Break in period

Thank you Shadorne for the enlightenment. I am a little surprised about your findings. Yet Admittedly, I have not had in depth experience with the mainstream commercial audio brands over the last couple of decades, But I recall that just a few years ago, even the perfectly respectable stereo in my Toyota van took perhaps 200 hours to sweeten up. Regardless, now I keep track of changing behavior of any new piece of audio gear through a spreadsheet. Next time I have the opportunity of examining a device from a major electronic manufacturer, I will track any subjective changes--or lack there of--over time and may be able to form a more informed understanding of the matter.

03-11-07: Shadorne
If I gave you well known names from respected engineering and manufacturering bands like Sony, Denon, Pioneer, and Yamaha would this help? Since it is not that difficult to design stable and reliable audio electronics these days then there is really no "enlightenment" to be had.

Yamaha, Sony, Denon, Pioneer.....do these guys use the same quality parts as say ARC?
Do you exclude the possibility that, say, TRT capacitors used in Audio Research, actually do change sound during the break in period?
I had an ARC LS-15 preamplifier where new caps(TRT Dynamicaps) were installed and I noticed siginificant improvement in sound only after 75 hours. I listened to it for the first 3 or 4 hours, didn't like it at all, but made notes. Turned the amp off and ran a signal from the tuner through the preamp for the next 70+ hours without listening. At about 75 hours I listened again and the sound was totally different. Way better than the way the brand new caps sounded and much better than the original ones that were replaced(REL). So possibility of me getting used to the sound is out of the way. If it is not break in that helped, what is it then?

Yamaha, Sony, Denon, Pioneer.....do these guys use the same quality parts as say ARC?

They make designs mostly using transistors. The pre-amp you refer to uses tubes. The quality of the individual parts cannot be directly compared as the designs are quite different. Tube preamps run at much higher voltages and need higher quality (rated) components.

Shadorne, your last post got me thinking. . . what could possibly explain the 1200 hrs to complete break in for my TEAC X-01 Limited CDP? Perhaps Crypto-tubes. . . really tiny. . . really well hidden. . . perhaps kept secret by TEAC. . . real conspiratorial like? Or is it just a truly badd bad kind-a-hopeless solid state design cobbled together from bargain-basement parts. . . perhaps just one of them multi-K$$$ attractive boat-anchors which got foisted onto the financial shoulders of this poor audiofool? I should get rid of it ASAP. . . now that I think of it, I should dunk my Toyota van too, after all its all-solid-state stereo took about 200 hours to sound decent as well!

Shadorne, I just don't follow what you are saying.