I hope break in is true


This is the first time I ever bought a brand new out of the box Preamp. No, wait. Second but, the other doesn't count.
I had made previous posts about my decision to downsize.
I have, everything is kinda good. You know, Okay.
I bought a pre here. great seller, great store. Couldn't have been smoother.
I am just not used to this type of stuff. I wanted something with a phono included. I kept it well under a $1000.00
Now, I got to ask you guys. Will this thing get better???/
I have not had to worry about break in before. Does it really exist?
It is a very well built unit. Remote, I'm not used to that! That's nice. Has everything I need. Except it isn't alive. The music is there, presented very nicely. Clean, no extra stuff. Just doesn't have any dimension.
Please tell me this is going to get better:)
scottht
sorry to say you get what you pay for .if you bought a 1000.00 pre it is really about a400.00 dollar pre so what you are hearing is it. if it is that bad see if they will take it back for an upgrade
The loudspeakers I currently own most certainly went thru a break in process. I think the drivers loosen up over time, and this allows greater agility. They also sound better after playing for twenty minutes or so, i.e. warm up. I'm told that this is because the performance characteristics of the voice coils improve after they heat up. The fact that some people can't figure out the mechanism of break (myself included) in doesn't make it a myth. Nobody really know why gravity exists, but few would deny its existence.
Why do some of the reviews I see have statements like
"(the manufacturer) suggests 300 hours break in before critical listening."
I think in home audtions of equipment may not be as available as we all would like, and everything will sound different in the store, and you read these reviews on line taht sound so hot- then you get one home and it is " jeez this doesnt sound right- maybe it's the equipment, no its my speakers, no the amp, no the room acoustics are bad...." so Maybe the product manufacturers want to make sure the buyers give time for the psychoacoustic adaptation to take place so everyone doesnt go running back to their dealer with a return before the usual 30 day limit is up
johns33031,

I agree. I simply can't see a good reason to design something with significant drift in response over time ( which is what a break in period suggests ). Drift over time is something designers should really be trying to avoid - just as they try to avoid changes in response due to temperature or volume level - so they can produce products with stable accurate sound. (In the back of my mind I would always worry, "if it changes significantly after 300 hours of play what about 1000 hours....10,000 hours")