Burning in my Sony DVP-S9000ES -- best approach

Yes, it must be connected. SACD break in IS seperate. I ran mine about 16-18 hrs. a day to break in. Some prefer to keep it on 24/7. It will not be complete until say.. 500 hours, but should sound good at 190 hours or so. Don't believe those who say break in is a myth. Also try to find a reasonably priced way to gain some isolation like Vibrapods or better yet, Mod Squad Soft Shoes. Good luck.

I totally agree with Bmpnyc, including his suggestions for isolation.

One guy in my audio group broke from the rest of us with this player. He choose Symposium Roller Blocks over my selection of Mod Squad Soft Shoes. Couldn't hurt to experiment with yours to see what makes it sing.

As for break in, the content of the music is probably not worth an argument. I myself try to play a mix of material, shifting from heavy rock to classical to soft Jazz and even dynamic movie sound tracks to insure the components are bathed in a wide variety of sounds.

Good luck with your player, I use the same model in my own system. It is a great value, with stunning DVD capability, and great sound from the SACD section.

I case you missed it, the player should be connected to a dac,or pre amp, or receiver, during this break-in period.The receiver need not have speakers connected or volume applied, for break-in.

Don't foget that you have two lasers to burn-in; the cd/dvd laser and then the sacd laser. The most common burn-in times I've heard are 200 min for the cd laser and 200 to 400 for the sacd laser.

The s9000es is a very nice all around unit.

Congratulations on your purchase and price.

I just used the old method of playing music and waiting for it to burn in. It's not like you are going to be contaminated or anything. So, you have to wait awhile. Big deal. I just kept track of how many hours of CD I played, and how many hours of SACD. When you do it this way, you actually hear the stages of break-in. And it usually happens in "blocks". You will suddenly notice something different, after awhile. Then it will stay about the same for awhile, and then bang, another difference. At least that is what seems to happen in mine. I think it is a good idea to learn what break-in stages sound like, for your own knowledge. If you always use high-speed break-in methods, or non-listening break-in, you will never know what intermediate stages sound like. This information can be helpful when auditioning equipment.