Love getting new equipment, hate the break-in


I get excited about new equipment  but often get impatient with the break-in time.  Some sound pretty good right from the get-go, others seem to take forever plus one day.  Also, some gradually get better with time, others sound bad for a long time, like 200 hrs and then one day BOOM!, everything comes into focus seemingly all at once.  Is your experience similar?

boxcarman

@sns I Agree totally with your above statement and I also believe in the mental break in of our minds to adjust to the new piece of equipment can't be discounted. WTS, I never sell a piece of gear that has made me happy for the sake of upgrade, I keep the replaced piece for a good 6 to 12 months and slip it back in to the system at different times and am surprised sometime that I wind up selling the new piece instead. Enjoy the music

@tooblue I too keep prior equipment when bringing  new piece. A>B>A comparisons extremely informative, and this may have to be repeated many times. I also keep multiples of amps, pre's and dacs just for the change in presentations, and I mix and match these components in various configurations. I love the variety of presentations I can achieve quite easily, no single and constant presentation for me.

@sns +1 "Burn/break in is not a myth”

-correct, burn-in (accelerated aging in semiconductor chips design) is a challenging part of circuit design  process. Typically semicon-chips stabilize (flatted aging effect over time) performance after 50hrs burn-in. All involved components such as active devices, passives, and interconnects, degrade performance (age) accordingly to the stress conditions, such as voltage, current, temperature, humidity, sometimes mechanical vibrations. depending on design target, systems are designed for many years, typically five or seven years. 

I have to say, it took better part of a year for the voxativ AC 1.6 widebanders on the Pureaudioproject quintets to become  tame. Sometimes you don’t realize you have pain until it’s gone.