break in


Do you ever not purchase something because of the time it takes for it to break in? I personally consider it when I am looking a another component. For instance if the fall season rolls around and I think about spending more time listening to music I do not like to go through 150 or more hours of break in and not enjoy my listening sessions as well. I have had things take much longer than 300 hours to settle to that level I like. And I don't like to leave my stuff running 24/7 just to break in, so that doesn't work for me.
And on a side note can you roughly guess at how many total hours of break in you have had on all your equipment?  Things I can think of to avoid some break in is get used items or integrated components like amps and such. I take those things into consideration when I am looking at equipment.  

marqmike
I believe in break in but up to a point.  If I insert a new component into my system and the sound sucks, no amount of break in will magicly make it sound better.  I learned that the hard way.  The only component that I noticed a big difference in was my Odyssey amps.  They sounded great out of the box and sounded even better after a few weeks.  Break in would never stop me from getting a new piece of equipment.
Marqmike, I like that we can both approach that destination of listening pleasure from different perspectives. "All roads lead to.." kind of thinking.
Also, I can empathize with your loss of pleasure when things don't come together. I got into this hobby with the express purpose of deriving pleasure. I tried not to get caught up with the equipment but that turned out to be a fool's errand on my part. The break in part I had to settle with and learned later to appreciate so as to not go nuts.

All the best,
Nonoise
I will admit to being skeptical of the 'break in' belief, but I can say that it is true.
Everything from speakers to cables to high pass filters changed from the time I connected them.
I will also say that each time I noticed a change, it was for the better.
I just ordered a new phono cable today. Because it's not possible to leave the TT playing 24X7, I paid a few dollars extra for break-in service on a cable cooker. Don't know if it will make any difference, but I felt better spending $10 CAD ($8 USD) for 48 hours of break-in service.