Is Equipment Break-in a Ruse

Personally I never noticed much difference but why not do it if it's able to let people enjoy their setup better.

 

IMO this audiophile hobby is so full of bull sheet it's much more like religion than a science. Break in period is one of those subjects that irks the hell out of me. I've listened thousands of hours, read countless posts, articles and books on sound but the one thing they really never address is the physical every changing state of your eardrum from day to day, month to month, ear to year. Everyone's opinion of sound is different. Everyone's eardrum is different. But audiophile equipment and accessory companies want us to believe they can show us the way it should be. Extra money for an eye pleasing piece of equipment does not always mean it sounds better. It may just sound different.....or not.

Eardrum - an overview | ScienceDirect Topics

Music to me is the most important part of our hobby. It's what got me here and keeps me here. The constant race to audiophile greatness is a race I've grown tried of running. My feet (ears) are weary and my desire (wallet) is not what it use to me. But the music will always be in my heart and soul.

 

good point - and other 'personal' factors too I think.

 

Funny about that;
changes in impedance (particularly capacitance) can be easily measured from simply rearranging coax cables.
I don't expect that running typical signal levels thru them are significant,
but polymers in cables will relax over at least a first few days
to appreciably affect at least moving magnet phono or longer cable high impedance runs.

 

Two days after buying my Rega DAC-R I started a thread because I was very disappointed, as it wasn't close to my RIP Meridian 507.

I was pointed to a another forum where 200 hours was claimed.

Very sceptical but I just left it running 24/7 for 3 days and then it was obviously superior to my Meridian.

Now I'd had my Meridian fronted system for 16 years, so I'm sure I knew the characteristics of it's house sound, so despite the 200 hour claim, I'm a believer in burn in.

 

Besides mechanical break in, capacitors are certainly one of the main culprits as previously mentioned. I've changed film caps in lots of gear and speakers. This is gear that was already broken in, with the new caps being the only change. It varies from cap to cap, but usually they start out sounding dull and gradually open up till they sing beautifully. Cheap caps might never fully open up and give you that WOW moment. I've listened to caps breaking in and left them unattended to run in. The results are the same and certainly not my ear adjusting or changing. I've use various Jupiter, Vcap, Duelund, and Jantzen capacitors.

 

This! All this stuff that people post about how they hear the changes is more they have simply gotten used to the whatever component they're waxing eloquent on. Also, "break in" is really wear. If you want to call wear "break in" it's OK by me. But cables, transistors, speaker wire, c'mon...

 

Many people do not listen to their new equipment during break-in period.

 

It sure seems like the gear sounds better after the electrons get a little exercise.

<or electrotons, or whatever they are...whatever it is

 

The two times where I absolutely positively heard big changes with break in was with a couple of tonearms.
A new Audiomods Mk V and a new Origine Live...amazing improvement after being burned in.

 

Been an audiophile for over 30 years, listened to countless speakers, owned more than I can remember. I'm as obsessed with audible minutia as any other audiophile.

Never heard speaker break in. (Let alone for cables or any other audio device).

I have friends who buy new speakers. I go over and hear them when they first get them. A few weeks later or whatever they say "these speakers have really opened up with break in. They sound much better now." I go back over and listen. They sound exactly the same as I remember them. No new sonic information coming through that I can detect. No change in frequency balance, soundstaging, bass, nothing at all jumping out saying "these sound different/better than when they first arrived." But my friends are convinced.

I think my friend's brain is doing the break-in, getting used to the new sound over time, not the speakers.

 

As always with these types of questions, the believers are so positively sure, and yet the non-believers are ALSO so positively sure. As always, ultimately the end-user's the ONLY one who can answer the questions, for themselves. Instead of going around in circles reading in a chat forum, I'd recommend some hard, critical, listening!

 

We see this in the guitar world too. Martin guitars are particularly known to "break in". I own two of their better guitars (D42 and HD-28V) that I bought new. Seems to me they sound about the same as they did five years ago. At that time, a company I used to do business with sent me a number of various Martins to audition in my home, all dreadnoughts. I could hardly hear a difference between them that was more than the tiniest amount of subtle. When I had one of my sons strum chords while my eyes were closed, I couldn't tell an absolute difference between ones that had standard bracing and those that had forward bracing.

I've been a musician most of my 69 years and grew up listening to music. I worked in a high end audio store when I was young. I think most audiophiles are just plain nuts when it comes to this stuff and a good number of musicians are too (I'm looking at you, Eric Johnson and Nigel Tufnel).

 

Certain components have break in Teflon caps for instance
Graphene as material in certain components has a long break-in/time to reach temp.Sound changes drastically for the better at 200+ hours

 

huh, I haven't seen graphene being used in audio components yet- what are some things that are using graphene?
edit: google to the rescue- found some headphones that are using it

 

Synergistic research and Alan Maher Designs use Graphene in a lot of their power products.Some hi end speaker manufactures use Graphene as a coating on their speaker cones and drivers:

 

Some hear it, some don’t....

But if it changes over time, that’s because it’s deteriorating.

 

I don't know if speakers tend to break in audibly. It seems to have some plausibility given the mechanical nature of the device. However, I've seen evidence on both sides...some measurements showing certain drivers breaking in, some measurements suggesting the break in occurs almost instantly and beyond that is unlikely to be audible.

The problem beyond that is that the rest of the evidence lies with audiophile anecdotes, a notoriously unreliable method of "If I think I heard it, it's real." This method has been used to "confirm" not only entirely well known audible differences (e.g. between speakers), but also to "confirm" every crazy and dubious tweak any audiophile has ever dreamed up. People just don't seem to want to take in to account how they can fool themselves (or be fooled).

My tentative hunch is that some speakers may be audibly breaking in. But I'm cautious about just accepting pure anecdote because audiophiles hear "Everything" "breaking in." Cripes, I've seen audiophiles claim their equipment shelves "broke in" over time and sounded different weeks later. So I suspect there may be some real audible break in for speakers, but a lot of audiophiles imagining it too (expectation bias among other things).

And that's unfortunately false.

If you want to answer the question "Do I perceive/think I hear a difference with break in?" then, yes, the only person who can answer that is you, doing listening.

But if you care about truth, what is actually going on, and answering the question of whether some objective component of a speaker is changing the sonic signal over time, and that this is to an audible degree, then no..."you" aren't the only one who can answer this merely by pure subjective inference. You would want to look at objective measurements verifying something physical is going on, and ideally set up more controlled listening tests where you are actually just using your ears...without "peeking," to see if you can detect a difference from a new speaker (or speaker driver) from a "broken in" one.

Yeah, that's a hassle few of us want to go through. But that's also the tough reality of messy human perception and bias that is is intellectually honest to acknowledge.

 

This is one of those audiophile things I will never understand. I would want to experience the break in for myself, listen to the different iterations as they change. Not that I expect to hear changes with anything other than new speakers.

 

From the owner's manual of my B&W 800 D2:

"The performance of the speaker will change subtly during the initial listening period. If the speaker has been stored in a cold environment, the damping compounds and suspension materials will take some time to recover their correct mechanical properties. The drive unit suspensions will also loosen up during the first hours of use. The time taken for the speaker to achieve its intended performance will vary depending on previous storage conditions and how it is used. As a guide, allow up to a week for the temperature effects to stabilise and 15 hours of average use for the mechanical parts to attain their intended design characteristics.

However, longer run-in periods (as long as a month) have been reported and there is evidence to suggest that this has little to do with the speaker changing and more to do with the listener getting used to a new sound. It is especially so with highly revealing speakers such as these, where there may be a significant increase in the amount of detail portrayed compared to what the listener has previously been used to; the sound may at first appear too “up front” and perhaps a little hard. After an extended period of time, the sound will seem to mellow, but without losing clarity and detail."

 

When you finish breaking-in a horse, it is broke. When you finish breaking-in audio gear, is it broke?

 

This is one area where I think a little break in makes some sense. Cars require break in first the first 500 miles or so according to all the manuals. In other words, things with moving parts. I suppose that could include carts. The thing is, a mechanical break in does not necessarily translate to a noticeable change in aural properties even if those with golden ears believe it - "I know what I hear!" Who are you gonna believe, me or your lyin' ears?

 

I have KEF R5's and would agree that the further away from the back wall the better. Mine are 48 inches from the back wall measuring to the back of the speaker. The soundstage is fantastic with smooth mids and very nice bass.

I also run a PrimaLuna ProLogue Four amp so yes on tubes.

Last year I picked up a Rega P6 Ania/Fono package and it did take about 50 hours for the Ania to really start to shine. Would I call that break in? For lack of a better word, sure.

 

Definitely not just a ruse and a myth, but completely backwards. It’s not about “burning in” and sounding better, it’s about the audiophile effects of “burning out” and quickly sounding *worse*.

Only when fresh, crisp, and brand-new do audio components produce optimal sound quality. Within a month or two wilt and curdling set in. Worn-out high end cables, for example, should be discarded every six weeks.

As soon as you drive that new amplifier off the lot it loses 20% of its highly resolving mojo. Get rid of it after 200 hours; it will never sound that good again.

It’s science.