Break in period

Broken record time. Believe what you like.

I don't know what the mechanism is, but I have had experiences similar to Dopogue's, particularly with cables. And with the Avalon Eclipses I bought in 1995, which were so variable in the first 6 months as to induce severe bouts of hypochondria (I must have some hearing disorder, etc etc). High-end audio...not for the faint of heart.

Dopogue, Great observation and I think you're right on. On the Raysonic I had expectations based on the review in 6moons and that is what I focused on for the first couple of hours out of the box. Warm, less resolution, rolled highs. Yep. Then the next day I started listening to it critically and concluded that the reviewer was FOS and, at a minimum, the tubes were a terrible match, no 'breaking in' could fix this sound! Dull, bloated, poor resolution, etc.

I was wrong! I rolled a ton of tubes in the Raysonic and my other stuff trying to get what I expected in the first place. Many weeks later I went back to the same tubes in the Raysonic and its IMHO great, especially at the price! Ditto my Tylers, dammed near sent them back to Tyler!

And for flatearther's amoungst us, my listening was always with other broken in speakers and CDP's available for comparison so I was able to track the changes. You're intitled to your opinions and experiences, but they are not universal for a good reason.

Break-in implies a significant change in response with time. Is this something desirable in equipment designed with accuracy in mind? Obviously not.

I try to avoid equipment that changes response significantly over long periods of time (weeks, months).

>or better "the myth" of the "break in period<

I assure the break-in is not a myth. And if you had a system capable of resolivng it, you would find that most componenets benefit from this "myth".

Oz