I hope break in is true

My system had sounded great, then my DAC had to be repaired. It was also upgraded and cryoed, and when it was first played last night after being gone for a while, there was just a hint of harshness which I hadn't heard before. You know, that "just out of the box" sound. I got the Purist disc and ran it at a relatively high volume on repeat for several hours while away. Well, you guys are dead spot on. The magic has returned, and it may be even better than ever, but I'll reserve judgement on that last point. As Sean said,

"Everything simply sounds more relaxed, more natural and less "forced". That is, the system, and the presentation, sound more at ease making music."

In addition to the warmth and musicality, I think there also may be better detail and soundstaging. Midbass punch seems to have returned in spades as well.

Thanks again for the information and help. Very effective.

Md: While i'm not familiar with the Purist, i have to believe that it is quite suitable for what you're doing. As such, i would recommend letting that disc play on repeat for as long as possible, even if you have very little to no volume going through the speakers. Doing this when you go to bed, leave for work, which allows you to listen to music when you are home, are easy alternatives.

In my experience, some units sound quite good after 3 days of continuous use whereas others take 2 weeks or more. If you like what you're hearing now, it should only sound "better" with more extended use. Obviously, playing music also gets the job done, but due to the reduced bandwidth and lack of intensity of signal, it can be a much slower and more gradual process. This assumes that the Purist disc is similar in content to the Ayre, which is what i'm basing my comments on. Sean
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PS... If you're worried about wear and tear on your transport, hook up an old cd or dvd player to your DAC and use that for a while. Leave your transport fired up though, as this will maintain thermal integrity until you begin to use it again. Otherwise, it may take another day or two of normal use for your original transport to settle back in. This not only continues to give your system a work-out without tearing up the electro-mechanical aspects of your favourite transport, but also provides you with a chance to compare the audible differences between the two transports.

I think within the audiophile community the phenomenon of break in time has been exaggerated too much. Technically there exists a "break in time". This is a phenomenon that has been associated with electro-mechanical transducers, like moving coil loudspeaker drivers, phono cartridges and microphones. In audio electronics and cables there shouldn't be a need for break in. And if there is such a phenomenon with audio electronics and cables, I don't believe it is so dramatic that it will give a "day and night" difference. This would be "magic" and the longer I'm into high-end audio the less magic remains. Electronics and cables should sound good from the very beginning (or sound bad). If you have not a very good sounding unit, don't expect to get very good sound after let's say 100 + more hours of break in time. Of course the majority of you will not agree with this!

Chris

My Esoteric X03-SE took 1200 hours to break in. No myth. No Joke. Others who have it said the same-my dealer has one also and, again, took him over 1000 hours. I'd say some items sound very god out of the box and get better after 100 hours or so (+); The Esoteric sounded absolutely horrible out of the box and is now one of the best CD players I have heard - no joke, guys.

Throwing another of my two cents - don't confuse break in and warming up. My gear still takes 40 or so minutes before sounding it's best. The squeezebox/benchmark only takes about 20 minutes or so but the Esoteric likes to play a bit longer before blowing my mind. My Meridian 588 took 2 hours before sounding it's best (which I never thought was very good, by the way--but much better than when it first started playing).