2. misc-audio
  3. 152934-111640

Why no “Break in” period?

If people say there’s a break in period for everything from Amps to cartridges to cables to basically everything... why is it with new power conditioners that people say they immediately notice “the floor drop away” etc.  Why no break in on that?

I’m not trying to be snarky - I’m genuinely asking.
tochsii
prof
3,479 posts
 
I sometimes imagine these guys with their wives, honey the coefficient of friction seems a little off tonight, but lets get Larry in here to double-blind you so I can be sure.


Funny.


I sometimes imagine audiophiles stopping otherwise normal parties to subject guests to demos of their audio tweaks like cable elevators, tuning bullets, unplugging and plugging in cable tweaks.

Real "life of the party" stuff.

Of course, that’s a joke. No audiophile is that tweak-focused to do that in real life to his guests.

;-)

andy2
1,555 posts
 
Hey, does my girl break-in?  She's a bit stiff.  
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 

Cargo cult

“In the South Seas there is a cargo cult of people. During the war they saw airplanes land with lots of good materials, and they want the same thing to happen now. So they've arranged to imitate things like runways, to put fires along the sides of the runways, to make a wooden hut for a man to sit in, with two wooden pieces on his head like headphones and bars of bamboo sticking out like antennas—he's the controller—and they wait for the airplanes to land. They're doing everything right. The form is perfect. It looks exactly the way it looked before. But it doesn't work. No airplanes land. So I call these things cargo cult science, because they follow all the apparent precepts and forms of scientific investigation, but they're missing something essential, because the planes don't land.[1]” - Richard Feynman

geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
prof
“Or would you grant that I would be justified in my conclusion, from my own perception that "there was no audible alteration to the sonic signal?"”

>>>>Sorry, pal. You actually wouldn’t be justified in drawing ANY conclusion from a single test. Especially since you haven’t even done the test. You’re supposed to do the test BEFORE you draw any conclusions. Hel-loo! A single test, no matter how well performed or thorough, has no meaning, especially if the results are negative. For one thing that’s to prevent overly enthusiastic pseudo scientists from claiming victory in some argument. But mainly it’s because it’s too difficult to control all the variables and too many things can go wrong. Furthermore, you haven’t even done the test and you’re already declaring victory. That’s gold, Jerry, gold!
mijostyn's avatar
mijostyn
8,570 posts
 
Oregonpapa, that is a mechanical device where that can be expected and I have personally heard this with several but not all cartridges. My Clearaudio Da Vinci was so shrill initially that I had to make a new EQ curve for it and I was mad as a viper but in perhaps about two weeks things started sounding dull so I switched back to my normal curve and everything was wonderful. This was objective because I could compare the sound with my other turntable.
However as far as electronics are concerned they do not break in and anyone who believes they do is deluding themselves. You even have millercarbon comparing them to wine. He is wonderful at composing long posts that say absolutely nothing. 
Andy, there are extremely few things that age gracefully. Maybe the occasional Ferrari that has not been driven. Even wine goes bad if you leave it too long. 
Rodman, the last thing I am going to do is trust your ears or anyone's ears including mine but if you want to chase your tail deluding yourself into thinking you heard something and piss money away on silly stuff, wonderful. It is still a free country and you are not hurting anyone else. As a matter of fact you are supporting other peoples jobs. Keep it up.
More to discover