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CD Player break in period

Guys, I'm not looking to start a debate on break in periods, if it's real, a myth, etc.

I have purchased a new Esoteric X-03 SE SACD player on 12/26/07 along with new Tara Labs The One (w/ISM) balanced interconnects. I let the player warm to room temperature as it was stone cold when I opened the box, evidence that it was either in an unheated warehouse or truck for a while-confirmed by my dealer. After a half a day, I hooked it up and the sound was incredibly poor. Very hard sounding, harsh mids and highs, narrow soundstage, no impact to bass, no definition. I am now on hour 674 and it's almost there. Soundstage opened up, detail is awesome, everything is, as I said almost there, but I still have a bit of a sting on female vocals. I have done an extensive amount of research and although Esoteric's website says break in should be 250 hours, I have found some information stating it would take 800 to 1,000 hours to sound excellent, with it still improving there after.

Again, I am not looking for responses disputing break in, that this is a fantasy and it must be some other culprit in my system (my dealer prchased the same player on the same day (same shippment) and he is experiencing the same).

I would love to hear about other members experience with equipment requiring a rather extensive break in period.

I appreciate your input.
128x128cerrot
guidocorona
4,298 posts
 
Jmcgrogan2, you may be correct, but the idea is to ensure that the output phases of the CDp have something to do by letting them communicate with a live destination. This of course may all be nonsense, and a CDP with the rest of the system turned off may just break in the same. By the way, I used only my old LS2B for the break in; I did not want to put oodles of empty hrs on my Ref 3. G.
germanboxers's avatar
germanboxers
241 posts
 
On burning in...Steve Huntley also suggested just plugging it in and running it on repeat...no need for preamp...in fact, he said you don't even need it hooked up to a preamp...just place it on the table and let run. I suspect the reason for this is that the major burnin devices (caps) are located in the power supply and digital boards, not necessarily the output section?

I did not use my tube preamp to burn it in either, though I did power up the system from time to time to listen and probably left it on longer than normal...just in case. ;-)
jmcgrogan2's avatar
jmcgrogan2
6,346 posts
 
I guess there may be something to the 'active load' philosophy. There is no way to know unless identical units have been burned in for the same amount of hours, one by itself, one connected to a 'live' preamp.
Dodgealum, burning up 800-1000 tube hours is exactly why I would not do this. If you feel it necessary to have a preamp turned on, I would suggest grabbing a receiver (I know I have a couple laying around the house), plug the Esoteric into the receiver and turn both on. No need to hook a speaker load to the receiver. I would assume this would accomplish the 'live load' for the player, but not wear out your tubes.

As Germanboxers suggests, and I tend to agree, the 'live load' is a theory with no certain results. Good tubes are too expensive for me to try this with my Ref 3. If I had a SS preamp, I would try this as a "why not?" tweak.

However, I do recommend you investigate the Ayre/Cardas burn in cd. I and many others have found this to be a valuable tool. I would think a few hundred hours with the Ayre/Cardas cd on repeat with no preamp would accomplish more than a few hundred hours with a regular cd with a preamp. Just my $0.02

Cheers,
John
cerrot's avatar
cerrot OP
1,700 posts
 
I played mine through the whole system with music for the 1st 24 hours and than went to the Purist Audio II break in cd for the 6 hour session and than played music again for another 200 hours. I would than alternate between the Ayers CD and the Purist Audio for approx 50 hours on and 50 hours off (music). The first 250 or so hours were at moderate volume (solid state, electrostatics and dedicated room, so no problem-besides, I felt the system could go for a good burn/run in as I did perform some upgrades within the prior 6 months). The balance of my break in is at very low volume, unless I am playing another source, at which time it is still running.
dodgealum
1,400 posts
 
I've now heard back from two people who I contacted regarding this question. My dealer instructed me to turn the preamp "on" while breaking in the Esoteric, and so I have for the last 30 hours. Tonight I heard from Esoteric Tech Support. According to these folks no other equipment needs to be connected to the player during break in. Since this is the easier answer for me to accept, I've turned off my pre and will break in the rest of the way solo. I'm not sure what accounts for the discrepancy here--probably nobody really knows for sure whether having the player connected to a live preamp makes a difference. I'm inclined to think that the bulk of the internal components get broken in without a live preamp but perhaps there are some parts related to the output stage that would benefit from a live playmate. Despite this, I'm going to leave the preamp "off" and hope for the best--I'm really not keen on burning up tube life to get the last little bit of break in that might come with a live preamp.
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