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Why does it take so many hours to brea in arc preamps and amps?

I recently purchased a like new ARC 5 SE pre amp.  The unit had less than 200 hours on it.  Everything I have read states that ARC preamps take up to 600 hours to fully break in.  Why is this so and what improvements can I expect to hear as the unit accrues hours?
ewah
georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi
10,312 posts
 
Let’s play with the "burn in" crews heads.

If you think about it, all the optimum adjustments are made at the factory after the amps been on for a while, maybe an hr if your lucky.
If thing change after 600hrs then those optimum factory adjustments have just gone out the window and need to be redone again.

So it’s either out of adjustment because of aging, and therefore not optimum, or the factory needs to have them on for 600hrs before they are adjusted and sent out to the shops.
Either way if things change they would be out of the original optimum adjustment.

Cheers George
riley804
1,224 posts
 
"   what improvements can I expect to hear as the unit accrues hours? "

just sit back and listen for the changes yourself.     If members tell you what to expect then it takes all the fun out of listening to something new . 
czarivey
5,946 posts
 
Basically to make you think about it for full 600 hours till you realize...
ebm
9,311 posts
 
Sound will open up and become more dynamic also bass definition will improve. Good luck.
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