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Burning/breaking in new equipment?

I am a complete beginner to stereo equipment, never having even owned so much as a record or CD, but I have been reading about it and found what I thought were good deals, so I pulled the trigger this weekend.

The following are on their way:

Benchmark DAC3 (DAC and preamp)
Bryston 4B3 (power amplifier)
KEF R900 (speakers)
XLR cables (from Benchmark)

I have read that new equipment needs to be broken in for about 100 hours. Does that mean I have to play music through them for 100 hours at the same volume I would use when listening or can I play it at a much lower volume?

Note: I am a little worried that the above system might be too bright, sharp or clinical (as I have read about the previous generations of Bryston amps) but I am trying to go for clean, pure, true, honest, accurate, transparent — whatever that means, but I am thinking I want it to sound like what the artists, producers, directors, audio engineers, etc intended when they created, mixed and mastered each track, with nothing artificial added by the equipment. I also went with companies with more solid engineering and less marketing.

.

bobk3
inna
7,296 posts
 
No no no, I have no idea, it is just that you never really know until you do.
Yeah, just leave it playing something covering the entire audible frequency range. Be gentle with the speakers. It's like breaking in new high performance car engine, very very gentle and nice, but then when the breaking in is over you can step on it.
randy-11
1,913 posts
 
You have some excellent components on their way

Treat it like the Grateful Dead said to do with a Love Light - turn it on and Leave it on

a low volume will simply increase the time for the active devices and mechanical parts (speaker cones) to burn in - don't worry about it, just let it run all week or so

it will sound very good to you out of the box

and... it is known to cognitive scientists that you will "burn in" - your perception will accommodate to the sound over time

-------------------------------------------

two other things you will eventually be concerned with:

room treatments

source material (e.g. some CDs sound a lot better than others, so you'll want to track down the best masterings of an album) -- tho you don't say how you will feed your DAC


shadorne's avatar
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shadorne
7,477 posts
 
Excellent choice. Solid state will not need much if any break-in at all. Warm up thoroughly and good to go. Cables are wires and they dont wear. They may oxidize or corrode after about 50 years depending on humidity and salt in the air. Speaker woofers would definitely benefit from a good loud session (workout) for a few hours. Apart from that you are good to go.

I believe Benchmark sell Canare starquad XLR - so you have the best interconnect cables on the market (from a scientific or engineering perspective - as you can spend as much as a good car on cables if you choose to believe any of the hype)
roberjerman
4,319 posts
 
Transistor gear sounds best when left on 24/7. Tube gear sounds best after being on for an hour +. New speakers benefit from being used for several hours. Wire does not require a break-in period (contrary to popular misbelief). Any CD player with digital outputs will be fine with any DAC (no need for an expensive transport). All digital outputs are "bit perfect" - they will all sound the same (contrary to popular misbelief). This is digital's advantage over analog! I speak from 40+ years experience (I listen to both analog (LP's and RTR) and digital (CD's, SACD's and DVD A's).
lowrider57's avatar
lowrider57
5,417 posts
 
All very good advise. I'll add that during the hours you aren't or can't play music, leave your components powered up to continue burn-in.

You don't say what your source will be, but play dynamic music that will cover the entire frequency spectrum. There are also CD's or downloads containing test tones and frequency sweeps for burn-in and setting up a system.
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