Phono Stage

@audphile1 

"I heard first signs of  improvement on the Umami Blue after the 5hr mark. It is definitely getting there but slowly. Probably the boron cantilever takes a bit longer than the aluminum on the ML. I’m at about 20hrs in now and I don’t think it’s there yet. May be another 10hrs or so for it to balance out. 
I’ve been running it at 470ohms to allow the cantilever and the suspension to move a little more freely to speed up the process. I’ll dial it back down to a 100 soon…470 is a bit much for the Blue with some recordings."

Yeah, I’ve never conditioned myself to believe that I’ve ever heard a dramatic change in the sonics over time of any component I ever put into a system other than a component’s own characteristic sound.

@faustuss I understand. We all listen differently. And no two systems are alike as we know it. It’s the interaction between components, room and our ears/brain. 

When I introduce a new component to my system I tend to listen for changes for a while. Perhaps I listen too hard, but that’s just me. 

@audphile1 Your comment that no two systems are alike is so very true and it reminds me of a funny story from many years ago.  I sold a client a very nice system for the time, McIntosh, Bozak, Thorens.  This was 1972-3 or so.  Anyway a very good system.  The client was well off, had a nice home and nice friends and all the good stuff.  Anyway he brought a friend into the store in short order, a partner in his law firm who was so impressed that he wanted the same system please.  Well, I am a poor college student and systems of this magnitude were a rarity.  Naturally I was ecstatic to sell a duplicate system, which was delivered forthwith and installed by yours truly.  The proud owner cued up the first record, I'll never forget it, Colin Davis conducting LSO.  And we all stood back to admire the sound.  Guess what?  It sounded quite different from the duplicate.  At first the thought was that there must be something wrong, but no, it was the room.  A big lesson for me.  IT WAS THE ROOM.  Boy did I have a lot to learn.  Fortunately my sale was safe.  The house was not.  It was rented anyway and when the lease was up a better house with a much better room improved the situation.

@billstevenson 

yep the room is a component and one of the most critical ones. What you hear or don’t hear from your system depends in large part on room acoustics and system set up. 

The Bozak factory was located somewhere between New Haven and NYC, I think around Norwalk.  The train to NYC used to pass by.  I remember that it looked so forlorn for many years after Bozak folded but the sign was still in place.