Your opinion on burn in

South43; it may be that you're trying to unscrute the unscrutable. I turn my amp off at night and on in the morning so it will be "warmed up" for afternoon and evening listening sessions. However, even with the amp having several hours of being warmed up in standby, it still takes at least 15-20 minutes for my system to sound good. All other components are kept in standby 24/7 except when in use. I have attributed the improvement in music quality to the amp because it's the one component I turn completely off for 10-12 hours.

My point? Well, something is going on that makes music sound better after 20 minutes or so of play time. It could be the components-- any of them, or it could be "wires". I don't actually know or have any way of testing this, but it happens every night. I am a strong believer in initial "burn-in" of components and wires, but daily burn-in? An interesting question. Cheers. Craig

My MIT speaker cables took over a week to burn in properly when I first got them. Other components took various, but long, amounts of time, when new. I don't claim to have the subtle ear of many who post here (I am not saying this tongue-in-cheek) but have not noticed too much of a difference when turning my equipment on once everything is no longer new. There is a bit of difference -- but I'm not sure if my ears are burning in or if it is the equipment -- I assume the latter. But that burn in is nowhere near as audible as the initial period. The differences are smaller (to me) and I would rather face the smaller electric bill. Since my equipment is solid state, I can't speak for tube gear. Cheers ;-)

P.S. Since I think you asked, my system is fairly decent with Sierra K2 preamp and Danali amps and Montana KAS speakers. I had a couple of Bryston/Thiel setups prior to that and also didn't really notice much, if any, difference once everything was broken in initially.

South 43 - I believe once cables are burned in your done, the only time I worry about it is when I'm on vacation and come back or don't listen for a few days. I'll put a disk on and run it for a few hours. I don't notice any degradation, in fact it always sounds fantastic after I haven't listened for awhile, even cold, which tells me its my ears. I do think my system sounds better after playing for a while and I have tubes in the preamp and do not leave them on.