Amp burn in time..just being on or music played?

While we're on the subject, I, too, firmly believe in burn in (I had an issue with my esoteric which was discussed here on A'gon-took me over 1,000 hours!). My break in issue prompted me to send Robert Harley an email where I stated that if his reviewers advised how long they burned in their review samples, it would be a big help to us. He had advised that usually, his reviewers don't get to hold on to a review piece that long. His response puzzled me. I know 1,000 hours is out of the norm, but there must be other components which do take that long. Are reviewers reviewing their sample gear in the best possible scenario? I'd hate to discard a piece of gear because the reviewer didn't (or should I say, couldn't) let it burn in/break in long enough for the component to operate at its optimum.

Cerrot, for reviewers as important as Robert Harley it's not uncommon for manufacturers to "pre burn" components. I know this for a fact.

It's unfortunate that all components are not run in to perfection but everyone is already suffering from sticker shock on high end pieces and this would add to the cost.

As for your Esoteric, I have no experience with that piece but would not doubt for as minute your experience.

My new custom tube crossover changed drastically at several places LATE in the burn cycle compared to nearly identical previous design. Substantial changes (approximately) 50 hours, 435 hours, 941 hours and 1260 hours. The reason for such a difference between this and previous? All hand made Teflon film and foil caps in the new one.

At all these various break in periods, there was a room full of people making comments about the changes and it was the same as I was hearing.

Fortunately, after break in there is a nice long level path of dependable performance, marred only by maintenance (in my case) due to all the tubes which eventually needs replacement.

Several guys in my group have experienced long break in on speakers too, my Dali's were very long in coming around, as were Dynaudio Temptations, Kharma Exquisite 1De and Wilson Alexandria.

Some of the longest break-in periods I've encountered are with tone-arm wires where 200 hours annoyed the hell out of me.
But c'mon Albert.........941 hours!!!????
The 1 hour made a difference??!

But c'mon Albert.........941 hours!!!????
The 1 hour made a difference??!

Notice my text read (approximate), numbers are taken at the end of the session and written on a pad to keep track of burn in time. Most of this was accumulated with the system silent, driving the crossover directly with my CD player.

There were lots of sessions where changes were apparent, the reason for calling out the ones I did was because those were substantial improvements.

No, the one hour did not make a difference, that was just the number that came up at the end of that session when everything was totaled.