2. misc-audio
  3. 1038982960

Burn in time...Reality or something else???

Hello,

It occurs to that whenever you get a new piece of electronics, speakers, cables or whatever they always seem to sound better after a short "burn-in" time?

Your eyes adapt to low light if you start working at night,

Your body gets used to hot temperatures,

Your sense of smell gets used to the smell of $h!t if you work with horses,

Why not our EARS???
Are they just adapting the new environment?
joshcloud9
gustavog
36 posts
 
I would say that burn in is real more or less for the component (being speakers, cables, amps) at question but definitely there is a listening "burn in" for your ears as you get acustomed to the new equipment. How you assign the "improvements" (on burn in or listening experience) after some time is really quite subjective, as most things in high-end audio. Most of the time it is both unless you get a chance to try both burned in and not equipment.
paulwp
585 posts
 
But Pbb, you've refuted your own position on this matter. Since the nose is stronger than the ear and components smell different after they are broken in (they do, don't they?), that proves the burn-in phenomenon is real. Doesn't it? Oh, wait, the imagination is stronger than the nose, ear and eyes, being unlimited, while the senses all have limitations, therefore, ipso facto, it's all imaginary.

That earlier post to which you refer was the funniest I've ever read here. I have tried to diagram it, but it's beyond my ability.

Paul
subaruguru
1,376 posts
 
Bomarc's got it: human ear/brain adaptive filtering takes what, 20 minutes? Speaker surround, spider and dome burn-in can take hundreds of hours. Cable/electronics burn-in is something I don't quite understand on the molecular level (except the dielectric-easing bit), but I've experienced it too.
drubin
3,277 posts
 
I'm in Denver on business this week and I've rented a Volvo S80. Driving from the airport, I thought the radio sounded really poor. After three days, you know, it sounds pretty sweet. Was it breaking in?

Not that there aren't electrical and mechanical things going on, but this is more in our heads than many of you will acknowledge, I think.
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