How much does volume matter when breaking in amps and cables?

I agree that traditional, static measures of a components performance is no longer adequate.

I think we need dynamic measurements of speakers in a room, or data logging approaches to the performance of an amp at the speaker terminals to better understand the impact of power conditioning, all cables, and crossover designs.


I also think that if this were done, it would collapse the price for a lot of these devices, as we’d understand better what we were hearing, and find the cheapest possible way to get that.


If your approach to audio is "I’m going to let measurements developed in the 1970s tell me everything" that isn’t science. That’s quality control. Real science happens when you observe something, and find innovative new ways to measure them, or find ways to correlate behavior to user preference. That’s true R&D. Everyone else is just stagnant.


Best,

E

So I guess the concensus is that high volume is not really needed for non sepeaker component break in. 

I do know that with new speakers for my guitar amps there is most certainly a small breakin period... not hundreds of hours but 10 15ish. I bought a 20 watt Celestion green back and the rough edges in the sound smoothed out pretty quick but definitely changed for the better... all my amps are tube amps and new tubes do break in... pretty quick too. Ive not really noticed it with 12ax7’s but the 6V6’s do need a short time to settle in. Again not hundreds of hours but a few... I leave new power tubes on stand by for a hour or so and we are good... unless they red plate when power hits them... lol. That’s always a good start to your day. When they pop... $$$

This just in!

From the Cable Cooker review somewhere in cyberspace (Enjoy the Music)

“But now that may change. The first rays of a new cable-evaluating dawn are piercing my personal darkness. The audiodharma CABLE COOKER, developed and marketed by the enterprising Alan Kafton at Audio Excellence Az, is designed to maximize the sound quality of power, loudspeaker and interconnect (including A/V and phono) cabling by going far beyond the "normal" break-in that comes from using the cables in a system.

Kafton asserts, for example, that giving an interconnect a single day's burn-in on the CABLE COOKER equals a week or more of continuous system operation. He says that any kind of cable breaks in more thoroughly on a Cooker because of exposure to extreme signal levels and a special waveform that does not occur in normal system operation. The cooker's burn-in circuit supplies >1 watt for interconnects and 22 watts for speaker and power cabling, while generating a dynamic extended-frequency sweep.”

Warm up?  That I can understand.  I leave my electrical equipment on all the time since tolerances change as the temperature does.

The quality of the sound is dependent on how much you paid.  If you take two bottles of wine, one costing $100 and one costing $20, and change the labels, almost everyone will tell you that the new $100 bottle is way superior to the old $100 bottle.  

Explain to me what is changing in electrical equipment “break in”, other than temperature.