I hope break in is true


This is the first time I ever bought a brand new out of the box Preamp. No, wait. Second but, the other doesn't count.
I had made previous posts about my decision to downsize.
I have, everything is kinda good. You know, Okay.
I bought a pre here. great seller, great store. Couldn't have been smoother.
I am just not used to this type of stuff. I wanted something with a phono included. I kept it well under a $1000.00
Now, I got to ask you guys. Will this thing get better???/
I have not had to worry about break in before. Does it really exist?
It is a very well built unit. Remote, I'm not used to that! That's nice. Has everything I need. Except it isn't alive. The music is there, presented very nicely. Clean, no extra stuff. Just doesn't have any dimension.
Please tell me this is going to get better:)
scottht
If your buying new, the safest way is to make it clear with the dealer, you would like to try the piece at home on evaluation, with intent to buy providing you are head over heeels with it, most dealers will work with you, and there are even some wonderful dealer's that will do the same with used equipment, one is www.Audioclassics.com they are a great company!!!! Good Luck
I'm sure others must have tried this simple test to confirm the phenomenon of "break in."

I had two identical pieces of equipment (Counterpoint SA220/NP220). As you may know, these are complete rebuilds by Mike Elliott. One had several hundred hours on it, the other had zero hours. Otherwise, identical.

Doing an A/B test of these two identical units (but for the number of hours on them) confirmed that the sound changes after break in, at least on these units. The mids get fuller, the highs are smoother, and everything just sounds better.

After the new unit had several hundred hours, they sounded identical.

That being said, I would tend to agree with Plato that if you don't like the sound of a piece of equipment out of the box, you may not like it even after it is broken it. But IMHO, break in is a real phenomenon based on this simple A/B comparison. It was the equipment that changed, not my ears.

YMMV
Narrod
Thats odd. I have not heard that nor experienced that. "To me" It is one non-fatiuging amp. Sounds great.
Every review I read has been positive. Thats why it is to each his own. Peace
After some more listening last night, I have come to the conclusion that first I need to get these stacked Advents of the floor a little bit. I need to come up with a system to decouple them from the floor.
I believe that is complicating the sound a bit. I will repost.
I have always noted the difference in speaker break-in (drivers being actual moving parts) and never that much difference in components. I am not going to dispute the fact that many do hear a difference in components break-in as well, I have thought that a few times myself, I am just not sure how much of that is "psycho-acoustic".
I would imagine that someone somewhere would have noticed at least a slight measurable difference with the testing equipment and would have brought that proof forward to once and for all prove that it does exist.