Cambridge 840c burn in


So, I got a new 840C a few weeks ago and I’m kind of surprised by how dramatically the sound has changed. When I was demoing it in the store it was a box fresh unit and very bright sounding, but compared to the other players I was comparing it to it had much better bass and general clarity. I’d read here on A-gon that the burn-in would yield significant results so I took a chance and bought it. My initial thought at home was that I’d made a huge mistake – it was almost unlistenable bright. But I ran it 24/7 for almost two weeks and every day it got a bit better. Then, just yesterday, now at about 350 hours or so, all the residual high-end glare disappeared. It sounds great.

Does anyone have any thoughts on what is actually happening within the machine that is ‘breaking in’? It seems counterintuitive with a bunch of wires and caps, but it is a real phenomenon in this machine. I guess any other player too for that matter. I’m just curious.

I’m enjoying the player immensely by the way. It’s a huge improvement over my Jolida JD100, which is now doing duty in the upstairs system.
grimace
What's breaking in?

Everything. Caps, wires, tranformers, drive motor, laser, chips, etc.

Seems a shame one has to put a years worth of playback time on a CDP to get it to sound as best it can.

Merely replacing the sled/drive, both lasers RB & SACD, on my Sony xa 777 es, it took over 200 hours for it sound good. That part amazed me. Nothing else was replaced. Still it took a good long while, though I didn't run mine 24/7... but in spurts. Varying the length of duty each day, up and down. Hardly ran the SACD at all.

Then I went all pc HDD and sold it.

Glad you like your 840.
The 840 is great, but then I throw on a vinyl record and it sounds so nice.... It's enough to make you looney!
I switch over/back to mynyl and I'll have 12 inch black coasters laying all over soon there after.

What's breaking in?
Everything. Caps, wires, tranformers, drive motor, laser, chips, etc.

...

Then I went all pc HDD and sold it.

Speaking of which, will computer gear need breaking in as well? HDD motor? power supply? keyboard and mouse?
I've not noticed the 'run in aspect' using PCs, anywhere near as much as with audio components. Sometimes, not at all. I have however noticed that since I've made mods to several of my PCs, they perform better once well warmed up.

Naturally with PCs, disabling many if not all of the added services Bill Gates says should run in the background helps some too.

Most noticeably though, speaking strickly of performance, they respond very well to the same things audio and video components do... power filters, isolation and power cables. Additionally, if you can reduce their interior heat, you'll be well served.

This run in conundrum might have some basis in that PCs, have little if any, point to point wiring which employs larger wire gauges, solder joints, and often, higher current draws. There's little current present anywhere, save in the power sup itself and optical drives.

ONly higher end items such as the newer processors, and video cards routinely yield or add to the temp coeffeicient. The ATI (AMD) Radeon HD 4870 vid card I just added is both noisey and runs pretty warm. So much so I leave off the side panel. I use this unit for both music and DVD playback... soon, as a Blue ray player too... it is not the primary music unit however.

I alternate between two other PCs for that. One is an old desktop, the other is a new laptop. Oddly enough, I prefer the ancient desktop for music playback over the laptop, which so many laud as being 'the way'... but it's modded too, specifically for music... uses upgraded power cord, a RSA Haley, and rests on a Sound Anchor rack. It's output is from an M Audio Audiophile 192 PCI card set to 24/96 and then routed into a Bel Canto DAC III via a Stereovox BNC cable, to my tube power train.

All pcs can and do connect to the HT system as well, and I can use them via my projector. All my gear resides in an adjacent room... not the listening - viewing room.

I must admit too, ROM drives do take the longest to run in... though none have taken as long as did my one box CDPs. A week or two at best/worst.

... it could be too, just the DAC chips & op amps that need lengthy current draws run through them..

Why not ask Cambridge this question? That should be interesting, huh?