Are rig hours reversable?


Most of us burn in our rigs differently, but the general consensus whether it be speakers, ICs, power cords, electronics (the whole nine)is there is a positive ratio between hours played and sound quality. Is there a ratio for the reverse? How long can a rig go into hibernation without affecting all the positives of an active listening life? Obviously, there are differences between ICs, CDPs,power conditioners etc, but I'd love to hear your take from what you have read or from your experiences, and what you do to keep your rig alive when you're a way for a trip around the world or the like. thanks in advance.
128x128warrenh
I always find it amusing that folks claim a positive difference after burn-in. I don't think I've ever heard it said that something sounded worse after X number of hours of burn-in. Frankly, this defies common sense and really makes question the validity of the claims...

-RW-
If there was always a positive effect on SQ going forward, then we wouldn't have such a robust 2nd hand market for used gear :P

When you don't like gear at first, and later you do, it's often attributed to burn-in. When you do like gear at first, and later you don't, it seems you were just "ready to try something different".

I'm not saying that burn-in works in reverse, it's just that I think the whole thing is way overblown when it comes to electronics. I had one tech tell me "these caps will sound better with burn-in" after he'd wired them so egregiously WRONG that the amp had a 6dB/octave low frequency rolloff starting all the way up at 1kHz!! Nope, I really don't think burn-in is gonna help much there...

For what it's worth I do believe (and have observed) that break-in can be significant with new speakers & headphones, and to a lesser extent cartridges. It may exist for electronics too, but it's far less significant in my experience.
Good question Warren.
With most of my (major) components being tube gear I have to shut it off while not in use. This is a dilemma because if I go 1-2 weeks without listening, it sounds like crap for at least several hours of warm up and playing. Sometimes if I don't listen for more than 2 weeks it could take several days of listening before it sounds its best again. If I have consecutive days of listening it's generally not a problem and only needs an hour or so to sound its best.
I can't contribute to what specifically needs so much time to "warm up" again. I do leave my power conditioner on all the time. Occasionally (here's where you're going to think I'm nuts) I'll unplug the conditioner for a day and then fire it up again. I swear it needs this every once in a while.
RW- If you read the OP more carefully, you will see that Warren is asking if, after burn in has been completed, SQ deteriorates over time, if a component is left unused. Not whether SQ decreases with additional use (maybe burn-out?), which is what you seem to have answered.

Not taking any position on burn-in or burn-out ;-)

If you are reading, Nandric, that emoticon [;-)] is meant to indicate that it was said in jest.