I hope break in is true

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.

Here is something that bothers me about break-in and no one ever seems to question it:

1. One has to assume that the new equipment will undergo some kind of internal "change" in order for the sound to change. I guess that means that some of the components such as resistors/capacitors/inductors, etc.. will change their value slightly during this break-in period. Otherwise what else would cause this change in sound?

2. If there is a change, why is it always for the better? Is there a magic fairy conductor inside the equipment telling the resistors/caps in which direction their values are to be changed so as to make the sound better?