transform from nasal to chesty.  For Joshua’s Redmun’s tenor sax to transform from polite to gritty.    

- - - -

goldenways

. . . The surprising part was it was not a day to day incremental improvement. It was the last 10-12 hours that it changed.

Same here.  And it’s still improving.