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Burning in a new DAC

I'll be receiving my new DAC soon; the manufacturer suggests a burn-in period that may take up to a month. I have not understood this process well. My question is, does the DAC need to be feeding (in this case a Transcendent Sound pre-amp)a piece of equipment that is actively "outputting" (turned on, driving an amp), or can burn-in be achieved simply by having the DAC turned on with an active *input* (from my HagUSB)? If I don't have to have my tube gear turned on (preamp, amp), and can simply leave my iTunes actively playing music files, outputted to the HagUSB (& therefore the DAC), I will leave my computer (& the HagUSB,& the DAC) running 24/7 to do so to achieve burn-in quicker.
Comments?
rabco
rodman99999
6,032 posts
 
Interesting concept Tiger. The output of a tuner is analog, and most stations don't broadcast pink noise. Krell is correct, and there are some CDs available specifically for burning in components. I use this often on my system, playing the pink, brown, mono brown and white noise tracks on repeat: (http://www.musicdirect.com/product/73160) Another option: (http://www.graniteaudio.com/phono/page7.html)
rabco OP
49 posts
 
Krell_man, thanks for the response.It wasn't clear to me if there was anything to be gained from the DAC "actively" passing a signal in the equipment chain.
Tiger and Rodman99999, I had forgotten that this could be an efficient way to achieve the burn-in. I see a burn-in disc in my future....
Is there a rule of thumb for burning-in a piece of gear in terms of time? Does something like the disc reduce the time necessary, and if so, how much? How does one know how long the burn-in might take, no matter how it's achieved?
rodman99999
6,032 posts
 
The voltages will be constant with a disc/pink/brown/white noise, while with music- it varies widely. A constant higher level will help the dielectrics form their charge faster, thus reducing the necessary time somewhat. Figure two hundred hours for most components. Usually things get listenable after one hundred. Just let it burn when you're not listening.
jedinite24's avatar
jedinite24
1,503 posts
 
So is it ok to just use pink noise to break-in ICs, DACs and preamps? If one is just using pink noise only to break-in ICs how many hours with just the Pink Noise before the cables are broken in? Right now I'm breaking in some Morrow Audio ICs and XLRs and not listening to them in my system until after 400 to 500 hours. I'm hoping with just the pink noise the break-in time will be cut down.
krell_man
827 posts
 

They also say that hard rock and electronic music is good for breaking in components and cables.
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