Break in period

What I can't understand about break-in is why speakers, CD players and other components -- even cables -- can sound great the day you take them out of the box and THEN start sounding like hell for what seem like interminable amounts of time. The worst, for me, were the Gallo Reference 3s, which became hard, brittle, airless and downright painful after about 6 hours, only coming back to life 150 hours later. I'm going through the same thing, if not to the same degree, with a new Raysonic CD 128 CD player. Sounded terrific Wednesday (this is Friday) and has been getting worse every day since. Dave

I'm guessing the "sounding good out of the box, then sounding bad" has to do with you getting adjusted to the sound. It's new, you want it to sound good, so it does. Then reality hits and you actually listen to the component. Break can't have a "typical" time associated with it. A dealer I used to work with bought a pair of B&W N804's and he swore that the bass got much better after two years.

No, no, no. I've heard that business about "getting adjusted to the sound," and it's nonsense, at least with respect to the Gallo Ref 3s and now the Raysonic CD player. The Gallo break-in nasties are even referenced in the owner's manual. If you haven't been there (the break-in period), you have no idea what this is like, especially the fact that they sound perfectly fine out of the box and THEN start sounding a lot less than fine. Dave

break in never guarantees a dramatic change or an improvement. your brain and ears do the adjusting and acceptence. if you don't like em now, you rarely love'em later.

sound the same toady as at first set up 4 yrs ago. = not a believer in the " the theory" or better "the myth" of the "break in period". As in all things audio you have 2 main camps. tubes vs ss, analog vs digital, , I'm in the camp with fewest members, no breakin time.