Breaking in a new amp

I purchased a used amp & subsequently used it to break in a new pair of VR4 GenIII spkrs, which suggest loud volume for 100 hrs.

During the first two hrs. of max volume, there was an electronic smell coming from the amp I hadn't noticed before & from talking w/my dealer & the amp manufacturer, found out the amp had never been fully broken in.

You don't have to run it wide open all the time to break it in but I would suggest opening it up for a few hrs. to see how it performs, how hot it gets & so on but mainly to see how well it sounds while playing the same music at different levels.

You don't want to crack your walls or get your neighbors angry with you. Just run stuff through it and it will get better over time. If you have a tuner, let it work while your not home. This will also keep the burglers away.

Honestly, does anyone ever run an amp at max volume? It can't be good for an amp to run beyond its limits as Driver suggested. Most amps acheive max volume before the volume control reaches its limit. If it won't ever be run that hard in normal use, why do that for break-in? I wouldn't do that to my amp......

Nope, I didn't say run an amp beyond its limits. I said open it up, which means at its max.

I bought a big-ass amp so I could listen over 100dB w/o audible distortion, because I like to listen that way sometimes. So yes, sometimes I do play my amp at max volume. Can't overdrive it, as I have a matched passive.

Power dissipation in the output devices is actually at its' highest level at 1/3 rated power output. If you really want to torture-test, that's where it's done.