Burning/breaking in new equipment?

Thank-you everyone for all the great advice.  I read the Audiogon forums carefully before I bought and learned a lot.


@randy-11
“room treatments”

I started another thread called “DIY absorption panels,” so it will be a combination of GIK and homemade panels.  My room won’t be super hardcore.  I want it to be part of my living space, so we can listen to it, albeit imperfectly, from the kitchen and eating area, hopefully using it a lot more. The audio equipment will be combined with video equipment. I don’t know if I will need to cover the glass on the TV with absorption material when I am doing some serious audio. I think the space will be good though: approx 18x12x10 enclosed by three walls, with one wall having a door. The left side will be open to the rest of the living space. The door and walls and maybe the TV will have panels. 

@randy-11: “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”

I have never owned a media disk, so I am going to resist for as long as I can. I was thinking Oppo 203 (~$430 used) but I might not need it for audio, or video.  I will probably try to go with only subscription streaming for both audio and video, with no player, no Oppo. I like the simplicity.

For audio, I will get a subscription to Deezer - the first three months are free, so it is $90 for unlimited FLAC access to 45 million songs the first year.  Do I really need CDs? Does the Oppo give me anything if I go diskless?

For streaming when I first set up the equipment, I will use a Mac or Windows machine, or possibly just an iPhone to stream bits to the DAC through USB. I am also investigating nVidia Shield ($170) for streaming both audio and video. I like the Kodi/SPMC add-ons capability and the access to Google speech recognition. It would be great if I could use Echo/Alexa-like speech commands to find and play songs from Deezer - so much better for me than typing or using a remote to browse.

Oppo gives you ability to play video even if you stream

BTW, galvanic isolation is important for streaming - lots of engineers discussing this on computeraudiophile.com

There is a good argument for not getting into audio discs anymore, now that redbook cd streaming of a huge repertoire is available. Similarly, internet radio offers a huge choice, with often pretty decent or even superb sound quality (usually better than FM radio). With video it is a different story, however. Netflicks has its own series, and some B movies, but very little in the way of art films, or opera/ballet etc. And I know of no streamed alternatives. For that, you still need (UHD) Bluray discs.

" Netflicks has its own series, and some B movies, but very little in the way of art films, or opera/ballet etc. And I know of no streamed alternatives. For that, you still need (UHD) Bluray discs."

I didn't know that.  I thought you could stream, rent or download any video. 4k video might be so big that it would overwhelm their download/streaming sites.

I had a budget of $10,000 and I am several hundred dollars below that.  I thought I was going to spend what is left on acoustic panels, but now I might need to go with the Oppo -- or break the budget by a few hundred dollars, although if the Oppo is for video, it probably shouldn't be included as part of the stereo budget.