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Break in blues

I just don't have the patience anymore to wait for components to settle in.That's the only caveat with having tubed components - ya can't leave em on 24/7 to speed up the process:( I have the little cartoon devil and angel on my shoulders.The devil is ocd "You've obviously made a mistake!After 3 days and 12 ENTIRE HOURS this thing sounds horrible!!Bright,congested,arrgh!!" The angel tries to sooth me"Turn it down,go do something else,don't listen at all until it's clocked in at 50 hours. "To be fair then the right thing to do is after an initial listen to some favorite tracks to give it another 50 hours then make a decision.Sigh....
So the devil suggested I swap cables and by golly he was right this time.Everything is playing together much better now.The old Gabriel Gold cable that sounded so sweet with the Rogue preamp was totally incompatible with the new Microzotl2.The new/old cable is a Siltech Paris.
The angel is a bit miffed but now at least I can get a feel for if it's a keeper or not before the deadline to return it arrives.What I like to do is play it at low volume for 4-5 hours each day then listen at the end of that period to see how it's coming along.It's been a few years since I've bought anything new and I don't remember ever being this anxious before.I don't remember auditioning a component that seemed to sound totally different day by day.Out of the box the Microzotl was excellent,next day bass heavy,next day the GLARE!Today with the new cable excellent.So if tomorrow is also excellent the angel and I will have learned something new.Cables do sound different from each other but I've never come across a situation where one was majorly incompatible.

128x128jtcf
jtcf's avatar
jtcf OP
1,620 posts
 
I've got some vinyl but no turntable at present.I've been eyeing some tables recently....maybe later.My brother has a new VPI that he is struggling with.I absolutely love listening to records with him and think it's perfect, but he's always tweaking too.Runs in the family:)
prof
3,474 posts
 
The devil is ocd


And falling for the "everything need break-in" mantra to begin with.

I’ve never fallen for this, and I can not remember a single audio device I’ve ever bought that had to "break in." Not once, ever, has anything "sounded awful" and then changed sound over time. I just turn ’em on, and they sound pretty much the same from day one onward.

You’ll notice that in more technical audio forums where people are not so receptive to audiophile claims of magic AC cables and burn in, you almost never see this type of mania, this "I just can’t listen to X component until I break it in for hundreds of hours!" (An audio pal of mine jest each other whenever we put any new piece of gear, or cable in to the system "did it have upper midrange glare??!!" And weeks later "did that glare finally go away?"It's a joke, because this just never happens.  We don't worry about that stuff).

Of course, if you go OCD you can attribute whatever you think you hear to anything.

There really is a downside sometimes to buying in to every audiophile myth. You are experiencing that downside, unfortunately.


Forget about break-in. Just listen to your system and relax ;-)


yogiboy's avatar
yogiboy
5,703 posts
 
+1 prof!
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three_easy_payments's avatar
three_easy_payments
2,097 posts
 
To my ears, I've only found that tube gear needs to really break in.  But after 50-75 hrs they don't get much better.  It's mainly a tightening in the bass over the first 50 hrs that I find especially with tube amps.  I'm not saying other equipment doesn't or cant benefit but I don't seem to be able to hear it.  I think one ethernet cable I bought had glare that went away after the 2 hrs. but I really cant recall anything else.
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